Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape!

April 4, 2005

Rated: NR Runtime: 62 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape! is a sequel to the 2001 movie Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker! It is also a spoof of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume One. It is also the 22nd film by Chris Seaver.

Mulva 2: Kill Teen Ape! Chris Seaver is in his twenties, and he’s been making movies in his backyard since his early teens. He’s not one of these guys who complains about not having enough money to make a movie. Seaver just makes them: quantity, quantity, quantity. His production company is called Low Budget Pictures, and they’ve currently got four movies in distribution, with a few more on the way this year.

I watched the first Mulva movie a few months ago, and it was definitely a cut above most backyard movies I’ve seen (and made.) The movie is about a young unattractive girl (Mulva) who is a total junk food junkie. Her mouth stays covered in chocolate most of the movie as she constantly chows down on candy and other sugar-coated goodies. Well, her town gets invaded by zombies on Halloween, and she rounds up some friends to kick zombie ass.

Don’t get me wrong, the sound and lighting and acting on the first Mulva movie are pretty subpar, and it definitely has that home movie feel. But Seaver did a good job editing his footage, so a bad scene doesn’t overstay its welcome. And the script is actually very funny. Tempe Video thought so, too, and they acquired the distribution rights to Mulva.

Enter Mulva 2. Apparently the sales for the first Mulva were pretty good, so Tempe got with Seaver about making a sequel. Seaver decided to make a Kill Bill spoof. The basic story is that Mulva’s friends are resentful that she took credit for the zombie purge in the first movie, so they gang up on her and kick her ass. Teen Ape (Seaver’s answer to Troma’s Toxie) adds insult to injury by injecting a hypodermic needle into Mulva, sending her into a five-year sugar coma.

When Mulva wakes up, she’s become a total babe. That’s because Seaver cast Debbie Rochon as Mulva this time out. (Rochon actually has an extended cameo in the first movie as Lady McPouchsweat.) The characters crack jokes throughout the movie about how the coma actually made Mulva look better. The rest of the movie features Mulva tracking down and killing all of her former friends, and ultimately confronting Teen Ape.

I was most impressed with the overall improvement in production value. Mulva 2 feels much less like a home movie (although it definitely has those moments) and feels more like a low-budget independent movie. Major improvements have been made to the lighting and sound, and even Seaver’s buddies have improved their acting skills. There is definitely growth here, and I’ve discovered that’s a rare thing in the world of B-movie filmmakers.

Mulva 2 is pretty much a straight-up spoof of Kill Bill Volume One from start to finish. And it works most of the time, especially if you’re a Tarantino fan. But I really prefer the originality of the first Mulva, even though it is inferior to Mulva 2 in almost every other way. The first Mulva offered something different than the normal B-movie predictable crap. Mulva 2 seems designed to sell lots of copies, from the Kill Bill artwork being used on the box cover to B-movie queen Rochon being recast as Mulva. (Although I am not complaining about Rochon getting plenty of screen time.) I think I would have preferred that Seaver had made this movie outside of the Mulva-universe, with different characters.

At any rate, Mulva 2 is definitely worth a watch. There’s plenty of Troma-style blood and gore, and plenty of laughs to be had. And Seaver is definitely a filmmaker I’ll keep my eye on in the future.

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Posted by Chris Terranova | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Comedy, DVD, Debbie Rochon, Horror, Jen Stone, Lauren P. Seavage, Matt Meister, Meredith Host, NR