Bong of the Dead (2011) Review
Bong of the Dead begins with a shower of meteors, which come hurtling down whilst a man is painting his gnome (No that’s not a euphanism, honest!).
These are no ordinary meteors however, and one of them lands in the man’s garden. Curiosity gets the better of him and before you know it he is prodding the meteor, trying to get into it’s juicy insides.
Unfortunately for him, the meteor splits open and when he touches the contents he begins to transform him into a zombie. Wandering around the house aimlessly the man is lead to dinner by his wife, who is completely oblivious to the fact her husband is now one of the undead. She leaves him on his own to eat, not realising that she is very soon going to be on the menu herself (brings a whole new meaning to all you can eat eh?).
We are then introduced to the “heroes” of our film, Edwin and Tommy. They are major stoners man!
Edwin has been experimenting with zombies brains and using them to make the ultimate fertiliser to harvest his cannabis crop. Hell, pour on zombie fertilizer and your weak cannabis plant turns into a towering “pot” plant. The problem Edwin and Tommy now face is that their fertiliser has run out and they need to get more zombie supplies. This means entering the danger zone where there are hordes of the undead up for grabs. This doesn’t appear to be a problem for them, as risking death appears worth the risk when getting stoned and chilling out is the goal.
Edwin and Tommy travel across Canada in search of zombies. On their trip they encounter Leah who is a no nonsense fighting machine, in fact she has more balls than the two stoners put together. She has also managed to maintain the use of an outside shower with the ingenious method of using a zombie on a treadmill to start the shower when required. The zombie gets paid with a quick peek at Leah’s body before she closes the shower curtain (Which if I was a zombie would be more than enough to keep me satisfied).
Will Edwin, Tommy and Leah save the day, or will they plunge into a smoke fueled reefer heaven?
Bong Of The Dead is visually good. It’s a very competent zombie movie made on a budget of $15,000 and it certainly looks and feels like a film that was made with a considerably bigger budget.
The zombies look convincing and the amount of blood spurting on the actors during the course of the film has to be commended – I love my gore.
The acting from our three main characters is pretty good and there are a few comedic moments, although it must be said that the two male leads become quite irritating after a while.
The film suffers from concentrating too much on the drug/stoner elements and during the second half of the film we hardly see any zombies at all. Director Thomas Newman would have been wise to develop the plot towards more zombie action, as the gaps in the film without zombies do lack excitement and make the film drag.
I would obviously recommend this film if you’re a stoner yourself. You’ll probably be able to relate better to the non-zombie-related activities that Edwin and Tommy get up to.
If like me, you are a zombie aficionado, then Bong of the Dead will probably not live up to your expections and you are likely to lose interest during the course of the film.
Movie Rating:
Trailer: