It’s a trio of oddball indie flicks, and two out of three weren’t so bad.
DEATH METAL (2023)
The very first scene of this film features a metal band playing live, and you’ll immediately notice it has a low budget, shot-on-video in the filmmaker’s home town (and local bar) feel.
However, it feels more like an authentic movie after that footage is out of the way. The plot offers a familiar scenario. A metal band that worships Satan is having trouble getting a break. After a bad album review, they go to a secluded farm to create their masterpiece. They also decide to incorporate an unearthed Devil’s concerto into their new sound. Uh-oh.
This sort of turns into an Evil Dead concept, with band and crew members getting possessed one by one and then attacking the others. Sadly, they don’t go all demon face, and it’s generally a choppy experience with not much in the way of character or story development.
Yet despite the bumpy presentation, there are some really entertaining horror situations, like one guy’s head popping off his body when he hangs himself…and then floating around on its spine. Eek! However, it’s great aspects like this that are ripe for exploitation but only get a flash of screen time instead.
There’s a nasty eye popping scene, a ghost woman, and even the lead singer of the band sprouting horns and turning all devilish in the final act (awesome).
He looks so damn freaky that it’s a reminder of what a missed opportunity it was to have all those who got possessed to look just as frightful. If the film had really played into its horror strengths, it could have packed more of a punch.
DUG UP (2013)
This one made me nostalgic for cheesy SyFy zombie flicks from the era in which this was released. It takes place in a rural town, and everyone speaks with exaggerated redneck accents.
The plot takes a while to kick in, but basically a redneck dude and two females believe stories that a recently deceased man scored a load of gold and hid it somewhere. When they finally find his buried treasure, it turns out to be some sort of odd dial. Naturally, they turn the dial, and…
…out pop the dead from their graves. The zombies are surprisingly gnarly looking, and the movie takes place during the day, making them extra fun.
There are also some good, raunchy sexual situations, and some of the comedic delivery definitely hits the mark.
Plus, there’s a shirtless guy with an axe! Yay!
The film is a little slow at times, and one of the funniest characters is killed off too early, but it seemed as if this dude was like, “I’m gonna steal the show before they feed me to the zombies”, because he’s a hoot before he gets eaten.
The main guy is funny (and shirtless) as well, and the bearish daddy sheriff is delicious.
Their flesh definitely makes this a more digestible zomcom, and I had fun with it, but I could see it getting on some viewers’ nerves.
CADDY HACK (2023)
I’m always up for a creature feature comedy, but this 75-minute mess tries desperately to deliver 1980-level adolescent comedy, leaving us with nothing but balls and fart humor. It’s mind-numbing.
A rich dude with a ridiculous wig owns a golf course.
Grass chemicals mutate cute gophers into little red-eyed demon gophers. They’re actually not even puppets. They are totally inanimate stuffed animals just being shaken in front of the camera.
We are subjected to a long segment devoted to the caddy employees dealing with the death of the first guy attacked, a slapstick golfing montage of a guy continuously getting hit in the balls, a dance-off montage, and a budding romance complete with a musical duet—which is actually a catchy tune ruined by the male partner, who is clearly not a singer (the female partner’s voice rocks).
The gopher attack silliness with no budget special effects kicks in with only fifteen minutes left, and it doesn’t make them move any faster than the sixty minutes that came before them.
The highlight would have to be an obvious homage to the Gremlins bar and movie theater scenes, and it actually gave me a chuckle, with a gopher waving a rainbow flag, BDSM spanking leather gophers, and more.
