Reaction & Review | Redneck Zombies

Welcome, one and all, to "Full Moon vs. Troma" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be heading back to the world of Troma by taking a look at a horror comedy from 1987. That movie is "Redneck Zombies".

Now, this movie, from what I could gather, is one of those films that was shot on videotape. So essentially, this movie is another SOV film that I'm gonna be covering for this series. I've only covered a handful of films that were also shot on video, such as "The Tower", which was a movie that I covered a LONG time ago. And the other one being "Garden Tool Massacre", which was borderline un-fucking-watchable. So that hasn't exactly filled my confidence when going into this movie, but I am still willing to give it a fair shot here.

And as you probably already guessed, just based solely off the title, this movie is another zombie film. And I haven't exactly had a good track record for zombie films when it comes to this series. Of all the ones I can think of, I've only liked about 2 of them that I covered for this series, those being "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies" and "Dead & Breakfast". Everything else...not so much. So, this movie is going in with a little bit of a disadvantage for me. However, I am still rather hopeful that this movie is going to turn out decent, what with it being a horror comedy and all.

One other thing that I need to make mention of before I dive into this movie is that there are, apparently, two different versions of this movie. One of them is the R rated version, and the other being the Director's Cut, which is the one I'm gonna be watching tonight. The only real differences between the two versions is that the R rated version apparently cuts back on the excessive gore that this movie has, while also expanding more on the story. The Director's Cut, however, has all of that goriness still intact. Plus also, according to the back of the DVD case, it's been restored to it's full glory. Now I don't know if that means they restored both the gore and more of the story that was explored in the R rated version, or they just restored most of the gory scenes that were missing from the Director's Cut.

I don't know, and at this point, I don't particularly care. I just want to see if this movie is gonna live up to being entertaining or not. And I'm hoping that it is, but I'm also going in with slightly lower expectations, because it could end up being really disappointing, too, what with my spotty track record with zombie movies and all. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Redneck Zombies".

1 minute later

Wait a second...Full Moon Pictures presents? OK...perhaps maybe I should've done some more research going into this thing, but I don't remember Full Moon ever publishing a movie like this. Now I'm curious to find out how this movie went from them to Troma, and that's something I'm gonna have to look into later. But still, I never thought I'd get to see Full Moon's name under a Troma flick. That's just incredibly odd.

8 minutes later

So the reason why this barrel of toxic waste got loose from this soldier's truck was because he was trying to give his dog a cigarette...while the cigarette was still in his hand. I'm not even gonna question why you would hand over your cigarette to your dog, but why the fuck would you place the still burning cigarette in the palm of your hand? That just seems very unsafe, which it was, hence the loose toxic waste barrel. I figured the common sense approach would be to keep it between your thumb and index finger, but I guess this soldier wasn't born with common sense.

12 minutes later

You know, guys, if I ever bought tobacco from this guy who is CLEARLY known as the Tobacco man, that would probably be the last time I ever buy tobacco from him. He's coming off as incredibly creepy, which isn't helping the fact that his face is almost completely covered with what looks to be like a dirty burlap sack, and speaking in a dark evil voice. Just saying, buying tobacco from this guy is probably not one of the best choices to make here.

13 minutes later

So, they're using video effects to make our hillbillies look as if they're going insane after drinking the toxic waste. And normally, I would say that this looks cheap as shit, but I gotta say, the way it's being handled makes it look rather creepy and a little bit unsettling too. I didn't think I would say that about a low budget movie like this, but it's kinda surprising me by how well it's being handled here.

9 minutes later

You know, guys, I am willing to say that the gore and blood effects in this movie are REALLY good. But then again, this movie claims to be very gory, and yeah, they weren't kidding about that. This is some really awesome-looking gore. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

9 minutes later

So, Elly May was at a butcher's home, trying to sell the "moonshine". And while he was there, his eyes and mind were focused on either the baby chicks on TV or the woman that was tied up and gagged with duct tape. And once he sold the "moonshine", he ends up leaving. Isn't anyone going to ask what the fuck just happened there? I mean, I kinda have an idea as to why the bound woman was there, but what the fuck was the deal involving the baby chicks? That whole scene just seemed really fucking weird to me.

12 minutes later

Guys, I've seen a lot of weird shit in my time doing this series. But this might honestly top all of that, because anything involving Bob during this sequence is just a colossal mindfuck. I can't even describe it properly, because I have no idea what the fuck is going on with him here. And it's only getting weirder from here!

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Redneck Zombies". And that ending was...certainly interesting, to say the least. Let me go ahead and the shut the movie off...OK. So...what to even begin with? Well earlier, I set my expectations on this thing pretty low. Mostly because of the fact that my history with zombie movies haven't exactly been good. And I was thinking, maybe, that this movie was going to end up like a lot of the other zombie films that I've seen, where it's not really gonna do anything new or different with the zombie mythos, and it's just gonna be another standard zombie flick. And it kinda is just that. But, it still does something new here in which that it doesn't entirely fall into the same tired tropes that we've seen in a lot of zombie films. I'll get more into that later.

