I have a feeling that most of you reading this have probably never heard of Turbo Kid, but if you’re a fan of nostalgic 80’s/90’s kookiness – also crazy, over-the-top violence – then I think you definitely need to. Co-written and co-directed by Canadian filmmakers Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, Turbo Kid has been lighting up the film festival circuit, drawing rave-reviews from just about everybody with its retro batshit “Mad Max meets the Power Rangers” take on a post-apocalyptic 1997 where BMX’s and comic-books rule the day. Also, violence. Seriously, this movie looks – to use some era-appropriate lingo – radically bloody!
The film is the same type of low-fi tongue-in-cheek mayhem that recently saw the absurdly entertaining Kung Fury release to huge success, but on top of all the retro-craziness Turbo Kid apparently has some genuine heart. Also, Michael Ironside. You can never go wrong with some Michael Ironside.
Check out the trailer for Turbo Kid below, but just be warned that this has some bloody NSFW action.
In a post-apocalyptic future, THE KID, a young solitary scavenger obsessed with comic books must face his fears and become a reluctant hero when he meets a mysterious girl named APPLE. Despite their efforts to keep to themselves, ZEUS, the sadistic and self-proclaimed leader of the Wasteland, plagues THE KID and APPLE. Armed with little more than blind faith and an ancient turbocharged weapon, THE KID learns of justice and friendship and embarks on an incredible journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl of his dreams.
In case you’re wondering where that little piece of insanity came from, back in 2011 Simard and the Whissells made a short film titled T is for Turbo, which was their entry for the ABC’s of Death guest director contest. Unfortunately, the short film never garnered enough votes to make it into the final anthology feature film, but it impressed some people involved with the project like Hobo With a Shotgun‘s Jason Eisner and ABCs producer Ant Timpson. Their promotion of the short film resulted in it being picked up and financed as a feature film by Telefilm Canada and the New Zealand Film Commission, with the film finally making its debut at Sundance earlier in the year. And the rest is bloody history!
Turbo Kid also stars Munro Chambers and Laurence Lebeouf. It is scheduled for release on VOD and in U.S. theaters on August 28, 2015.
Last Updated: June 22, 2015
Andre116
June 23, 2015 at 07:28
That had like an Evil Dead Army of Darkness vibe in my opinion….I liked it.