Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator (1989) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Cult	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	97:12
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Don Nardo
Studio Distributor	Troma Team Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Catherine Dee William Dame M.R. Murphy Dennis Cunningham Paul Nielsen Andy Milk Phil Vincent Paula Lee Gangemi Neil McGarry Nicola Kerwin Judy St. James Karen A. Santos
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$9.95	Music	None Given

”Sometimes it is impossible to tell illusions from reality”

     Paul, an aircraft mechanic working late (William Dame), is abducted by two trench coated men. He awakes dressed in a tuxedo in a gothic, well furnished house – and finds a woman in a wedding dress named Stephanie (Catherine Dee) who knows his name. In the dining room he meets Roberta (M.R. Murphy) who insists that he make love to Stephanie while she watches. Paul and Stephanie try to escape, but Roberta is aware and moves to stop them. But of course, all this is an elaborate charade, and none of the three participants are who they say they are. All is a game, but where does illusion end, and reality start?

     Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator is a strange film to be released under the Troma label. There is absolutely no nudity, the only sex is off screen, there is no gore, minimal blood and no real humour, gross out or otherwise. The film may think it is funny, with such lines as “you will be consumed in the flames of exotic joy” with the response “does that mean we’re gonna get it on?”, and the use of symphonic music from Mahler, Mendelssohn, Offenbach and Beethoven to over-intensify scenes, but it comes over as silly and boring. The dialogue is terrible and the acting in general, even by Troma’s low standards, is stilted and unconvincing. Plot turns, after the first reveal, are ludicrous and predictable. And Stephanie never even comes close to being stuffed into the incinerator, which would have at least added a little spice to the film.

     Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator feels like a student project, expanded way beyond its potential. It is a poor film that gives filmmaking a bad name. The IMDb lists Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator as the only film credit of director Dan Nardo and actors William Dame and Catherine Dee, which should not be a surprise. Even Troma fans should give this a miss.

Video

     Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator is presented in an NTSC format in an aspect ratio of 1.33.1 and is not16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical ratio is not listed in the IMDb.

     Although there are occasional scratches and dirt marks, they are far less frequent than in most Troma prints. That is the good news. The rest is that this is a very soft looking print, lacking sharpness and detail. Blacks are OK but shadow detail is poor to non-existent; try making out what is happening around 23:06! Brightness varies, and colours look unnatural; there is a reddish tinge to skin tones as well as colour bleed. There is grain evident, some interlacing errors and a partial frame at 24:06. However, this probably makes it sound worse than it was.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track at 192 Kbps. Dialogue was OK and effects, though flat, were acceptable. There was the occasional crackle, but the biggest problem was the constant, quite distracting, hiss on the audio. Obviously, there was no surround or sub woofer use.

     I did not notice any lip synchronisation issues.

     Instead of a score, the film uses symphonic music from Mahler, Mendelssohn, Offenbach and Beethoven that frequently felt way over the top compared to what was happening on screen.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Unusually for a Troma release, there are absolutely no extras. The silent menu offered “Play Feature” as the only choice.

     This NTSC release is “all region” coded and as far as I can see is identical to the US version.

     Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator feels like a student project, expanded way beyond its potential. Even Troma fans should give this a miss. The video and audio are poor and there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall