Destroy All Neighbors – Shudder Review (4/5)

DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS on Shudder is a new horror-comedy with lots of practical effects and a fun plot. I watched the trailer and immediately knew this was for me. Read our full Destroy All Neighbors movie review here!

DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS is a new Shudder horror-comedy. Or actually, it’s a downright splatter comedy with lots of practical effects. It’s a crazy story with a lot of blood, detached limbs, and awesome prog. Oh yeah, music is key to this story.

For me, watching the trailer was enough to realize that I had to watch it. Sure, I also needed to write this review, but this is the kind of movie I would’ve wanted to watch anyway. And no, that is not always the case.

Continue reading our Destroy All Neighbors movie review below. Find it on Shudder from January 12, 2024.

From bad to absolute Hell

In Destroy All Neighbors, we meet William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues), who isn’t the most likable guy. Not nearly as endearing as he seems to think he is, which is due to him being a neurotic, self-absorbed musician. He’s not a bad guy, he’s just extremely selfish.

His sole purpose in life is to finish his prog-rock magnum opus. Everything seems to get in his way, though his girlfriend has had enough and tries to remind him that something has always been stopping him. It’s never his own fault, but rather outer circumstances.

The latest is his (admittedly very) noisy and grotesque neighbor. Charming to everyone else, Vlad (Alex Winter) is a downright beast to William.

Having become irritated enough with the noisy neighbor, he works up the courage to demand that Vlad keep it down. However, a series of very unfortunate events leads to William inadvertently decapitating Vlad.

A prog splatter horror-comedy

While attempting to cover up the one truly accidental murder, William ends up adding more victims instead. All of them, it turns out, become undead corpses. After all, this is a horror-comedy with lots of blood, guts, and prog.

And yes, they do of course continue to torment and create more obstacles on William’s road to finishing his prog-rock masterpiece. Until the end of the movie, that is, when everything gets even more crazy and William pushes on to finish his album.

I didn’t know much about prog [progressive rock] before watching Destroy All Neighbors. Or so I thought. Upon looking into the genre afterward, I realized I did actually. However, my point is that this movie made me want to look into it, which in itself is an awesome result.

One example of a prog masterpiece that I came across was Pink Floyd’s live version of “Comfortably Numb”. Check it out here and you’ll see what this music genre can do. To me, it’s like a perfect combination of a rock song and an amazing movie score.

Watch Destroy All Neighbors on Shudder

Josh Forbes is the director of Destroy All Neighbors which is his feature film debut. Previously, Josh Forbes has directed short films and lots of music videos, which are obviously the perfect background for a genre film with a music core.

The story comes from Charles Pieper and Mike Benner with the actual screenplay written by Charles Pieper and Jared Logan. And yes, the story evolves in exactly the wacky and crazy ways you’d expect from a splatter comedy.

The ensemble cast features Jonah Ray Rodrigues, Alex Winter, Kiran Deol, Christian Calloway, Randee Heller, DeMorge Brown, Jon Daly, Phil Hendrie, Ryan Kattner, and Thomas Lennon. Some of them you will recognize, others you won’t, but all are great in this.

As already stated, I watched the trailer and was hooked before it was over. This along with the description of  “a twisted splatter-comedy about a deranged journey of self-discovery” should be plenty to get you hooked as well.

Also, there are the goopy (and brutal) practical effects to draw you in. Enjoy!

Destroy All Neighbors is on Shudder from January 12, 2024.

Details

Director: Josh Forbes
Story: Charles Pieper, Mike Benner
Screenwriters: Charles Pieper, Jared Logan
Cast: Jonah Ray Rodrigues, Alex Winter, Kiran Deol, Christian Calloway, Randee Heller, DeMorge Brown, Jon Daly, Phil Hendrie, Ryan Kattner, Thomas Lennon