Sure, logic, maturity and a sense of decorum are cool and all, but sometimes (a lot of times, actually) nothing helps slap a big, dumb smile on my kisser than a raucous, unhinged, gore soaked horror comedy. Thankfully, Shudder is obviously attuned to my gaudy desires and released Destroy All Neighbours, a deranged, prog rock infused romp that employs copious amounts of splat-stick, weird tangents and an utterly unrestrained performance by a virtually unrecognizable Bill S. Preston Esq. himself, Alex Winter.
Directed by Josh Forbes and hopefully following in the footsteps of Sam Raimi, Frank Henenlotter, Peter Jackson and anyone else who employs gallons of stage blood to get a cheap chuckle, can Destroy All Neighbors nail that sweet spot I have for outrageous gorefests, or will this hard rocking horror show going to have to face the music?
William Brown has been slaving away to try and obsessively complete the prog rock album he’s been toiling at for three years, but something always seems to trip him up. Will is convinced that it’s a number of outside factors thwarting him from getting it just perfect, but long suffering girlfriend Emily just believes his lack of self belief is truly the key.
Failing to get any support from his spineless boss, Scotty, at the recording studio where he works (“Following the rules is what rock & roll is all about!”), Will tries to gain inspiration from a series of how-to videos by music guru “Swig” Anderson, but he always seems to get thwarted from finally nailing his progressive prog album (which he refers to as “prog squared”) once and for all.
However, matters get exponentially worse when Will and Emily get a new neighbour in the form of Vlad, a stocky, catchers glove-faced bruiser of eastern European descent who loves blaring electronic dance music at all hours while insisting on aggressively calling Will “bro” at any given opportunity. Due to his reluctance to engaging in any kind of confrontation whatsoever, Will let’s his frustrations bottle up until he finally goes to give Vlad a piece of his mind – which promptly ends up with the neighbour from hell accidentally getting first impaled and the decapitated in a freak, one in a million occurrence.
This causes Will’s already delicate mental state to fray like a poorly stitched jersey and the next thing you know, he’s seeing Vlad’s disembodied remains chatting to him as if nothing untoward has happened which sets off a chain reaction of other, violent accidents that sees Will become not so much a serial killer, but more of a serial manslaughterer. However, be they visions, personal demons made flesh or just plain ordinary mutilated neighbours who simply won’t die, they soon band together to help Will complete his musical opus before a SWAT team drops him like a bad habit.
I have to admit, nothing cheers me up more than a goofy gore comedy that goes hard with the practical effects and the cartoonish ambiance and Destroy All Neighbours, if taken in the proper spirit, fills that niche nicely as it rockets through its farcical chaos while being surprising nice for a movie that sees a man have his head removed by a breeze block. However, the far-out and sweetly anarchic tone of the film is perfectly balanced by the lead character’s love of prog rock, which segues perfectly into the loose plotting and logic that energises this ridiculous movie – but the real hook here is a sense of heart. You know, a real one, not one that’s lying on the floor in a pool of bodily fluids.
Unleashing the sheer amount of heart palpitating social awkwardness usually heaped upon a sweaty, 90s era Ben Stiller, the movie strongly implies that a lot of Will’s mental barriers are caused by him being neurodivergent that injects an endearing amount of pathos into the character as life serves him up one shit sandwich after another. It helps to have that level of understanding because when Destroy All Neighbours gets going, it often is strongly reminiscent of other out-there horror comedies such as the criminally underseen Idle Hands and the viscera strewn affordability of Shudder’s own Psycho Goreman. In fact, thanks to its flippant nature concerning surreal body horror and primary colour lighting scheme, Josh Forbes’ wacky brainchild not only fits quite snuggly with those other titles, but its comedic – but impressively violent, accidental body count also invokes fond memories of cult fave Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, as Will’s inadvertent, murderous rampage claims yet more lives to be resurrected as a mushy-faced support group.
Essentially playing the emotionally frazzled straight man to a supporting cast of overacting caricatures, Mystery Science Theatre 3000’s Jonah Ray Rodrigues gets to melt down impressively while all he’s struggling to do is get everyone simply to apreciate prog rock a little more than not at all. Giving pained responses to such other players as RENO 911’s Thomas Lennon, a cameoing Kumail Nanjiani and, or course, a predictably gonzo Alex Winter, he’s a lovable foil as he strongly enforces that he’s merely a serial manslaughterer as fate sweeps him uncontrollably along. However, it’s Winter who no doubt is the most memorable as he attacks his role as Vlad without a single, solitary strand of subtlety whilst being utterly enveloped in foam latex. Simply put, if Vlad is too crazy and off putting for you, then the actor has essentially done his job as the EDM loving lunatic (he repeatedly claims it’s music you can fuck to) is supposed to be utterly ghastly and it invokes welcome memories of his own, beautifully fucked-in-the-noggin, comedy; Freaked.
The cartoonish feel of the movie is bolstered by the exaggerated FX work of Frank Henenlotter regular, Gabe Bartalos, whose chunky visuals – such as a dismembered torso using it’s intestines to play the drums and Will’s well-meaning landlady frazzled to a bug-eyed skeleton – highlight the drugged out tone of the thing nicely and is hugely fun for an old gorehound like me to watch.
While it sort of loses track of it’s own, deliberately sketchy, rules by the end (it’s never truly made clear whether Will’s misshapen gang are actually there or just manifestations of his own personal demons – plus Vlad switches from enemy to friend and back again for reasons that are similarly not explained) and the climax skews a little too close to the Tenacious D movie, The Pick Of Destiny, for comfort; but a refreshingly honest and oddly upbeat denouement makes up for the odd slip.
Misshapen, garish and wildly obnoxious – and that’s just Alex Winter – Destroy All Neighbours obviously plays more to the adolescent stoner crowd than, say, arthouse enthusiasts, but it’s still a squishy, gruesome reminder that the crazy horror comedy is still alive and kicking. Just like Will’s neighbours, actually.
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