This is the best horror comedy since YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. It's made on a nonexistent budget without any name stars, but it doesn't take itself seriously and delivers both laughs and shocks.
The plot concerns two feuding Hollywood horror stars (think Karloff and Lugosi here) who hate each other. Thanks to voodoo that can bring back the dead, their feud can continue after death.
These actors aren't stars. But they should be. There are some surprisingly effective performances here. Film Star Randall Malone (that's how he's billed in all his movies, it seems) is properly over the top and chews scenery as if he were starving.
This is like the best of community theatre. The actors seem to have an attitude of, OK, I'm not getting rich from this and tomorrow morning I have to go to my regular job but I'm going to give this everything I've got. This reminds you that the word "amateur" has at its heart a word meaning "love".
I'd give special commendation to the young man who plays a stand-up comic who tells the worst jokes you can imagine. Terrible, terrible jokes. But he keeps on telling them despite widespread carnage all around him.
There's a nice bonus in scenes interviewing Anita Page and Margaret O'Brien about the events and characters we see portrayed in the main narrative. Yes, the same Anita Page who was in OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS with Joan Crawford. The same Margaret O'Brien who was in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. Both of them are charming and their presence is a nice touch.
There are some nice surprises in the writing, too. One of the main characters is a zombie, not at all happy about having been brought back to life. He usually expresses this displeasure by violent acts that are a cross between the Three Stooges and THE EVIL DEAD. There's a scene where he meets up with his widow, uh, wife, uh, significant other. The way the scene is resolved is totally unlike what you'd expect.
Ron Ford should be getting the respect that other genre directors have gotten. Lord knows he's made his films on the tightest of budgets but kept on keeping on. There was an article about him in FANGORIA a couple of years ago and I expected him to get more recognition, but it didn't happen. It's the world's loss. He has a unique vision.
You can't get this through Netflix or Blockbuster online. But it's worth seeking out.
