Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films Blog, 2012
Images from the Internet
Bong of the Dead
Written and directed by Thomas Newman
MVD Visual
90 minutes, 2011
www.Bongofthedead.com
www.MVDvisual.com
Okay, so a meteorite falls out of the sky (shades of The Blob, 1958) bringing a zombie plague from outer space (Night of the Living Dead, 1968). What do you do? Dude, what do you do, dude? Well, if you’re the two main characters of this amusing film, you sit back and light a fatty. A lot.
But grass takes such a long time to grow. User and experimenter Edwin (Mark Wynn) explains to his stoner compadre Tommy (Jy Harris) that by mixing mushed up zombie brains with H20 and using that “green goo” as a fertilizer, it produces not only instant hemp plants, but also a form of superweed for which Harold and Kumar would eat brains (personally, I’ll stick with the White Castle, but I digress…).
The government, however, has cleared most of the land of the flesheaters, keeping them isolated (28 Weeks Later, 2007), in what’s known as the “Danger Zone.” With the pot smoked and no patience to wait for a plant to grow with the brownish tap water (effective visual piece of humor there), our heroes decide to take their beat up car and drive the however many miles to the Zone, so they can get some new fertilizer. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s quite a poetic turn, with the living guys looking for zombie braaaaains. After all, as the film’s tag line states, “There will be bud” (not to be confused with C.H.U.D. II’s subtitle of “Bud the C.H.U.D.” [1989]).
Thankfully, only a small segment of this is actually a buddy travel film, because that’s been done to death (puns intended) more than the derm-chompin’ zombie flick. Along the way they run into this really nasty zombie, Alex (Barry Nerling), who, for an unexplained reason, keeps his consciousness, so he can think and talk (he’s the only one). He wants to raise a zombie army and take over (he wears a modified Gestapo uniform at one point).
Our potheads also run into a lovely and resourceful woman, Leah (Simone Bailly), who is on her own; her family ran the town garage, and she is both fierce and mechanically inclined. Plus, now she had to put up with these two losers. She builds some weapons to fight off the zombies, such as one based on a weedwacker, a car with spinning blades to chop up the zombies (Dead Alive, 1992), plus a set of retracting blades in arm-length leather gloves (Blade, 1998).
Will she join forces with these guys (and more importantly, why would or should she?), and help them get to the Danger Zone to get zombie brains to grow some additional weed? Well, one thing about these kinds of films is that plausibility needs to also be checked at the door.
The Zombie genre seems to lend itself well to comedies, as some previous ones have shown, such as Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Aaah! Zombies!! (2007; aka Wasting Away). Same with horror bong films (yes, I went there), such as Evil Bong (2006), Evil Bong II: King Bong (2009), and, I kid you not, Evil Bong 3-D: The Wrath of Bong (2011). Seems only natural someone would combine the two together, especially with the success of the Harold and Kumar franchise.
When one considers the logistics of this film, it is quite an amazing feat in itself: Director Thomas Newman also wrote the film, shot it for $5,000 in 15 days on a single camera, and then took two years to do all the post-production graphics (CGI, etc.) and editing on a single MAC computer in his basement. Plus, he managed to score quite the cast for such a low budget production.
As the quick-witted and hard drinkin’ Leah, Simone Bailly (who has a sort of Eva La Rue vibe going), has a long resume, including film and television. She’s been on numerous cult shows, including some recurring characters, in the likes of Battlestar Gallactica, Stargate SG:1, The L-Word, Smallville and DaVinci’s City Hall. Leah is possibly the only sane one in the whole film, though I’m not sure about her judgments. And, happily, her shower scenes aren’t gratuitous.
Dealer-turned-stoner Edwin is played by Mark Wynn, who has a bizarre sideburns-beard combination going on, and a joint nearly always within reach. Wynn has also been in numerous (mostly) television programs in smaller roles, including Smallville, Fringe, and the TV film The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. Edwin is the smarter of the two roommates, but that’s not saying all that much. Without the constant pot intake, he may have gotten somewhere. That is if that annoying little global zombie breakout didn’t happen, of course.
His stoner-stayed-stoner roomie is Tommy, portrayed by redheaded standup comic Jy Harris [standup is HERE]. Tommy is an annoying character, honestly, like an unhousebroken puppy you can’t control, but Harris gives him some warmth and sympathy, thankfully.
