Monday, December 11, 2017

'K-Shop' DVD: Middle Eastern Restaurant Owner Serves Human Flesh and Does Not Falafel


The Breaking Glass Pictures December 12, 2017 DVD release of the 2016 horror film "K-Shop" allows fans of comedic cannibalistic horror films an early chance to see this future cult classic. It additionally should inspire serving obnoxious relatives who visit over the holidays lamb sandwiches with fava beans and Chianti.

Accolades for this film by writer-director Dan Pringle with equal loves of dark humor and social justice about a student with an appetite for justice includes the Best Horror Feature award at the 2016 London Independent Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the 2016 Lund International Fantastic Film Festival.

The following YouTube clip of the theatrical trailer for "Shop" offers a nice nibble regarding the dark tone of this film that mostly is set late at night.


Brother from an unspecified Middle Eastern country Salah is taking a temporary break from his university studies in England to run the titular ethnic fast-food joint while his father is in hospital. This interruption in learning becomes more permanent when Dad dies in a late-night altercation with thugs (who are "living for the weekend") whose violence has a racial element.

The lack of any hope of bringing the perpetrators to justice already has Salah in a bad mood when an encounter with an obnoxious club-owning "Big Brother U.K." star brings our boy closer to the edge.

The real fun begins when a group of college students violate the rule against leaving a boy behind after one of their own passes out at a table in the restaurant. This bloke (who deserves having his hand immersed in warn water while he dozes) ultimately finds himself in hot oil after first refusing to leave and then stepping way over the line.

A resourceful Salah finding himself with a corpse on his hands grills the scholar and leaves him stewing until the latest in a never-ending line of prejudiced drunken morons prompts feeding them one of their own. The satisfaction of doling out revenge as a dish served hot fully sets our modern-day Sweeney Todd in motion.

Much of the fun of "Shop" relates to seeing the sloppy drunk weekend party people risk becoming the Blue Plate Special by shamelessly provoking Salah through toxic insults, rude gestures, and peeing on his front door. The wisdom against doing so reflects the same principle as tipping the pizza guy a few dollars as insurance against the person who is alone with your food for 30 minutes doing something foul with it.

Of course, a good thing does not last forever; the shop being in a hot spot for missing persons calls attention to the area; further, Salah keeping livestock complicates matters beyond the obvious risks of playing with his food. This potential cash cow has a friend with a history with Salah and an axe to grind regarding him. Suffice it to say that another lesson in this moral-dripping fable relates to the wisdom of bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Of course, everything builds to a terrific climax in which Salah obtains terrific justice that only figuratively involves having a bone to pick.

Breaking also comes through regarding including the special features that enhance most of their releases. Seeing Salah portrayor Ziad Abaza discuss his role and the themes of "Shop" in a "Behind-the-Scenes" extra is interesting and shows how he thoroughly changes his persona to play his role. We further hear the fascinating insight of Pringle. The deleted scenes provide a peek of what could have been and leave us hungry for more.

Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Shop" is strongly encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.










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