Johnny Gruesome

I was looking forward to seeing this upon its initial release, but didn't for one reason or another and finally came across it on Tubi. I dig Lamberson's other films and know the limitations of budget, but this far surpasses any of those limitations. A few of the supporting cast fall flat here and there, but this is a minor gripe as the direction, story and acting from our main characters more than makes up for it. The camerawork and edit are just great and made the pacing in my opinion spot on. Lamberson and cast could have fallen into serious schlock film territory given the scenario, but manage to pull it all together in a realistic and believable fashion with just a touch of dark comedy to take the edge off. The film gave me real 80's vibes for films like Trick or Treat and even Creepshow with the subject matter and shooting style. The makeup effects are cool and didn't rely on gore as filler. You can feel Lamberson's honest intention to just make an entertaining and original fantasy film that has serious 80's genre vibes. Johnny is just a cool character and I'd love to see a sequel or other films in the series. Original, fun and endearing.

I can't give it a zero ?

Actors seem like first year acting students who had never acted before.

Serious plot wholes and inconsistent dialogue. One sentence to other would be in contrast to each other. It's like the actors wrote their own dialogue without any interaction with each other and then just put the script together.

The music was an OBVIOUS rip off of songs from bands like The Ramones.

Special efforts were bad. Let me clarify by bad I mean horrible, and not in a campy funny way either.

It wasn't scary, funny, campy, creative, original or anything that provides anything worth-wild in watching.

I didnt expect a great deal from this before watching it and that's exactly what I got nothing.. It was laughable to the extent of diresome...If you are thinking of watching this I wouldn't bother. Nobody in it can act and the effects for this generation are really bad. If this was made in the early 90s it would of been passable.

If you're wanting something to watch with friends or just burst into laughter this is the movie, a lot of the comedy is unintentional but I highly recommend when you want to enjoy a movie that's all camp and nothing else.

One of those flicks you sit thru thinking it's gonna get better and never does..... Trying to wrap my head around a budget of $240,000 when it seems like something could've been done for $100 bucks