DVD Review: Helter Shelter The Movie by Bizzaro

“The Movie” in this DVD’s title indicates that it’s a companion piece to the book of the same name (please click here to read our review).

If you’ve ever wanted to perform the classic effect where you swallow a series of razor blades and some thread and then bring them out all strung together, Helter Shelter The Movie offers a fast, running start by explaining the various commercial effects that you can purchase and teaching various techniques.

The DVD discusses commercial methods that you can buy along with their inherent advantages and disadvantages, and even offers modifications to the props themselves or to the handling. It’s great to see and compare the commercial offerings before you invest any money. At this point, this DVD already pays for itself.

The middle portion offers methods that you can develop on your own as well as a “linking blades” trick where the blades exit the mouth linked together. Bizarro also talks about the best places to buy razor blades, and what kind of fake blood to use, if you want to make a bloody mess.

“The Movie” covers everything in the book and it’s great to see the various props and moves that are described in the book in action via video. An advantage with the DVD is that it features something that’s not in the book, Bizarro’s own prop for performing the effect that looks great on stage, does a great job of hiding its method and doesn’t require you to setup the props in the same, exacting manner ahead of time.

Between the movie and book, I’d go with the DVD. But either way, Bizarro’s Helter Shelter The Movie provides an education in razor blades. If you want to perform the razor blade illusion, you’ll also want to consider Tim Ellis’ routine that was explained in his Ellis in Wonderland and that in Paul Potassy’s The World-Renowned Magic of Paul Potassy.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto

MSRP: (US) $30

Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.