Actor and stuntman Barry Nerling plays the lead evil zombie, out to rool de verld…I mean rule the world. As with many villains, even in grade-A films, he hams it up to a John-Lithgow-sit-com-acting level, showing off his yellowed eyes and big teeth as much as possible. Of course, it’s a comic role, and he is both menacing and funny at the same time, so kudos.
Considering that Newman did all 355 effects by himself is by itself stunning, but the fact that they look that good is astounding. We see meteors fall out of the sky, explosions, bridge stanchions knocked over, and let’s not forget the exploding heads, etc. On a rare occasion, the F/X is clearly unreal, such as the fake-looking smoke coming out of the duo’s car, but 98 percent looks as good as a big budget bonanza (Bong of Independence Day?). Mix in Mike Fields’ make-up and prosthetics, and you have a powerhouse production on a shoestring.
For an area that has been cleared of zombies, there are thankfully a lot of them in the movie, including face-chewing (and topless) lesbians and a pregnant woman (and hence a zombie baby, a la, once again, Dead Alive) among the throng. Of course, there would need to be to keep the action exciting, and this certainly fits the bill.
There are a couple of nits here and there for me, as there nearly always are: right off the bat, you notice that the voices don’t always skew up to the players mouth motions. Ah, I thought, overdubbed voices. Sure enough in the end credits, in an act of full disclosure, Thomas admits that no sound in the film is from the original shoot, but foleyed afterwards by sound producer Andres Santana. This makes the film sound a bit flat, as everyone in every situation is at the same level. But to his credit, as well as the actors, the film’s principals all dubbed in their own voices, and probably were paid the same rate as the shoot itself (I’m guessing $0, as tends to be on this type of project of love).
Also, there are a number of inconsistencies / anachronisms, such as one character saying that after the plague, the television went dead, and then the radio. Yet, at the garage, Leah listens to a song on the radio. Another, Leah and the boys are supposed to check the generators every four hours, but they’re all drunk or stoned and sleep heavily through the nights. Okay, then there is that blood always pouring out of a zombie’s head and into someone’s face (and therefore their mouth), yet they don’t change (but once bitten…). Last one I’ll mention: to protect them, they armor a vehicle, including netting over the front windowframe… but wait, there is just the grating and no window. How is that safety? Anyway, you get the idea. Nothing earth shattering, but noticeable.
The only extra on the DVD is the trailer.
As a non-stoner, there probably was a bit lost on me here and there, humor wise (the aforementioned White Castle and Manhattan Special Espresso Soda are my drugs of choice), as similarly was Cheech and Chong growing up, but there is a lot to recommend here, including decent acting, effects, and story.
Newman’s main work is in the field of make-up (e.g., Millennium, X-Files, Lake Placid), and this is his first – and so far only – film, so when one considers the lack of experience matched by the quality of the work and look for the film, I’m looking forward to more. The end of the film leaves it open for a sequel (actually, it promotes it), though Newman’s next film tentatively scheduled is Deadsville, a 1880s-based “Western/Action/Horror Zombie“ film. Either way, based on Bong…, I’d like to see it.
Images from the Internet
Written and directed by Thomas Newman
MVD Visual
90 minutes, 2011
www.Bongofthedead.com
www.MVDvisual.com
Okay, so a meteorite falls out of the sky (shades of The Blob, 1958) bringing a zombie plague from outer space (Night of the Living Dead, 1968). What do you do? Dude, what do you do, dude? Well, if you’re the two main characters of this amusing film, you sit back and light a fatty. A lot.
But grass takes such a long time to grow. User and experimenter Edwin (Mark Wynn) explains to his stoner compadre Tommy (Jy Harris) that by mixing mushed up zombie brains with H20 and using that “green goo” as a fertilizer, it produces not only instant hemp plants, but also a form of superweed for which Harold and Kumar would eat brains (personally, I’ll stick with the White Castle, but I digress…).
The government, however, has cleared most of the land of the flesheaters, keeping them isolated (28 Weeks Later, 2007), in what’s known as the “Danger Zone.” With the pot smoked and no patience to wait for a plant to grow with the brownish tap water (effective visual piece of humor there), our heroes decide to take their beat up car and drive the however many miles to the Zone, so they can get some new fertilizer. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s quite a poetic turn, with the living guys looking for zombie braaaaains. After all, as the film’s tag line states, “There will be bud” (not to be confused with C.H.U.D. II’s subtitle of “Bud the C.H.U.D.” [1989]).
