Shock Value (2014)
Very clever and blackly funny low budget meta horror.
This movie is about making a movie:
The Whorehouse that Screamed. The characters deliver some of the best horror-movie satire I've seen in a while, perhaps ever.
The snarky director thinks his horror movie-making experience gives him "the mind of a serial killer," moreso than his perfectly-cast actor, whom the director selected because he happens to be a real serial killer. Meanwhile, the killer acts indifferent to the project, yet practices his lines self-consciously in a mirror and calls out the writer/director for plot holes. The producer politely asks the actor/killer not to murder the director after the film is done, and Malcolm McDowell, in a sleazy cameo as a washed up actor, pitches his big idea: to play Dracula in a found-footage, "edgy, 21st century reboot" that boasts "modern stuff, like the internet."
Chock full of true meta stuff that doesn't rely on characters spelling out the satirical references, the way Scream, Cabin in the Woods, and Behind the Mask do. Heck, the makeup effects guy even looks like Tom Savini. This one will make horror fans smile, and the story's not bad either.
Recommended for black comedy fans who appreciate horror satire, and aren't adverse to low budget indies.
8/10