Director: Guy Crawford
Writers: Guy Crawford and Kathleen Benner
Rated: n/a (language, nudity, gore)
Cast: Kathleen Benner, Jose Rosete, Dale Denton, Eleni C. Krimitsos, and Jada Kline

Flesh, TXA small town, a family of redneck cannibals, and passersby unknowingly stumbling upon their deaths. Sound familiar? If you’re thinking it sounds like every The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wannabe, then you already have a good idea of what’s in store for Flesh, TX.

The film starts out with a short scene of some traveling religious folks who meet their untimely deaths at the hands of the Barleys, our sadistic family of flesh eaters. Then it goes to what would normally be our main story in most movies that use this formula. Oh wait, this next mini story isn’t part of the main plot either. Another poor soul turns into dinner.

OK, so once we get past the TWO precursors, we finally have our story. A bickering mother and daughter traveling to their new home in California make a pit stop in Flesh, Texas. Well, we assume it’s Flesh, Texas, population 666 from the DVD box, but nowhere in the movie do they ever even say Texas or anything regarding its population. The “sheriff” even wears a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s uniform!

A recurring image throughout the movie is that of town tramp Sugar Barley, played by Kathleen Benner who also co-wrote the movie. Sugar is smokin hot and uses her looks to draw in the victims. While everything else in the movie is basically cliche and spoof, I’ll admit I did like Sugar.

The film is obviously a comedic take on the cannibal family movies, not meant to be taken seriously. I always enjoy those kinds of movies, but with Flesh, TX I just couldn’t find it too funny. The “so bad it’s good” theory doesn’t really hold up here because those movies at least have some quotable moments or memorable scenes. I couldn’t really find that here.

I like a good fun movie that plays off of others, but this movie misled me. A note to filmmakers and marketers: please be accurate in your plot synopsis and don’t put taglines on your DVD when it doens’t reflect anything about the movie. Oh and when your movie is supposed to take place in a middle of nowhere town, don’t film in front of a busy road with cars flying by.

Flesh, TX: a film by Guy Crawford (he must love his name as it’s all over the title on the DVD and credits) fell short for me. It wasn’t all horrible, aside from hottie Sugar, the mother and daughter (Eleni C. Krimitsos and Jada Kline) were by far the best actors in the picture. The movie had a lot of potential as a don’t take it seriously movie, but fell short mainly in the humor department for me. Also, there was a deleted scene on the DVD that I’m wondering why they didn’t at least include parts of in the final cut…this movie could have benefited from some more gore!

The movie seemed like a first film, but wasn’t aside from a few of the actors. No doubt it was fun for the cast and crew, and that’s a very important thing when making a movie. But the overuse of exaggerated redneck humor and bad audio (another thing filmmakers often overlook) are what did it in for me. Flesh, TX was fun at times, but not very memorable.
IMDb | Watch full movie (YouTube)

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