Thankfully, only a small segment of this is actually a buddy travel film, because that’s been done to death (puns intended) more than the derm-chompin’ zombie flick. Along the way they run into this really nasty zombie, Alex (Barry Nerling), who, for an unexplained reason, keeps his consciousness, so he can think and talk (he’s the only one). He wants to raise a zombie army and take over (he wears a modified Gestapo uniform at one point).
Our potheads also run into a lovely and resourceful woman, Leah (Simone Bailly), who is on her own; her family ran the town garage, and she is both fierce and mechanically inclined. Plus, now she had to put up with these two losers. She builds some weapons to fight off the zombies, such as one based on a weedwacker, a car with spinning blades to chop up the zombies (Dead Alive, 1992), plus a set of retracting blades in arm-length leather gloves (Blade, 1998).
Will she join forces with these guys (and more importantly, why would or should she?), and help them get to the Danger Zone to get zombie brains to grow some additional weed? Well, one thing about these kinds of films is that plausibility needs to also be checked at the door.
 |
| Director, Thomas Newman |
When one considers the logistics of this film, it is quite an amazing feat in itself: Director Thomas Newman also wrote the film, shot it for $5,000 in 15 days on a single camera, and then took two years to do all the post-production graphics (CGI, etc.) and editing on a single MAC computer in his basement. Plus, he managed to score quite the cast for such a low budget production.
 |
| Simone Bailly |
Dealer-turned-stoner Edwin is played by Mark Wynn, who has a bizarre sideburns-beard combination going on, and a joint nearly always within reach. Wynn has also been in numerous (mostly) television programs in smaller roles, including Smallville, Fringe, and the TV film The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. Edwin is the smarter of the two roommates, but that’s not saying all that much. Without the constant pot intake, he may have gotten somewhere. That is if that annoying little global zombie breakout didn’t happen, of course.
 |
| Jy Harris, Mark Winn |
 |
| Barry Nerling |
Considering that Newman did all 355 effects by himself is by itself stunning, but the fact that they look that good is astounding. We see meteors fall out of the sky, explosions, bridge stanchions knocked over, and let’s not forget the exploding heads, etc. On a rare occasion, the F/X is clearly unreal, such as the fake-looking smoke coming out of the duo’s car, but 98 percent looks as good as a big budget bonanza (Bong of Independence Day?). Mix in Mike Fields’ make-up and prosthetics, and you have a powerhouse production on a shoestring.
For an area that has been cleared of zombies, there are thankfully a lot of them in the movie, including face-chewing (and topless) lesbians and a pregnant woman (and hence a zombie baby, a la, once again, Dead Alive) among the throng. Of course, there would need to be to keep the action exciting, and this certainly fits the bill.
 |
| Andres Santana |
Also, there are a number of inconsistencies / anachronisms, such as one character saying that after the plague, the television went dead, and then the radio. Yet, at the garage, Leah listens to a song on the radio. Another, Leah and the boys are supposed to check the generators every four hours, but they’re all drunk or stoned and sleep heavily through the nights. Okay, then there is that blood always pouring out of a zombie’s head and into someone’s face (and therefore their mouth), yet they don’t change (but once bitten…). Last one I’ll mention: to protect them, they armor a vehicle, including netting over the front windowframe… but wait, there is just the grating and no window. How is that safety? Anyway, you get the idea. Nothing earth shattering, but noticeable.
The only extra on the DVD is the trailer.
As a non-stoner, there probably was a bit lost on me here and there, humor wise (the aforementioned White Castle and Manhattan Special Espresso Soda are my drugs of choice), as similarly was Cheech and Chong growing up, but there is a lot to recommend here, including decent acting, effects, and story.
Newman’s main work is in the field of make-up (e.g., Millennium, X-Files, Lake Placid), and this is his first – and so far only – film, so when one considers the lack of experience matched by the quality of the work and look for the film, I’m looking forward to more. The end of the film leaves it open for a sequel (actually, it promotes it), though Newman’s next film tentatively scheduled is Deadsville, a 1880s-based “Western/Action/Horror Zombie“ film. Either way, based on Bong…, I’d like to see it.
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