Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Not Another B Movie'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Not Another B Movie”

“Not Another B Movie,” yet another self-referential “movie” movie with the distinctive Troma Entertainment imprimatur, hits the DVD shelves on Tuesday.

Produced by West Bridge Entertainment and picked up for distribution by that sly counterculture purveyor Troma, this is a clever spoof on just the type of movie on which Troma has built its empire.

It’s the brainchild of up-and-coming off-Hollywood writer-director John Wesley Norton, whose other credits include “Paranormal Calamity” and “Doctor Spine” (sporting ensemble casts featuring Troma regulars Cyn Dulay, Larry Thomas, Jen Schmidt, Robert Z’Dar and unlikely appearances by “Dallas” diva Charlene Tilton and oddball stand-up comic Judy Tenuta).

“Not Another B Movie” is a self-described “adept” goof on horror movies and the studio horrors of making low-budget horror movies. It combines “the blood curdling horror of zombies and creatures of the night, with the blood curdling horror of investors and creatures of the board room. There’s murder, monsters, and the machinations of unruly actors, crooked cops and deranged directors,” and there’s a multitude of film references ranging from “The Empire Strikes Back” to “Psycho.”

True to its Troma stamp, it’s a strange amalgam of the tacky, seedy and tasteless and the surprisingly smart and culturally clued-in. That’s apparent in the movies weirdly eclectic cast that includes veteran Emmy Award winner Edward Asner, David Faustino (“Married With Children”), Erin Moran (“Happy Days”), B-movie mainstays Reggie Bannister and Joe Estevez (Martin Sheen’s younger brother), peripatetic Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman and someone named Babette Bombshell.