Line #26 Film/Reeker


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reeker.jpg]]
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3	''Reeker'' is a 2005 American horror film, written and directed by Dave Payne. It spawned a prequel, ''No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker''. It was inspired by the director's experience with a neighbour's body which began to rot long before people knew the person had died.
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5	This inspired the Reeker, an analogue of the Reaper who smells like death, who hunts people down when they're [[spoiler: between life and death, sending people on by inflicting injuries that mirror those of their physical bodies, but if they can escape limbo before that happens they can live.]]
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7	Be aware, there are huge spoilers ahead. If you plan to watch the movie, do so before reading.
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9	!!This film contains examples of:
10	%%* AssholeVictim (Who?)
11	* ArtificialLimbs: The Reeker has a two-stroke engine in its right arm, which it uses to power various types of drills and spinning claws-including one that can open and close like a hand.
12	* BodyHorror: Being set in [[spoiler: Limbo/Purgatory,]] people can go through a ''lot'' and stay alive, including being ripped clear in half or having their skull smashed open.
13	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Not the characters, but in the sequel, the director/writers make it very clear the audience knows the characters are [[spoiler:in limbo, to the point characters can walk around with "severe" injuries that leave them unfazed if not caused by the Reeker]].
14	* TheCanKickedHim: Cookie is killed by the Reeker, who is hiding in the shithouse. He [[spoiler: {{Ass Shove}}s her with a drill, and in Reality, she's killed by internal hemmorage.]]
15	* {{Cyborg}}: The Reeker has his hand replaced with a gas engine, which he slots different kinds of [[ThisIsADrill drills]] into.
16	* DeadAllAlong: Most of the film takes place in Limbo. Each death is actually taking place in an instant in Reality-where most of the cast dies in a car accident.
17	* DolledUpInstallment: It was marketed as a sequel to New Zealand movie ''The Locals'' in the Philippines. A strange example, because The Locals came out before large amounts of older horror fans grew tired of Hollywood horror, so it ended up being much more obscure. While both movies are fairly weird and feature characters [[spoiler: whose status of being alive or dead is complicated]], The Locals has nothing to do with either [[spoiler: the Grim Reaper or limbo]].
18	* DyingDream: The whole film takes place in the split instant between the characters last breaths and death.
19	* EvilSmellsBad: The Reeker smells like a corpse. [[spoiler: Because he is one.]] Stucky thinks his sewer line's backed up when it gets him by [[spoiler: simply choking him to death with its mighty stink alone]], and it gets Cookie by hiding in the outhouse's shit-pit, where she's none the wiser to its presence.
20	* FanService: Trip's death flashback shows a split second of shapely, thong-clad bum.
21	* FinalGirl:
22	** Gretchen, but Jack also survives.
23	** {{Prequel}}: weirdly enough has the final girl, Maya.
24	* GrimReaper: The Reeker is Death itself reinterpreted as a malodourous [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead cyborg]]. His hooded duster stands in for the robe, the hose-and-filter style gas mask stands in for the SkullForAHead, and the power tool [[ArtificialLimbs implanted in his right arm]] stands in for the scythe. The name is even a pun on "Reaper."
25	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Trip]] does this in first film and [[spoiler: Alex]] does this in prequel for [[spoiler: Maya]]].
26	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
27	** Radford. Trip is very afraid of him, but he tries to save [[spoiler: the car crash victims]].
28	** Trip also. He's a stoner and a real jerk, but he [[spoiler: performs a HeroicSacrifice]].
29	** Alex from the prequel is a bank robber. But, similiar to Trip, [[spoiler: he makes a HeroicSacrifice]].
30	* MalevolentMaskedMen: The Reeker, when he can be seen, wears a very STALKER-ish costume, with a gas mask and tattered black duster jacket.
31	* MindScrew: both films. They look like basic-bitch {{Slasher Flick}}s at first glance, but as it turns out, they're actually about the characters [[spoiler: being tormented in Purgatory after dying in a car smash]].
32	* OurSlashersAreDifferent: The Reeker is the embodiment of Death by Car Accident, and he gives people the injuries that killed them in Reality in Limbo, presumably getting them into the Herefter proper by doing so. He will, however "play fair," pretending that being shot or run over will kill him, allowing people to escape his lonesome stretch of highway if they can outfight him.
33	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Shades outside of their group are percieved by the others as already having their fatal wounds (which they can't feel until the Reeker inflicts it on them) leading to Trip and Stucky being terrified by a bisected trucker (Stucky died of a heart attack so there's no injury to see), and Jack bumping into a woman with a broken jaw (which he ignores because he's blind).
34	* PurgatoryAndLimbo: The Halfway Motel is actually purgatory (specifically for people who died in car accidents), and the Reeker cleanses those who come there of their sins by painfully and slowly reinflicting the injuries that killed them on Earth. However, if a shade can fight him off and escape, it means they only had a Near-Death Experience.
35	* QuicksandSucks: Not a character, and not really quicksand, but when Cookie drops her flashlight in the two-holer, it's quickly swallowed up by the, um, muck at the bottom, and it constantly bubbles and gurgles like a tar pit.
36	* RoomFullOfCrazy: The motel has a room where previous [[spoiler: lost souls]] etched their terrified musings into the walls.
37	* TheStoner: Trip. Cookie also. Their drug of choice is MDMA, rather than weed, though.

Context Film / Reeker