Originally published August 27, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
Back at FrightFest 2013, writer and director Michael Mort premiered his short stop-motion animation Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice, which was met with rapturous applause (you can watch it online here). The short, a tribute to action cop movies of the 1980s, was a pure delight with over the top violence, excellent parodies of genre cliches and some outstanding animation. Well, now Mort is back with Chuck Steel – and this time it’s balls are much bigger.
According to Mort, the feature length Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires should hit cinemas next year and they are deep in production. However FrightFest co-founder and presenter Paul McAvoy thinks it may take them longer to complete – and its easy to see why. Mort explained prior to screening the trailer that they were shooting Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires 24-frames a second rather than the tradition twelve for animation as it creates a smoother outcome. Because of this there is so much more work to be done. Not only that, but everything is animated by models and miniatures, with only a handful of shots finished off by computer effects. Even though there are only a small amount, you could tell that Mort wanted to do Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires fully by hand.
Here’s a short preview of the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zarLs0pxVw
The full trailer itself featured a lot more footage than one would have expected based on Mort’s intro. We see Chuck struggling to find a partner that can keep up with him (his current one has killed himself because the action was too intense), while also battling his inner demons about his wife being killed by ninjas. But there’s a new case on hand for Steel to keep him occupied, as the town is being over-run by Trampires – homeless people who get so drunk they become vampires (hence the name, Trampires). Cue a lot of action, a lot of machine gun fire, a lot of blood, even more explosions, some scenes involving cross-dressing to go undercover, a sexy psychiatrist and excellent quips (“Eat this fudge suckers!”). There’s an amazing joke in the trailer where his chief – a cliched shouty black man with a moustache – yells at Steel, “Dammit Steel this isn’t 1985 anymore – it’s 1986!”
One can only hope this hits FrightFest 2017 because it looks like its going to be fantastic. Even it takes longer, it will be worth the wait. If you were around for FrightFest 2013 and you saw Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice on the big screen then you know just what to expect – but this feels so much bigger and funnier. Keep an eye out for this one, folks.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast and Scooperhero News. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen and read his weekly feature The Week in Star Wars.
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