Bubba's Chili Parlor

Don't you just hate it when you hear about an awesome-sounding movie like Bubba's Chili Parlor, and it turns out to be nothing more than mediocre? Tell me, where does a film called Bubba's Chili Parlor get off being mediocre? The same thing happened earlier this year when I bought Cheerleader Autopsy... Well, actually, nevermind. That one was just terrible... Sorry, I got side-tracked, again. Alright, so, this is a Zombie flick, by the way. Tells the story of how an entire rural Texas town is infected by one little backwoods Chili joint. Bubba ends up buying some cheap meat, which has been genetically juiced by the government. And we all know by now what happens when the government tampers with meat. Exactly, Zombies. From here on out, at least Storyline-wise, it's all the same ol' same ol'. People getting eaten, other people banding together, Zombies getting their heads blown off, etc. Although, it didn't turn out to be the outlandishly insane riot the title led me to believe, but Bubba's Chili Parlor turns out to be a fun little Zombie flick. I mean, really. I find it difficult to dislike a modern-day homage to 70's Drive-In cinema. And, might I add, the intermissions, and fake commercials were a very nice touch, and added some much-needed flavor. Said qualities, plus an intentionally grainy-looking screen does a pretty good job of taking any old-school schlock fans back to the good ol' days. For something better in Exploitation throwbacks, you'll definitely want to check out Chris Seaver's I Spit Chew On Your Grave. Bubba's Chili Parlor is not a super-duper gore-fest, but it's gory. Not hilarious, but you'll laugh. In other words, mediocre. I'll be the first to admit Bubba's Chili Parlor isn't awesome, but it is a perfect example of a B-Horror director/fan making the absolute most out of what he's got, which ain't much. And for that, Bubba's Chili Parlor has my respect. 5/10

As mentioned in the trivia portion of this site, the cast and crew only spent about 19 days to make this film. That's all. Add in the fact that this was an ultra-low budget operation without any professional actors and I think it's only fair to say that this film represented a very good effort on the part of everyone responsible. That is not to say that the final product was necessarily that great, but at least there was an honest attempt to make something out of what few resources were available. I liked the creativity of the director (Joey Evans) who utilized drive-in commercials and fake film problems which would surely resonate with those who have ever experienced a drive-in environment. Along with that, I thought S. Mike Davis (as "Bubba") and Camille Rocha ("Janet") performed quite well given the overall circumstances. It also didn't hurt to have two attractive females like Adrienne Gibson ("Jamie") and the aforementioned Camille Rocha in the movie either. Additionally, I thought some of the special effects were quite good. On the flip side though, the script was pretty bad, the makeup for the "zombies" could have used significant improvement and some scenes seemed to drag on way too long. And while I dislike sounding too critical, I have to say that the love scene between "Jamie" and "Wes" (Tristan Vaughan) left much to be desired. For example, if nudity was a concern then they could have filmed them under some covers or the camera could have focused on them after the fact. But having both people fully clothed during it all just didn't make sense. I also would have limited the time and dialogue given to the character named "Rodriguez" (Ramie Mercado) as he was clearly not up to the same level as some of the other actors just mentioned. Again though, this was a project beset with all kinds of challenges and in all fairness it's probably unrealistic to expect too much given the circumstances involved. In short, this was a commendable effort and I applaud everyone who participated. Unfortunately, the final product had obvious flaws that simply cannot be overlooked. Because of that, I feel compelled to rate this film as slightly below average.

It's kinda hard rating this movie. I also called this one or named it "labour of Love", because it's pretty obvious that all involved here are fans of the Genre. But that doesn't necessarily mean, that the viewer is sitting there, watching the movie and thinking, well there intentions were good ...

Unfortunately the movie lacks many things (a good script, money, locations and acting abilities), but it still has a lot of charm. If that is enough to win you over and get you to like the movie, is a completely different deal. The makers and all those involved, seem to be nice people (saw them at the Fright Fest in London, were the movie was also shown). Since it was their first big project, there still room for improvement and I sincerely hope they'll learn from this experience (or to sort of quote another Horror movie director, "They should take in the Fan reactions, see what works, see what doesn't and try to make the next one better!").