The Boneyard

The Boneyard (1991)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A couple cops and a psychic investigate the murder of three children. Their investigation leads them to the coroner's office where they quickly learn that the children are in fact zombies and soon everyone is trapped inside the building with them.

THE BONEYARD is your typcial low-budget horror film from the 90s that really doesn't have much originality to it and in fact it really doesn't have too much good about it. You've got a couple former stars thrown into the cast, some decent special effects but there's no question that a lot of the running time doesn't have too much going on.

I say that because the first forty-two minutes of the movie has the two detectives and the psychic doing nothing but talking. At first I was wondering if I was watching another movie because for a horror movie there's certainly nothing going on for the longest time. Once the zombie children show up things do pick up a bit and one can't help but wonder why they waited so long. Everyone knows that "something" needs to happen every ten-minutes so making us wait over forty was just a major mistake.

The zombie children actually look very good and for the most part the special effects were better than I expected and that's especially true for a couple "large" creatures that show up towards the end. The performances are pretty much what you would expect as they range from decent to poor. Norman Fell and Phyllis Diller are on hand and Ed Nelson was also good in the lead.

THE BONEYARD should have and could have been much better but it gets off to such a slow and bad start that the film never fully recovers.

Somewhat a forgotten kooky 90s zombie low-budget horror film that seems loosely inspired, tonally and set-up wise at least, by Return of the Living Dead. Slow to get going, real slow and mainly set in the one location; the graveyard shift at a mortuary on its last legs. However during the slow first half of nonsensical story exposition, and drawn out character exchanges. I actually found the character banter (by a stellar cast) rather amusing, especially Phyllis Diller's bark (which could be more ferocious than her poodle) and Ed Nelson's deadpan reactions to keep you engaged before the ludcrious thrills and ghoulish FX finally breaks out. And when it does, it doesn't disappoint.

Trapped inside with creepy rotting, and gooey zombie kids (from an age-old curse) munching away on corpses that suddenly turns into some wild, and goofy mutated monster fun. Maybe at times low-scale in its excitement and gets you wanting more than what's presented by rushing through the mayhem, but the imagery (FX I mean) is indeed a sight to behold... permed muscle-bound monster poodle anyone?

P.s. Diller's stunt double diving over a table in a grey wig won't be fooling anybody... that moment made me chuckle.

I caught this movie very late one night on the horror channel (which I usually avoid due to the poor selection of movies they show) and I was pleasantly surprised. The zombie children are quite well done and the acting was OK (better than most of this kind of thing).

But I feel the movie leans more towards the Peter Jackson (although I must point out that this movie was released a year before bad taste was) way of doing A zombie flick rather than George A Romeros wonderful masterpieces. Not that this is a bad thing just different.

The effects are up to a point quite effective in my opinion but when it comes to what I suppose to be the big effects near the end of the movie are a bit of a letdown.

overall well worth a look but don't expect perfection

A great B-horror flick if I may add first of all. This movie stands on it's own ground as slick, original, and creepy. The acting could be a little better, and there could have been more violence but overall this movie is a sure classic.

The writter/director of the movie (James Cummins) is not bad at his work. But if you purchase this movie on DVD and listen to the Audio Commentary or the Exclusive Interview you will hear James Cummins say "And um....." about a hundred times.

I haven't seen any copies out there for rental but if you do see it, rent it. A great midnight movie for everyone. 7/10 stars.

I purchased the DVD for a very cheap price and took a gamble on the film and remember reading somewhere at the time (1990)the film was being made starring Diller and Norman Fell. I thought this has got to be a hoot to see. Well....IT WAS....The story fails miserably but the special effects are great, especially when the Monster Diller mimics....well sort of.... Dillers real laugh. Diller is somewhat funny in this film and in the interview on the DVD she states "It was all in fun" and talks about the making of the film and the fun she had. Any Diller Fans will really get a kick out of the interview, especially her infamous LAUGH. I was really hoping for a funnier Norman Fell(Three's Company) but it just didn't happen,instead he was coming off as being serious. Its too bad that not all DVD'S have behind the scene interviews and trailers,etc. I purchased "CREEPSHOW" and Nothing,no interviews,behind the scenes,what the heck were they thinking,at least Boneyard later went in to get all of this coverage.