Redneck Zombies
(Troma Region 0 NTSC DVD)
(1998)
review by Catwalk

Everything you need to know about this movie can be summed up in one word; Troma. The budget is non-existent, the acting is pure cheese and the effects are almost exclusively limited to corn syrup and fake organs and post-production effects. As you might guess, this movie is not to be taken seriously at any level.

Set in the late 1980’s, Redneck Zombies tracks a family of hicks who mistake a barrel of experimental toxic waste for moonshine and become flesh-eating cannibals as a result. How does a family of rednecks get a barrel of toxic waste? Simple, the army driver who is driving it to a dump burns himself when trying to hand his joint to his dog and wrecks his jeep.

That’s the kind of brilliant writing you can expect from Redneck Zombies. When Jed, Jethro, Junior and Billy Bob (who prefers to be called Ellie Mae) mix their mash concoction, trouble isn’t far behind. As their story unfolds, several campers (read: victims) are finding a place to go in the woods with the usual camper-type dialogue.

(For the record, I’ve had moonshine; legitimate out of the mason jar moonshine. If it was green, I think I would have passed on it. I’ve also never seen six people smoke weed, each laugh out loud for a while and then collectively fall asleep within seconds.)

The movie is slow till the rednecks become zombies, at which point, it picks up pretty quick. The eyeball gag is the point at which the movie goes from half-ass comedy to gorefest comedy. It’s like when the pool guy shows up and the disco music starts when you know you’ve gone from bad plot and acting to porno.

I won’t knock all the actors in the movie. Bucky Santini is often hilarious as Ferd Mertz, the first redneck to come in contact with the toxic waste and James Housley is good as Wilbur, the straight man of the campers. Despite the presence of Ellie Mae and the soldier with the scarf worrying about breaking his nail, Bob, the token black guy, comes off gayest of all.

Anyway, the action scenes are shot with quick cuts and casio keyboard soundtrack. For a Troma flick, I found it low on nudity and fart humor, but high on crappy visuals. Actually, this is one of those random things that only Troma would release, a lot like Trey Parker’s “Cannibal! The Musical”, but nowhere near as good. If Troma movies are your thing (and I confess to owning quite a few myself), that studio has put together some much better offerings in the past few years, like Terra Firma and Citizen Toxie.

Why suffer through Redneck Zombies? One reason: Extras!

The broad package of extras includes an interactive tour of Troma Studios, the Troma Intelligence Test (T.I.T.), an intro by Lloyd Kaufman, Troma’s Edge TV, Public Service Announcements about masturbation, interviews, trailers and coming attractions. Highlights are “The Radiation March”; an interpretative dance by the folks at Troma, the obligatory Ron Jeremy appearance and PSA #2, featuring a black Al Gore and lesbians. The Extras as you can tell are primarily gauged at Troma content instead of the movie itself, which is a welcome relief.

Overall, Redneck Zombies seemed like it must have been a lot of fun to make, and quite possibly never intended for mass distribution. Still, unless you were in the movie, skip it and go straight to the extras. Hell, play the girl-on-girl PSA for 83 minutes and just pretend there are rednecks in it somewhere.