For now, though, let's start this review off by talking about the writing. And I'm gonna start with the movie's tone, because this is something that I feel like needs to be addressed first. So last year, during my "Video Game Movie Marathon" I reviewed a Japanese zombie movie known as "Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad". And one of the big issues I had with that movie was simply the fact that it took itself WAY too seriously. Mostly because of the film's title, and the fact that you had a main character in that movie who was fighting zombies while wearing a skimpy bikini outfit and a cowboy hat. And you'd think with that kind of premise, it wouldn't have taken itself seriously. But unfortunately, the movie made a huge cardinal sin by taking itself far too seriously, which it never should've done so to begin with. Now the reason why I brought that movie up was because "Redneck Zombies" does almost the exact opposite of "Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad" should've done. And one of the big factors that works to "Redneck Zombies" advantage is that it's a horror comedy. And it KNOWS that it is a horror comedy. Because this movie doesn't really take itself ultra seriously. Now admittedly, the last third of the movie ends up going more of a slightly serious route. But for the most part, the movie is still trying to have fun with it's premise. Because if this thing took itself far too seriously, then it would've been a huge detriment to the overall film. Now mind you, this movie isn't perfect, far from it. But I will say that, when compared a lot of the other zombie films that I've seen, both for this series and on my own time, it is sort of a nice surprise to see a decent zombie flick emerge from most of the bad ones that I've had the displeasure of seeing.

With that being said, let's delve into the writing. I will say that the writing here is OK, as long as you're able to look past one thing that this movie potentially suffers from, which is the characters. Well, to be more accurate, I should say that the character depth in this movie is almost non-existent. Now it makes sense for our hillbillies, since, well...they're hillbillies. So, you really shouldn't be expecting that kind of thing from them. Especially since they're the ones who are responsible for turning everyone into zombies. And they do so after this one soldier accidentally drops a barrel full of toxic waste down a hill from his jeep after trying to give a cigarette to his dog. Which then leads him to get out of his jeep to retrieve the barrel, until he is stopped by a fat hillbilly, who tells the soldier to back off and leave. Shortly after that, the hillbilly family enters the picture and tells the fat hillbilly to leave after the fat one attempts to sell them the barrel that he found. And then after that, the hillbilly family takes it for themselves, and tries to open the toxic barrel, to which they think is something else, because they have no idea what the hell toxic waste is. Long story short, they try to sell it off to the neighbors as "moonshine". Well, Elly May does, anyway. The others end up drinking it after boiling the toxic waste before they put them into jars to sell off. It doesn't entirely make sense as to how exactly that turns them into zombies, but it's still something of an explanation. And as you're willing to roll with it, then you can go into this movie without worrying about how any of that makes sense.

So, getting back to the characters for a moment, the other bit that I wanted to get into were the campers. Now a lot of them, much like with our hillbillies, don't have any personality or depth to speak of. That being said, there is ONE character that I wanted to make mention of, which would be Bob. Now Bob, when you first see him, is really just kinda there along with the other campers. But then, at a certain moment of the movie, he starts to take a WEIRD turn that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. So, the campers end up discovering both the barrel of toxic waste that was used, and one of their other dead companions that was with our campers. One of the male campers explains how this might've all happened, and they're soon attacked by one of the hillbilly zombies. And during this point, Bob becomes incredibly paranoid as the guy in charge of the campers gets the upper hand and kills the zombie. Afterwards, the campers end up hiding in a cave, as two of them drag the dead zombie with them towards the cave. And then one of them asks Bob to dissect the zombie so that they can figure out how exactly these zombies function. And then from there, Bobs starts to...well, I don't really like saying this very much, but...he starts tripping balls. Let's just put it that way. Because as he's dissecting the zombie, Bob pulls certain parts out from inside the body, to which his mind mistakes it for something else, whether it's a shoe or corn. And this whole thing ends up becoming one of the weirdest fucking scenes I have ever seen from any movie in a long time. The only movie I can think of at the top of my mind that has even weirder scenes is "Dr. Caligari" from 1989. I don't think ANY movie will ever come close to topping that movie's level of weirdness, but this movie certainly comes close thanks to Bob. Now, I don't know, it MAY have been explained earlier, and I may have missed something as to what made Bob completely lose his mind, but the whole scene is just one giant mindfuck. And if you ever get a chance to watch this movie, good luck in trying to figure out that scene for yourself, because it is just a goldmine of weirdness to be seen.

