NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE **** U.S.A. 2016 Dir: Jonathan Straiton 94 mins
When Cornelius the janitor decides to get a bit frisky with a corpse in the hospital morgue he returns home with an extreme case of the clap. So much so he expires and becomes a reanimated yet incredibly horny rampaging zombie, hell bent on spreading his disease to…well, anyone who happens to be passing really. In the meantime a bunch of school friends are heading to the beach when they stop off at a garage so that one of the girls can use the toilet. This garage happens to be where Cornelius had followed the smell of a menstruating woman into the toilet and left a bit of a mess behind.
The friends stop at a Motel near by for the night when the girl who used the toilet suddenly starts to become violently ill. Over the course of the night they not only have to fight the sexually rampant undead that were their friends but there is also something incredibly sinister about the Motel owners as well. Hilarious, crude, graphic and not afraid to go to extremes this pays homage to the great B-Movies of the 80’s and 90’s. The most obvious influences being the Evil Dead movies and Braindead, complete with a similar campy feel, a huge amount of gore, great use of practical effects, monstrous members, bodily fluids and an interesting penis-stuck-in-corpse scenario. The soundtrack is very effective and suits the redneck hick vibe by featuring songs from country horror hillbillies Angry Johnny and the Killbillies. The title of this movie was originally penned as “Night Of The STD’s” and director Jonathan Straiton wrote this with Ron Bonk and Mean Gene. Due to budget cuts and problems in their make up department it took the best part of 4 years to complete but it was well worth the effort as the result is an incredibly fun, slick and well produced horror comedy. The acting is really quite good and casts a fair few actors from Ron Bonks “Empire State of the Dead” and “She Kills” who all have great on screen chemistry and, judging by the outtakes over the end credits, had an absolute blast doing it. Another twist to the zombie genre it does retain its own originality with great nods and influences from the old movie greats, it is definitely a must see.
Review by Sarah Budd