Stream Queen 9: a bunch of horror comedies

With this foursome, I got a little of everything: low budget to well-polished; zombies to the supernatural; good to bad.

ZOMBIE WEREWOLVES ATTACK! (2009)

It can only be uphill from here. The animated horror intro gave me high hopes for this one—and then came the opening scene that looked like it was filmed on a 1985 VHS camcorder at night in a park, with a bunch of people fighting other people wearing werewolf masks. Sigh.

For about the first half of the film, our group of friends sits around getting high, acting dumb, cracking jokes that don’t make you laugh, complaining about their jobs, planning a party, and generally delivering awkward dialogue to get across the writer’s social philosophy.

Eventually, they go to a convenience store for party supplies, and the place is swarmed by…zombie werewolves, I assume. Again, they’re people in werewolf masks. I guess the “zombie werewolf” thing makes sense because they’re dressed like people and are hungry for flesh? Plus, if you get bitten by them, you turn into one of them. You know, just like zombies…and werewolves.

There’s the usual running and fighting as the zombie werewolves infiltrate the building and chase the survivors to the park to play out the teaser clip from the beginning of the movie. And suddenly it’s daylight and everything is kind of okay. I assume the reason for the magical happy ending was explained somewhere along the way and I just zoned out and missed it.

BUCK WILD (2014)

Now on to the good stuff. Buck Wild takes a while to get going, but once it hits its stride, it’s a winner.

Leading man Matthew Albrecht (Detention, Bunnyman) brings his buddies to Buck Wild Ranch for some hunting: his crazy cousin, who likes to meditate naked; his cute horny buddy; and his cute gay geek buddy, who is the only one in their group that hasn’t yet accepted that he’s gay.

Meanwhile, the trailer trash ranch owner has been bitten and infected by a Chupacabra, which makes him hungry for flesh! It’s not long before redneck zombies are running amok! Only the crazy cousin comprehends what they’re really dealing with, so he becomes the hero, and he’s awesome.

The gay geek has more than just zombies to contend with—he gets dragged into a hillbilly heap, is stripped to his undies (making it clear why the hillbillies love him), is ridden like a pony, and gets spanked with a paddle! He spends the remainder of the film trying to stay in some semblance of clothes, and while the cast of guys is all funny, he definitely steals the show. He also lands this movie on both my die, gay guy, die! page and the stud stalking page.

Buck Wild ends old school zombie, with the guys fighting off a horde of zombies while trapped in a house. This is one I’m going to need to add to my movie collection.

BLOOD PUNCH (2014)

Now this is one stylish, oddball dark comedy/supernatural suspense hybrid with a great cast. While in rehab, a quiet guy is seduced by a bad girl into going with her and her psycho (and sizzling hot) boyfriend to a cabin in the woods to make some high-priced meth.

As soon as they arrive, the boyfriend accuses them of sleeping together. He begins mind-fucking the pair with psychotic “games,” which inevitably leads to someone dying.

But everything is not as it seems, and the trio keeps waking up to find that they are stuck in a loop, no one is ever really dead, and they can change the outcome of the day every time, depending on who died, and who remembers what happened the last time.

As each member of the trio tries to puzzle together how to break out of the cycle…alive…things become more twisted and complex.

There is an eventual break from the cabin dilemma, which brings in more characters and adds a gun battle segment to the film, but it unnecessarily takes us out of the situation at hand and makes the film run slightly longer than needed. Also, don’t expect a definitive conclusion that neatly clarifies everything.

ODD THOMAS (2013)

Another quirky film with a sense of humor, Odd Thomas is based on a novel by Dean Koontz. It actually reminded me of the Michael J. Fox flick The Frighteners.

Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin of Hearts in Atlantis, the Fright Night remake, and Burying the Ex) lives in a small town. He also sees dead people. His gal pal (Addison Timlin of The Town That Dreaded Sundown sequel) and the police chief (Willem DaFoe) are the only two people who know about his psychic power. The chief relies heavily on Odd Thomas to solve crimes for him.

When Odd Thomas begins to see freaky, crawling, translucent creatures called Bodachs, he knows that evil is coming to the town. Following the clues given to him by the ghosts he sees, he determines there’s a killer in town. Now he just has to figure out who it is without the killer catching on.

Playful, suspenseful, loaded with damn good action sequences, and featuring loveable characters, Odd Thomas could easily become a cult classic—and spawn some sequels of his further adventures.