That being said, there is one other minor issue that kinda bugged me throughout the film. And it's during the scenes where Elly May is trying to sell the "moonshine" to the townsfolk. Because when people buy the "moonshine", they almost immediately start to drink it without even knowing what the hell is even in that thing. I mean, wouldn't you be the least curious about the contents of it before even purchasing it? I mean, I totally understand that most of the entire townsfolk are about as stupid as the hillbillies are, but I wouldn't imagine them being all THAT stupid. In fact, the only one who had a mild sense of thought was the Ma of the hillbilly family, who smells it and ends up taking it back home before, well, you can guess what she's going to do with it. But regardless of that, the writing here is still decent, as long as you're able to look past most of the lack of character depth, and that scene involving Bob that I talked about a moment ago. But anyway, let's get into the acting. To put it simply, guys, the acting here is just hilariously bad. Most of these actors are either hamming it up, or they're overacting in some scenes. And it is just hilarious to watch. Almost nobody here is actually trying to sound serious with their roles, and I actually think that's a good thing for this kind of movie. Because, like I mentioned earlier, this movie doesn't really take itself too seriously, apart from the last third of it. And if these actors were actually trying to take themselves seriously with this kind of script, then this movie would've suffered dramatically because of that. However, with this kind of acting, I can imagine that the entire cast here had a blast working on this movie. So really, I can't fault the acting here, even if most of it isn't very good. I think it teeters on being so bad it's good, without forcing itself to aim for that shitty standard. So, it's something here that you have to take for what it's worth. 

Let's talk about the special effects. As I mentioned earlier, the Director's Cut of this movie states that all of the gory scenes are restored to it's full glory, and it shows. Now again, I don't know how much the R rated version was able to cut out, but just basing on what I saw in this movie, I could imagine that they had to cut a lot here. Which probably makes me thankful that I wasn't watching the R rated cut. But regardless of all that, the gore effects here are surprisingly really good. And checking on the film's budget, this movie was only made for about $10,000. So, this movie is pretty much working with next to nothing here in terms of it's budget. But still, this movie, like I said, has some surprisingly good gore effects. The blood is also decent, though I wouldn't say it's amazing. As for gore, though, this movie lives up to being very gory. We have a lot of dismembered body parts, from the neck, to legs, to arms, the whole nine yards, basically. The makeup effects on the zombies are also not too bad either, although I wouldn't say that they're the best zombie makeup effects either. But that is just me, personally. The video effects during the moment where the hillbillies start to turn into zombies are admittedly cheap, but like I said earlier, the way that it's handled during that bit actually made that scene almost creepy, yet also charming at the same time. So overall, the special effects here are pretty decent, especially for low budget standards.

Camerawork here is decent for a movie that was shot on video. Although, I will admit that there are some shots in this movie that do look a little bit grainy for it's time. And it probably could've used a little more cleanup work when this movie was being transferred to DVD. Still though, what is here for camerawork is still decent. The lighting here is very good, mostly because this movie was shot outdoors, and it had the advantage of being shot during the daytime. So it would make sense as to why the lighting here is very good. Sound-mix is also mostly good. In fact, this movie was actually able to do something that I was kinda surprised by. They were actually able to eliminate most of the background noise. And the reason why I mention that is because since this movie was shot on video, you would normally run the risk of having background noise get in the way of your film. Well, this movie was actually able to stay mostly consistent with it's sound, since there isn't any instance here in which you couldn't hear an actor's dialogue, or if the sound is too loud or too quiet. Now the latter kinda happens very late in the movie, but it's not to a point where the actors have speaking dialogue. It's mostly just for sound effects, and it's very minor, too. So really, there isn't a whole lot I can complain when it comes to the sound-mix. The music here, what little is used, is OK. The score here is pretty bland and forgettable, but the soundtrack, at least the "Redneck Zombies" theme song that plays a couple of times in this movie, is rather decent. I may have to give it a full listen to at some point, just to gauge a proper opinion as to how I feel about the song. But what little that I did listen to in this movie was pretty good. So I can count the music here as sort of a positive.

Overall, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Redneck Zombies"? I can certainly say yes, but mostly if you like B movies. If you are not into B movies, then this movie will definitely not appeal to you. As for fans of zombie flicks, if you don't really care about how low budget this movie actually looks, then I think you could probably find something here that you would really like. If you are a fan of Troma, then I would definitely say yes, assuming you haven't seen it already. As for myself, I am kinda surprised by how this movie turned out. Now mind you, it's certainly nowhere near the best Troma film I've seen so far, but it's certainly not the worst either. And that's kinda surprising, considering that I haven't found a decent zombie film in quite a while. However, this movie was able to stand out a bit and it wound being rather decent. So yeah, I'm probably gonna be holding onto this movie, because I did end up enjoying it for the most part. Now unfortunately, I still don't own "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies" on DVD, so I'm gonna go see if it's running for a decent price on either Troma's website or Amazon. And if it is, I'm probably gonna end up buying and watching it as soon I can get a copy of it. And after that, I'm probably gonna end up watching "Dead & Breakfast", because that is an excellent zombie comedy, and I'm sorta in the mood to watch another good zombie movie.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.