I know, I know – this one’s been a long time comin’. I’ve been mumbling about doing this review for months. Trust me, the wait was necessary and the film is ingenious, hilarious and 12 or 13 other exclamatory remarks ending in -ous. NECROVILLE comes to DVD September 30th and I can tell you how to get your grimy hands on a copy… Read on, monkey-f#$%ers, or suffer the consequences! Billy Garberina – star of Den fave GIMME SKELTER – as well as STINK OF FLESH, SCREAM SCIENCE BASTARD SCREAM, the upcoming DEATHBONE and his own COLLECTING ROOFTOPS, brings us the modern equivalent of Laurel & Hardy meet Dracula, if only there had ever been such a thing. NECROVILLE is the tale of a pair of underachieving slacker pals – Jack (Garberina) and Alex (Adam Jarmon Brown) – who live in the titular town of Necroville, New Mexico. Necroville is a town overrun with mythic horror mainstays… Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies… Oh My!
When Jack loses his shitty job and has to face the wrath of his manipulative girlfriend Penny, he and Alex embark on new careers as… umm… Paranormal Exterminators? ‘Monsterbusters’? Working for a monster disposal service called ‘Zom-B-Gone’, Jack and Alex come into contact with an array of hideous night creatures, including goth kids, chupacabras and Penny’s ex boyfriend, techno DJ (MP3-J!) and potential club whore King of the Vamps, Clark (hilariously portrayed by GIMME SKELTER’s Mark Chavez). Long story short – golddigging girlfriend causes friction between the friends while they try to keep the streets safe from the sundry supernatural villains of NECROVILLE all while sorting through relationship problems and trying to figure out what to have for lunch!
Zombie Elvis has been sighted… in NECROVILLE!
This was, by far, the most fun, enjoyable and highly entertaining low-bud ‘comedy’ flick I have seen in a looooooong time. After receiving passels of z-grade slashers, sub-par monster flicks and untold legion of no-budget ‘thrillers’, NECROVILLE was a more than welcome breath of fresh air. Somewhere between the balls-out ridiculousness of Chris Seaver and the all-out splatstick gross-outs of Troma, NECROVILLE bridges the gap with genuine humor, well-done slapstick, a respectable amount of gore, restrained amounts of sex, a fun and laid-back attitude and a clever, whipsmart script. The Albuquerque film scene is a veritable wellspring of quality genre entertainment and NECROVILLE stands up admirably with anything I’ve seen come out of LA or NY in the last few years.
Brown and Garberina hunt for ghouls
Scripted by Garberina and Brown and co-directed by Garberina and Richard Griffin (the man behind SPLATTER DISCO and CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON), NECROVILLE brings together the Albuquerque Gang’s penchance for 90’s style Indie character pieces with their love of the undead. Much like STINK OF FLESH and GIMME SKELTER, this one has plenty of talky moments of slacker introspection and pop-culture minutia mixed in with the expository stuff that keeps the story rolling. This one, however, is much more a comedy than a horror or a thriller. Think of it as SINGLES meets ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN by way of CLERKS. None of those descriptions can do proper justice to scenes like the head vampire sucking down a newborn like a drinkbox; A kung fu throwdown on a rooftop between Jack and Clark; A vampire attack in an S&M hideout; The addled boss at Zom-B-Gone tying off and getting high while describing Jack and Alex’s next assignment. You have not seen anything like this before. This is a tiny little film that deserves massive cult status.
The acting is spot-on, with Brown playing take-no-shit Fred Flintstone to Garberina’s waffling Barney Rubble. Brandy Bluejacket imbues Penny with such self-absorbed entitlement and foul disdain that you will swear she was your 11th grade girlfriend. Other Albuquerque pals like Gene Grant, Aaron Work and Jeremy Owen (who has the splashiest cameo as a Zombie-obliterating ‘lumberjack’) have small parts, as does Mexican Terminator Kurly Tlapoyawa and even ol’ Scott Phillips shows up (as a dancing hobo named ‘Thortenberry’).
Thortenberry doing the ‘poopy pants’ dance.
The effects are decent, the camera work is more than passable for a low-low-budget feature, and the music is pitch-perfect. In fact, there really are no drawbacks to the flick, unless you have something against adult-oriented funny monster flicks. In the end that’s what this is, GHOSTBUSTERS for the Judd Apatow era.
Winner for Best New Mexico film at the 2007 Santa Fe Film Fest and an official selection for last years Tromadance festival, NECROVILLE is finally available for pre-order on DVD through the official site at
http://necroville.com/home.html
where you can also purchase Garberina’s first flick COLLECTING ROOFTOPS.
GET IT. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.
