NECROVILLE (official site here), in contrast, is a quick-paced lark that lovingly sends up just about every horror-movie cliché in an infectiously good-natured way. It begins with zombies rising from their graves to attack...a video store. This is where we re introduced to our protagonists: Jack and Alex, the slacker clerks who manage to trash the place while blowing away one of the overzealous (but stupid) flesheaters with a shotgun blast.
Fired from their jobs as a result, the desperately broke fellas find work with a local two-bit organization called Zom-B-Gone, a pest-control service that takes care of everyday vermin like vampires, lycanthropes, zombies and loud frat parties throughout the New Mexico area. Alex discovers he s a pro with high-powered weaponry, while Jack s years of spiritual and physical tutelage in hand-to-hand combat by the Mexican Yoda comes in handy for taking down all manner of undead nuisances. But Jack s home life isn t as easily sorted as his work life. His live-in girlfriend, Penny, is not only a do-nothing parasite living off his meager earnings, she has also begun rekindling an old affair with Clark, a totally full-of-himself jerk and a lousy DJ (or, as Alex cleverly notes, an MP3-jay ) who also happens to now be a master vampire looking to greatly expand his coven, starting with Penny.
No synopsis can really do justice to the pleasures to be had from this very low-budget but highly entertaining flick; how can one explain the joys of seeing a Girl Scout troop tearing apart a zombie to earn a merit badge? Or a scene that takes place in an S&M club catering to the zombified sexual tastes of their more elite clientele? The two leads play well off each other and make for a pleasantly quick-witted yet deadpan comedy duo, but everyone in the cast is in on the jokes and plays their various roles to the comedic hilt. And for the horror fan who needs something more than a few good laughs, there s some surprisingly solid gore and a few moments of very well-choreographed violence to help keep things moving along.
Directed by Richard Griffin, the prolific indie auteur behind PRETTY DEAD THINGS (which was also well-liked by this critic; see review here), FEEDING THE MASSES and CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON), and Billy Garberina (who not only stars as Jack but also co-wrote the screenplay with Adam Jarmon Brown, who plays Alex), NECROVILLE jumps from one incident to the next without lingering on anything long enough to become boring. It also has the good sense to plant a few jokes early on that take root and pay off later in the proceedings sometimes in obvious but nonetheless funny ways (particularly a gag involving holy water). And even more kudos to the filmmakers for pulling off a few pretty elaborate and very funny visual gags one involving a fellow Zom-B-Gone employee with a huge chainsaw taking care of a crowd of zombies on his day off, and another involving a vampire and a dangling piano that seems to have wandered in from a classic Warner Bros. cartoon.
In terms of style and intent, you could not pick two movies farther apart from each other in execution. However, good genre films are as few and far between as always this season, and both of these are worthy of distribution by some intrepid releasing company so they can finally be discovered by an appreciative audience besides yours truly. Best of luck to all the talented folks involved in these flicks, and looking forward to seeing your next projects, dammit! --Fangoria.com
God bless Shock-O-Rama. In a market that's annually being polluted with the worst stinking horror movies imaginable, Shock-O-Rama never fails to deliver the goods. Whether it's a horror comedy, sexploitation or just a straight up horror film, they never cease to impress me. Such is the case with tonight's movie Necroville. What's not to love about this: a couple of average Joes are a for-hire Monster Disposal team in a small town overrun by some nasty ghouls. I shouldn't really have to continue as that's pretty much all you need to know. Monsters + Comedy + Shock-O-Rama = purchase. However since we have some standards over here, I'll elaborate.
Necroville: a quaint suburban town that just happens to be overrun by zombies, werewolves, vampires, aliens, and anything else your mind can fathom. Enter Jack (Billy Garberina) and Alex (Adam Jarmon Brown). Jack is a young man whose life never really took off after high school because he's been too busy going from job to job with his chubby friend Alex. Sound familiar? After losing their position of employment at the local video store, the two set out to find another pair of jobs, much to the annoyance of Jack's needy girlfriend Penny (Brandy Bluejacket). As it turns out, she thinks Alex is a loser and blames him for how unsuccessful Jack has turned out. Determined to show her that he's capable of a maintaining a real job, Jack and Alex sign up with Zom-B-Gone - a monster disposal company that only handles the worst of the worst.
All seems well and good until one day, while dispatching a living room full of vampires; they realize that it's merely a bunch of goth kids. They ask their boss about this, and find out when a big cluster of goth kids are hanging out, it usually means a master vampire is in the area, and controlling them to do his bidding. Well poop. To make matters worse, Jack's soon to be ex-girlfriend has fallen for her past flame - Clark (Mark Chavez). Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Clark ends up being the master vampire Alex and Jack are hunting. With Alex handling the guns, and Jack using his martial art skills, the two set out on a destructive path to bring down the head vampire, and save Jack's girlfriend in the process.
First of all, there was a great dynamic between these two. Just like Shaun of the Dead, you've got your sensible, problem solver (Jack) and your funny, cowboy type (Alex). Their constant banter mid zombie fights are some of the highlights of the movie. Whether it's Alex trashing Jack for his clingy, bitch of a girlfriend, or it's Jack coming to her defense and cracking fat jokes at Alex's expense, it's comedy gold, and had me laughing more than once. There were some surprisingly nice special effects in this film as well. I say surprisingly because with a film like this, you don't imagine there's much room in the budget for anything jaw-dropping or even semi-realistic. However, there were a handful of scenes that were just plain cool to see, including a first person view of Alex wielding a shotgun. I know. Pretty cool.
For such a long movie, this one had essentially little to no filler. There were several scenes in which the duo dispatched of several zombies that all seemed to run together, but each was uniquely funny and full of some hilarious prop gags. The only time the film ever seemed to drag was the drawn out dialogue scenes between Jack and Penny. Some were fine, but others seemed to go on and on, and with only two or three camera angles to break up the monotony, it seemed to never end. Luckily, these scenes were usually broken off by a nice visual gag or a good one liner by Alex, trashing Jack's girlfriend. Aside from that, and the odd dubbing issue, there really aren't any complaints from me. It seems that Billy Garberina and Adam Jarmon Brown wrote themselves a pretty solid buddy comedy. --moviesmademe.com/movie/review/1860
