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Review: ‘Delaware Shore’ gives ‘The Room’ some competition for worst movie honors

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Move over “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “The Room,” there’s a new worst-movie-ever in town: “Delaware Shore.” This astonishingly bad film, adapted by writer-director Raghav Peri from a novel by Michaelangelo Rodriguez, mishmashes such big topics as genocide, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, child abuse, alcoholism and mental illness into a painful, inadvertently laughable stew.

Set and shot in Delaware’s scenic Slaughter Beach (could there be a more heavy-handedly named locale for a story inspired by mass murder?), the film follows the trials of Agnes (an awful Gail Wagner), a Holocaust survivor stuck raising her twin grandchildren, Tasha and Gallagher, after her unseen daughter inexplicably leaves the babies on Agnes’ doorstep.

Jump to, apparently, the present: The kids are now teenagers (Emily McKinley Hill; James Robinson Jr.) and, maybe because of her own traumatic past (there are cringe-inducing flashbacks), Agnes has become “grand-mommy dearest.” The vile, paranoid, tippling old bat treats these very decent young folks like dirt, lashing out and hurling invectives at every turn.

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But when Agnes discovers that Gallagher is gay and Tasha is pregnant (after being raped by her “hoodlum” boyfriend; don’t ask), grandma throws them both out of the house and then — thankfully — mostly disappears until the unearned finale.

Sub-amateur acting, dialogue, storytelling and tech aspects; curious aging and timeline discrepancies, and an embarrassingly dated take on being gay, are among the many nails in this turkey’s coffin.

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‘Delaware Shore’

No rating

Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Playing: Arena Cinelounge Sunset, Hollywood

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