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The horror and comedy genres are two genres that just shouldn’t go together, but for some reason they genres work well together. Is it because you’re a sick, twisted fuck that belongs in a mental institute? That’s possible. Or is it because you just can’t help but laugh when the death scenes are so over the top? That’s a definite yes. As I fall somewhere in the middle, you can probably tell that my interest peaked when I heard about Faux Show Productions first feature film “Earth Day” being a horror-comedy that was going to combine my dislike for hippies and outlandish death scenes.

Earth Day is about a group of “eco-crusaders”, a fancy term for hippies, who are remembering their leader on the one year anniversary of her death. Unexpectedly, the hippies start to get picked off by some nut job that likes to kill them in interesting ways and leaves some hair in their mouths. After the first death, the cops mistakenly believe that the killer is a Pakistani named Hassan, who is just a hair care loving dude caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the killings still happening, it’s up to Priscilla, the twin sister of the dead leader, to figure out who is killing her sister’s friends and clear Hassan’s name.

The movie, which was written and directed by a guy going by the name Mister Ooh-La-La, has a simple story, but it’s a fun simple story that was put together with low-budget. The comedy is funny, and at times comes off as being pretty racist, but still funny. There are some moments in the movie (i.e. when one of the dead hippies closes his eyes while the cops are looking at his body during one scene and having some of the actors laughing while giving their lines or looking into the camera quizzically as if they don’t know if the camera is rolling or not) that are terrible, but they add to the cheesy goodness of the film. As for the direction, Mister Ooh-La-La does a fine job. Matter of fact, when you compare him with a certain other douche bag that goes by the name McG, Mister Ooh-La-La seems like Orson Welles.

Ah, but as this is a low-budgeted indie flick, there are going to be some problems. The acting isn’t great. There are scenes in the movie where it sounds like some of the actors forgot their lines and stumble through their dialogue. To save it, they pause quickly and say the line, but it’s a little too late as the damage had already been done. The effects, even though I will give them props for trying, are a little lackluster. I was hoping for a little more in that department, but that’s probably because I was spoiled by the effects in Melvin. The last problem comes from “the reveal.” You see it coming a mile away and the movie starts to fall into the clichéd realm, but luckily it’s quickly saved by a hysterical, yet rather disgusting, moment.

Putting its problems on the side, Earth Day actually ends up being a nice little horror-comedy. It’s nice to see that there are people out there continuing in the tradition of horror-comedies that are reminiscent of the Troma films.

Final Synopsis: It’s like a Troma movie, so, if you like those movies, you’ll probably like this one.

Points Lost: -1 for some bad acting, -1 for some lackluster effects, -1 for the predictable “reveal.”

Lesson Learned: For people that are really into cleaning up the environment, hippies sure are some dirty mother fuckers.

Burning Question: For those that have seen this movie… Could you go down on that?

Earth Day
7/10

Tags: 2009, adrian salge, bruce lundy, christopher anglin, comedy, daphne danger, elizabeth myers, gaylord walker, horror, horror comedy, independent movie, johanna laemle, josef gordon, koi o'eltressiah, latest movie reviews, low-budget, mister ooh-la-la, rebecca teran, recent2, zak johnson