Bong of the Living Dead

This horror comedy stoner flick filmed in Columbus Ohio is a JOY to watch. If you aren't laughing,you are JUMPING out of your seat in shock! Filmed in a city steeped in rock and roll, the sound track is made from the authentic music scene. The old middle class neighborhood Clintonville is the setting for the struggle between cannabis loving residents and starving gangs of Zombies. This is sure to become a Halloween classic!

WARNING: Contains some nudity.

It's a great zombie genre comedy for the first 20 minutes but then it becomes a slowing moving zombie drama. It's obviously borrowing from films like the Shaun of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead and the tv show, The Walking Dead.

The plot follows a group of mostly childhood friends, who are now bong-friendly adults fending off a zombie attack. It has interesting visual transitions which seem inspired by Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake.

The one strong thing it has is that it was made like George Romero's the Night of the Living Dead with a strong community support. In this case, the film's support is from Ohio.

Bong of the Living Dead is about a group of stoner friends who are obsessed with zombie movies and then actually get to live through a real zombie apocalypse. Not a bad theme.

The characters are not particularly interesting or likable, but most are at least okay. The beautiful Cat Taylor as a bubbly, New Agey chick named Danielle who says super random stuff is the most entertaining and lovable character. On the other hand, the character called Christ turned out to be a selfish, verbally abusive jerk for no apparent reason.

Some of the humor lands a few chuckles and a couple of the action scenes are okay but there are a few too many scenes of the cast just smoking weed, eating cereal, and getting into (mostly dumb) arguments. I get that it's a stoner movie but it became a tad monotonous. The movie is only about 80 minutes long but probably should have been closer to 60 minutes.

I noticed that this movie has very much of a 1990s feel to it even though it's from 2017. Not necessarily a criticism, just an observation. For example they work at a video rental store, I don't recall seeing anyone use a smartphone, and at home they sit around watching a Spanish language shopping channel because their television doesn't get any other stations. No mention of YouTube or a streaming service like Netflix. Their world has a very retro feel to it, although that could also be an Ohio thing. The movie is set and filmed in that state. It is always nice to see a film set and filmed somewhere (anywhere) other than California or British Columbia.

I wouldn't go as far as recommending Bong of the Living Dead but it is watchable. If you like quirky, low budget B movies like I do, you could do worse. But you could also do so much better.

Due to nearly fifty years of watching zombie movies, me and my friends have spent many drunken evenings rambling about what we'd do should the undead ever rise and threaten what little brains we have. 'Bong of the Living Dead' is almost my life story after a few pints (only minus the actual ghouls).

Six friends, all of which are well versed in 'zombie lore,' find they are actually caught up in an apocalyptic situation when the dead rise from their graves and start biting anyone with a heartbeat. For a fan of the genre, there was a lot to enjoy. Zombies have been back in fashion for a couple of decades now and even my mum knows that if one should show up, all you have to do is destroy the brains and you're okay. Therefore, I've kind of grown tired of other films where characters see a zombie and spend half the film shooting and attacking them in every part of their body apart from the head - until they finally figure it out.

This story skips all that and spends its time poking fun of the conventions and cliches that come with the genre. And it's all good. In fact, some of the 'in-jokes' and 'movie-related' meta humour is some of the highlights. However, it had its drawbacks. Namely one character who seems to be in the first half a lot more than he's in the second. He just chews the scenery at every opportunity and if I was forced to survive the zombie apocalypse with him I'd happily offer my tasty brain to the first flesh-eater who was passing my whichever shopping mall I was holding up in. Secondly, there's a woman who - and this could just be me - I couldn't understand. She seemed to mumble all her lines and I had to keep rewinding the film to try and make out what she was on about.

Secondly, don't try to apply too much logic to this film. I guess it's all about the gags over the story. First of all the humans seem to be well on top of the situation and the jokes stem from how everyone knows what to do therefore our protagonists' skills aren't needed. Then it's like you turn over two pages at once and humanity has been wiped out, besides our stoner household.

Anyway, I'm just being picky. If you're into your zombie movies and want to see a movie that is funny as it pokes fun of the genre, give this one a try. Or just put 'Shaun of the Dead' on again - it's up to you.

I had a feeling this indie comedy was going to be pretty poor and, unsurprisingly, I was right. BONG OF THE LIVING DEAD is the usual attempt at a slacker comedy mixed with a zombie movie, but SHAUN OF THE DEAD it isn't. The plot, what little of it can be said to exist, involves a group of pothead twentysomethings who hang out in a house during a zombie outbreak. That's it. There's a heck of a lot of attempted comedy, none of which works, and the chance to spend ninety minutes of your life with some resolutely annoying characters. The zombie action is limited and pathetic when it occurs, and the satire is non-existent.