I'm a huge fan of British-Canadian character actor Julian Richings, hence the reason I ever bought 'Septic Man' in the first place, and I've seen a lot of weird films in my time but I feel like this one was just pushing the offensive language, crass quotes and disgusting imagery to the extreme for lazy shock value, without really developing the story past gore and, yup, you guessed right by the title, raw sewage. I've never heard the word "sh!t" so much in a film since I first saw a Troma movie. And some of it just made no sense. We have a sewage treatment plant worker for example, the main character (Jack), approached by a total stranger by the name of Phil Prosser. This stranger who has never even met him before then proceeds to randomly insult him with odd comments, the weirdest being "I'll bet your wife smells sh!t on you every time she f*cks you". What the hell? Is that supposed to be humorous or something? I mean, I wouldn't mind the crude humour so much if there was actually a half-decent story behind it, but there's really not, which is too bad because there are a lot of talented actors and actresses who appear in this film (most of them either look disgusted to even be present, they look bored or they look like they're just doing it for some extra cash). I don't know, I just didn't see the point. Some people have compared it to 'The Toxic Avenger' (1984), but at least ol' Toxie had a good plot standing behind him when he was mutating! 'Septic Man' really doesn't. It's just a lot of toilet jokes coupled with a guy covered in cr@p. Where's the punchline? Bottom line: if you like any of the featured actors/actresses, it's worth checking out perhaps, but otherwise I wouldn't even bother with it. I think even the biggest fans of vulgar jokes and low-budget horror will be turned off not by its gross-out factor, but by its sheer dullness.
Review of Septic Man
