FILM REVIEW: JOHNNY GRUESOME (2018)

Johnny Grissom (Anthony De La Torre), 17-year-old metal head and general rebellious type is killed by his friend Gary (Chris Modrzynski) in a somewhat over the top situation at the start of the film. As he’s not a big fan of staying dead he returns from the grave for a spot of supernatural revenge against his so-called friend and those who covered up the murder. I could not help but chuckle watching Johnny walk away from his grave showing a comic undertone which lead me to expect a fun horror film. What’s the first thing a zombie metalhead does when he returns from the dead? Well obviously he goes home to change out of the suit he was buried in into something more ‘him’, I can totally dig that. Personal style is something more often than not overlooked in films featuring zombies and revenants.
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A third of the way into this and it’s unfortunate that the acting isn’t the best with poorly delivered dry dialogue being the order of the day. The special physical effects and CGI are not amongst the best either, which is forgivable on low budget flicks, but Johnny’s zombie makeup is more clownish than zombie-like, which may have been intentional but I doubt it. The film is somewhat slow going as the kills are few and far between, but I’m still actually enjoying it, although I am at something of a loss to figure out why some of the people he kills became victims.

It’s actually unfortunate that an hour into the film the tone changes leaving little doubt that Johnny is actually an arsehole, which is a shame because a supernatural revenge story should at the very least give you some degree of sympathy with the main character, he was after all the one who had been murdered. Instead the film is actually getting dull, which is a shame as it started off with a lot of promise but has failed to meet my gradually lowering expectations.

The final 20 minutes or so felt somewhat cobbled on and nothing much had improved. I found that I couldn’t care less about the demise of any of the characters, which is something that absolutely should not happen in a horror film because you should either want them to live because they are innocent or get what’s coming to them if they are not. All in all, although well-intentioned, it just seems to lack heart. I was hoping for something along the lines of a modern version of the 1986 film ‘The Wraith’ but that wasn’t to be.
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The film’s ending was almost wholly unsatisfactory with the exception of one fun moment of animation which unfortunately wasn’t enough to redeem all which had gone before it. I can’t say it is terrible nor could I thoroughly recommend it, all I can really say is that it is mediocre and probably okay to watch once as I couldn’t see anybody sitting through it twice.
 
Check it out for yourself when it is released for home video on October 16th.

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MY LIFE IN HORROR: HE’S INSIDE ME, AND HE WANTS TO TAKE ME AGAIN!