Decampitated is a 1998 independent American horror comedy film. It was directed by Matt Cunningham and stars Mike Hart, Jonathon Scott, Thomas Martwick, Steve Ladden, and Cristina Patterson Ceret. It was distributed on video by Troma Entertainment. The film features a nu-metal and punk soundtrack which was released by Glue Factory. It features ten songs, including music from H20, Strife, Coalesce and Hatebreed.
After doing business with a strange travel agent, a group of teenagers head out for a cabin in the Colorado woods. They accidentally crash their car while driving to the cabin, so, while the rest of the group set up the camping equipment, Vince leaves to attempt to locate the cabin. He instead finds the residence of a transvestite, Jake. Jake takes Vince captive. Meanwhile, Garret tells the group of the legend of psycho killer Myles DeCamp, and later that night, Toby’s throat is slit. He survives after the group cover his wounds with duct tape, but the next day, the murderer attacks April, hacking off her arm, and impales Roger…
Some well-orchestrated set-ups, editing and camerawork cannot make up for the puerile, supposedly self-referential humour ((fart jokes, Three Stooges slapstick violence - so it’s no wonder Troma picked this up) which soon grates on the nerves. The juxtaposition of big band music and nu-metal are a welcome attempt to make the movie aurally interesting but the overuse of a ‘surprise’ musical motif is simply painful. The slim ideas in Decampitated may have worked as a short but as a feature it’s a wasted opportunity. And in the 90s, using the fear of transvestites is pretty lame. Overall, this attempt at a horror comedy comes across as an over extended college filmmaking project that’s more likely to induce yawns than guffaws.
Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
