I really rather liked The Neon Dead. It's a scrappy little indie flick with a lot of style and a unique visual hook. Plus, it's hard for me not to like a film made in 2015 that has uses stop motion animation for its big bad.
And I hate having to put this disclaimer on all of these indie horror entries, but that's the world we live in. Thanks Obama... The Neon Dead is not a slick, big-or-even-modestly budgeted film - imdb has it listed at $17,000. It does feel amateurish at times, and the acting isn't always so great. So while I'll be talking about how much I dug it, it's probably not going to change your mind about inexpensive indie stuff. Although I will say it's considerably more ambitious than something from the "let's make a documentary about ghost hunting" genre. And for those of us who can swing cheap music, normal looking people, and the other "warts and all" in this sort of movie, that ambition pays of in a really fun film.
My Synopsis: Desmond and Jake are "paranormal experts" - aka guys that work in a video store (they still have those?) and know a little about ghosts and demons and what not. But they get a call from Allison, who recently discovered a weird ghost/zombie thing in her house. Turns out it's not a zombie, but rather one of many devotees of some Ultimo Demon creature, who is of course getting stronger by the minute. It's up to our scrappy trio to defeat evil and save the world from The Neon Dead!
Elaborate Genre: Indie zombie/demon action comedy
Overall: Lots of fun. It's reach exceeds it's grasp every once and a while, but it looks good for the money and is charming enough to win you over.
Writer/Director Torey Haas has a lot of special effects work on his resume (including the truly awful V/H/S Viral), and there's no doubt he's got a good eye for what looks cool. The whole film has a kind of crazy blacklight thing going on, and the monster/zombies/whatevers have a very eye-catching look. Kind of like that gritty / neon / hot-topic look that the ad campaign for Suicide Squad was going for. And other than the robed minions, each creature has a specific look or traits that set them apart from one another. They're not quite defined enough to be characters, but it was nice to see a little extra attention paid to the details and the craft of monster making. The general look of the film serves two purposes here - not only does it look nice and give the film a unique feel, it also hides the seams well. There's a lot less chance that you'll see a mistake or crummy set or whatever if portions of the screen are really dark.
The Neon Dead seems way more concerned with getting laughs rather than scares, and it does all right on right on that front. There are some legitimately good jokes and sight gags, but there are also a few cringeworthy moments. But the overall vibe of the film makes it easy to look past the groaners. It's got a real excited "Yeah! Let's do this!" kind of exuberance that is really easy to like. The stakes never feel particularly high for our characters, but you are swept up enough in the energy of the film that you don't really care.
Acting? I wouldn't say it's outright bad, but it never quite clicks. Take our lead for instance (Greg Garrison): he's going for a kind of cocksure yet likable Evil Dead-Ash type, but something just seems off. Garrison is good enough in the role, but he's certainly not what you're going to remember about the film. And that's true for just about every major player in the cast.
The only thing I didn't like was the music. Again, it sounds like it was done on the cheap - but it has the nasty habit of looping one guitar riff over and over again, with no backing instrumentation. In some ways, it adds to the DIY charm of the film, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it grating after a while. Although that's just in a couple of scenes. Otherwise, the music vanishes into the background pretty well.
And ultimately, that's a small gripe. The Neon Dead tells a unique zombie-ish story, keeps the mood light, and manages to look really cool while doing it. All on a very small budget. I'd guess they had a good time making it, and that fun is infectious.
I would recommend this film.
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