Director – Chris Wojcik (The Beast)
Starring – Greg Hoople (The Fall of Man), Stephanie Motta (A Divine Comedy), and Adam Schonberg (Homecoming)
Release Date – 2011
Rating – 3.5/5
Tagline – “Man vs Beast”
I love when a low budget film adds humor to a film. There is something special about a shitty flick having that campy and fun vibe when compared to a shitty flick that takes itself way too seriously. This is something I have said before and I will continue to say.
Anyway, when the Evil Dead remake was released I started looking around amazon.com for the Limited Edition Collector’s Tin of Evil Dead II. When I found it I looked at the customers also bought section and found a movie called Rise of the Animals. I thought nothing of the film and went about my business.
Later that night I headed over to Rottencotton.com because I remembered they had an Evil Dead II Deadite Ash shirt and I wanted to grab it (Evil Dead II is my favorite flick of all time). When I reached the site I saw that they had a shirt for Rise of the Animals. That was enough for me to head over to Youtube and search for the trailer. After I watched the trailer I had to have the film and quickly ordered it.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a young pizza delivery boy, his very annoying friend, and his friend’s awkwardly cute sister. One night the pizza delivery boy and his friend crash a party his sister is at. The pizza boy hooks up with a hot blonde but has a premature “problem.”
After suffering the horrible embarrassment he goes to sleep in his van. That morning he wakes up and discovers she was picked up by a “friend” and left her phone behind. Wanting to impress her and get a little bit of ass he sets out with his friend and his friend’s sister to take it to her. However, this is no normal task because all the wildlife in the area is attacking humans. Along the way he loses his best friend and discovers the hottie is actually in a relationship but realizes the beauty of his friend’s sister.**Spoiler Alert**
This movie is just as amazing as I thought it would be. This movie has the perfect combination of campy and cheesy horror smeared with laughs. Very few low budget films are able to get the formula right but this one nails it. The acting in this one is very well done and the actors did a great job at making the characters very believable.
The story is nothing award winning, in fact, I think it is a straight up parody of the 1977 film Day of the Animals. It has been many years since I have seen that particular film but I am pretty sure the plot is very similar. Though the story is nothing original it is very entertaining and with the humor added to it only makes this film a must see. Finally, the film does hit and miss with the special effects. I fucking loved the puppets the film had to offer. For some reason I have a lot of fun when a film has puppets in it.
The film does have a great deal of great practical effects which was shocking considering how cheap the rest of the film looks. However, not all the special effects are praise worthy. This film does include some of the shittiest CGI I have seen to date. I would have prefered seeing a man in a gorilla suite or a stuffed alligator over the CGI ones we seen in the film. Honestly, this is my only complaint with the film. Overall, this is a hilarious horror flick that will leave you laughing and will instantly change your opinion of turtles. I highly recommend this one.
