Nostalgia Kinky

Troma is gearing up to release Sweet Meats (2024) as an expansive special edition Blu-ray. Served up with hours of piping hot extras, Sweet Meats is a hearty stew of silly and strange from theatrical director Ricky Glore.
This comedy/horror/musical hybrid can currently be pre-ordered at MVD.

An extremely odd mashup between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Walk Hard, Sweet Meats is the very theatrical 2nd feature-length film from Glore, who previously made the delightfully titled All Your Friends are Dead (2022). Featuring Glore himself as the country music singer/gourmet barbecue chef Bobby Sweet, this 2024 film throws in everything from the kitchen sink and then slinks down the drain for even more.

The very talky Sweet Meats is so obviously the work of stage talents. That is a blessing and a curse. Mostly the latter, as the film’s staginess takes away from any honest cinematic value. Sweet Meats has sporadically interesting bits of gore and some occasional laughs, but Glore’s film is more than a bit incomprehensible, although I admired how intensely esoteric his work is.

Sweet Meats is an obvious passion project for its creator, as Glore not only directs and stars, but he also co-edits and provides the script. It is impressive and ambitious but perhaps overly so. Sweet Meats is clearly the work of a talented artist, but the film might have been served better had Glore delegated some of his roles to more experienced hands.

Despite some of the obvious cinematic connections, Sweet Meats still contains quite a bit of originality. I mean, how many other films feature bloody practical gore effects and complete homemade country music videos? Even though the film has issues, Sweet Meats is certainly a very memorable production, and I’m curious to see what Glore does in the future.

Sweet Meats does have one undeniably great aspect and that is the performance by Eileen Earnest. From what I gather, she originates from the stage as well and has only been featured in Glore’s films. Well, she’s terrific here. Really, really special. Glore’s script is super talky, and the entire production is blessed by Earnest’s infectiously funny and sometimes sinister performance.

Sweet Meats isn’t great, but this Troma edition of it is. Extras include a fine 20-minute making-of delving into the film’s stage roots along with a fun cast and crew commentary, plus a look at the film’s music. Most impressively, Troma offers up a full cast table read of the script and a 100-minute post-film Q&A. This very packed edition, of course, includes Lloyd Kaufman’s traditional introduction and a slew of Tromatic company related extras. The fine supplements gathered together for this Blu-ray enhances Sweet Meats in every way. For fans of this wacky film, Troma’s Blu-ray edition of Sweet Meats is mighty tasty.

-Jeremy Richey, September, 2026-