TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL, Video Review by John Delia

A WICKEDLY

WONDERFUL

BOOK OF

PURE FUN

 

TODD & THE BOOK OF PURE EVIL

 

By John Delia

 

 

You don’t have to be a teen/twenties to enjoy Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil a wild blood festival, but that’s the mighty demographic that will eat this awesome series up.  Pushing all the modern social lifestyle buttons that amps up today’s High School crowd the 13 episode series has finally arrived on DVD. Adults who like horror/comedy and don’t get grossed out too easily should have a good time with it; I know I did.

Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil focuses on four teens, Todd Smith (Alex House), Jenny Kolinsky (Maggie Castle), Curtis Weaver (Bill Turnbull) and Hanna B. Williams (Melanie Leishman) all attending Crowley High School.  Since Todd finds the book of pure evil he becomes a leader of sorts trying to control the awesome powers that the book grants the holder.  Unleashing some of the many students’ darkest wishes, the book brings out the worse of their desires. When the book starts jumping out of control, Todd and his friends find themselves locked in one evil adventure after another. 

Being the first season we get some no holds barred funny, yucky, weird, crazy…well you will see what I mean.  Each episode gets more hilarious than the last starting with Todd who turns his mediocre guitar playing into that of a far out heavy metal god.  It’s a wacky start that introduces the powers of the book and the four main characters. 

The season goes on from there when science nerd Hannah wishes for a winning project and ends up with a magical character called Homunculus that looks like Todd.  Destructive and very scary, the blood starts to flow and the four friends are out of control.  The stories and bloodletting continue with titles like Rock n Roll Zombies, Gay Day, Monster Fat, Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers, Terrible Twin Turf Tussle, Cockfight, Big Bad Baby, The Ghost of Chet Sukowski, The Phantom of Crowley High, Checkmate, and A Farewell to Curtis’s Arm. 

Two very good support characters round out the cast including Jason Mewes as Jimmy the janitor who knows more about the book that he shows.  Mewes is on the top of his deadpan comedic game here, but not as over the top as his character Jay in one of my favorite films, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Yes I have the DVD on my shelf right next to Clerks I and Clerks II).

Chris Leavins plays adult Atticus Murphy Jr. Crowley High Guidance Counselor who gets in more trouble than the teen Quartet.  Tied to a coven of former students, Atticus is constantly after the book to return it to his evil-minded group.  Creating a lot of havoc for the kids and him, the fine actor brings a lot of fun to the series.

Trust me when I say that after the first couple of episodes you will be hooked.  It didn’t take me long to go through all 13 and I can guarantee you that I’ll play the best ones over again. Hanna has captured my heart and has become my favorite character.  The naive science nerd finds herself in the middle of every dastardly deed going on in the show, yet comes up still doubtful of what just happened. 

The two-disc Season 1 of Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil has been released in DVD just prior to the upcoming Season 3. Now this unfortunately creates a demand; trying to find out what happened in Season 2.  But, if you are lucky enough to have cable and either the Fear or SPACE Channels, the stations are rerunning Season 2.  If you are not able to get Todd & the Book of Pure Evil on your television at all, I have some inside information that it may be coming out on DVD before the end of the year.  I will just have to wait with the rest of you, but having Season 1 totally keeps me on replay. If any of you have more information on where our followers can view Season 2 pass it along and I will tell all on Twitter.

Disc 1 of Season 1 has seven episodes and Disc 2 has the remaining 6 plus some gnarly Bonus features with a lot of surprises:

• “Three Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew”.  I highly recommend turning this on for the episodes Monster Fat, The Phantom of Crawley High, and A Farewell to Curtis’s Arm after you have viewed the whole season for a lot of laughs.
• Blooper Reel: Pure Evil Is All Shits And Giggles.  If you have picked out a favorite cast member or two you should catch them in some most embarrassing moments.
• Outtakes and Deleted Scenes.  Just what it says, more action with some footage that should have been kept in the episode from which it was deleted!
• Extended Musical Scenes.  A lot of metal, Rock on!
• Q&A with Cast Members.
• Todd & the Book of Pure Evil: The original short from which they created the cable television series. 
• And, some promotional clips that include previews of future seasons.

 

 

THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS AND MORE INFORMATION ON THE SERIES FOLLOWS:

 

• Cast: Alex House (Todd Smith), Maggie Castle (Jenny Kolinsky), Bill Turnbull (Curtis Weaver), Melanie Leishman (Hanna B. Williams), Chris Leavins (Atticus Murphy Jr.) and Jason Mewes (Jimmy)
• Directors: James Dunnison, James Genn, Craig David Wallace and David Winning
• Type: DVD
• Aspect Ratio: 16X9 1.78:1
• Audio: 5.1 Surround Sound
• Running Time: 290 minutes.
• Genre:  Horror/Comedy
• Language: English
• Rated:  Not rated, but contains violence, gore, language, sexual situations, adult content, drug use
• Language: English w/English SDH Subtitles

 

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: A magical evil fest that rocks the house. Series (A), Bonus Features (A-), Overall Experience (A)

 

Follow John Delia on Twitter @staragent1 and Your Entertainment Ticket @yeticket