It can’t compete with the enduring popularity of Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, but William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is widely regarded as one of the Bard’s most personal and self-aware works, and is often cited as a swan-song of sorts for his legendary career. While the batshit insanity of 2020 is slowly coming to an end, no one could have predicted that this year would also surprise us with an unexpectedly faithful adaptation of this story in the form of Troma Entertainment’s Shakespeare’s Shitstorm.

Helmed by the infamous Lloyd Kaufman, creator of the Toxic Avenger and director of Tromeo and Juliet (Troma’s other outrageous Shakespeare adaptation), Shakespeare’s Shitstorm is a deeply personal manifesto disguised as a gross-out comedy. Details and locations have been updated, with the titular Shitstorm now leading our doomed ensemble to Tromaville, New Jersey instead of a mystical island, and Prospero (played by Kaufman himself) becoming a mad scientist instead of a wizard, but the general premise remains the same. Years after having been wronged by the pharmaceutical giant “Avon Bard”, Prospero lures his enemies into a trap in order to enact a terrible revenge and expose “Big Pharma” and their role in the opioid epidemic.

While this sounds innocent enough on paper, the film opens with a graphic suicide bathing an unsuspecting toddler in blood, making it clear that, despite the Shakespearian inspiration and social commentary, this is still an honest-to-God Troma flick. Honestly, this excess is part of their appeal, but the film still manages to reach new extremes of potty humor and politically incorrect satire that will make even the most jaded of cinephiles wince. The constant barrage of offensive imagery and bodily fluids may be tiresome to some, but in my case it just became background noise in what I thought was a genuinely interesting movie.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of questionable material here (especially regarding how the movie clumsily deals with serious topics like disability and race), but the main attraction is the weirdly poignant look at a 74-year-old artist’s personal journey through a hostile industry. Examining Kaufman’s lengthy career, his methods may be flawed but he’s always had the best intentions when depicting taboo subject matter in his movies, and this is no exception. Shakespeare’s Shitstorm seems to be a natural culmination of this Troma meta-narrative, with both Kaufman and Prospero coming to terms with their own flaws as they attempt to expose the evils of the world (or corporate America, in this case).

The allegory isn’t perfect, especially when you consider the film’s surface-level criticism of modern outrage culture and social justice warriors, but at the end of the day, there’s no point in getting all worked up over a Troma movie. These pictures aren’t made to be dissected by critics or sociologists, they’re made to be enjoyed by fans of schlocky excess, and this will certainly do the job. While a self-aware romp through the horrors of opioid addiction might not be your cup of tea, there’s no denying that Shitstorm‘s earnestness and general entertainment value mostly outweigh its narrative shortcomings (and don’t even get me started on the nasty practical effects in that insane finale).

That being said, the experience is marred by a choppy second act (it’s obvious that a lot of material didn’t make the final cut) and the production value is comparable to a high-end YouTube video. The low-budget digital aesthetic has its charms, but it can’t quite compete with the grainy film stock of older Troma releases. In all fairness, this is still one of the better-looking Troma productions of the 2000s, and it wouldn’t make much sense for an independent 2020 release to have been shot on film.

The Shakespearean structure and a handful of compelling performances also help to make things more palatable this time around. Other than Lloyd (who plays both Prospero and his sister Antoinette), Erin Patrick Miller and Kate McGarrigle stand out as the love-struck Ferdinand and Miranda, with Amanda Flowers also boasting some of the best lines in the movie as the crack-loving Ariel (though I still feel kind of dirty for laughing at some of these jokes).

If you’re not already a Troma fan, it’s unlikely that Shakespeare’s Shitstorm will be the film to change that. However, if you’re familiar with their balls-to-the-wall approach to schlock (and can stomach a few tasteless laughs), you might just find a legitimately poignant statement hidden behind the blood, guts and fecal matter. It may have its flaws, but no one does a trashy Shakespeare adaptation like Uncle Lloyd, so we can only hope that he’ll continue to bring us even more Tromatic productions in the future.

Shakespeare’s Shitstorm will be screening this Friday the 13^th at the Bel Aire Diner & Drive-In, ahead of an eventual digital release.