Stranger Sings! (2024) - Comedy Horror Musical Show Review

I very rarely put up reviews of shows I have been to as reviews on this blog, I cant be sure but I think I have done at least one of these types of reviews before. Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical originally began in the US where it won a variety of awards including Best New Musical at the Broadway World Off-Broadway Awards. The show then got licenced out worldwide, with the show I watched last Saturday (23rd March 2024) at Derngate, Northampton being one such professional licencing which is touring the UK this year.

When I watched this I happened to both be suffering a bit of a sleep deprived hangover (the after effects of drinking really do affect you more as you get older!), as well as a (currently undiagnosed) sinus infection, so that is sure to have some part to play at least in my impressions of this, as will my writing this a few days after I saw the show. Still, I went with my dad and my sister and got their impressions just to make this review a little more balanced. Something I won't factor in was the show briefly stopping for around ten minutes halfway through the first half due to technical issues. It was annoying but out of control of the performers, I especially felt bad for one of them stranded on stage hiding behind a chair for the entirety of the stoppage!

You would have to be living under a rock to not realise this is a parody of Stranger Things. This follows the basic plot of season one, though does fit to include some references to events from later seasons, as well as includes some characters who hadn't joined the show at this point. Basically, in the quiet town of Hawkins a young boy named Will has gone missing while cycling home one dark night. With not much ever happening in the town this comes as quite the shock. His best friends, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas set out to search for him, and encounter a strange girl named Eleven who has escaped from a nearby science facility. They, along with a bunch of other town folk soon learn of a twisted alternate reality known as the 'Upside Down' where a terrifying monster resides.

First up I will speak of the performers, none of which I could fault. I was surprised just how much like the characters from the show these people resembled, purely via the use of wigs and similar clothes. I thought the woman who played Joyce was the one who most resembled the character she was parodying and gave a manic chain-smoking impersonation. Amusingly the part of Will was done by a small muppet that the Joyce performer was controlling, less distracting than you might think. Least like its actual show counterpart was the man who played the role of Dr. Martin Brenner. Here, he was a more stereotypical madman, wild white hair and constantly breaking out into maniacal cackles, with an aim to take over the country. Despite that, his was a fun performance also. The decision was made to have the person playing the music to actually be on stage in the corner. On occasion she would have mild interaction with the cast, so it wasn't as odd as it could have been, but she still seemed fairly separate from everything else that was going on.

The music really wasn't for me, and I never expected it would be. This seemed like something you would find in High School Musical, lots of wide smiling faces, extremely exaggerated performances, as well as some genuinely impressive choreography. People throwing props to each other, dancing in unison, people doing the splits, kicking their legs up high and spinning people around their shoulders. All very impressive despite me not liking that style of song and dance. I wouldn't say there was a standout song, I think the one which is about the films of actress Winona Ryder was probably the weakest.
The show sped along at quite a speed and there were plenty of jokes made about some of the weaker parts of the plot. In particular, here, Barbara became much more of a character than in the show, with it made fun of several times how her and Nancy were meant to be best friends, yet Nancy completely forgets about her once she has been taken. Stranger Things has plenty of humour to it anyway, but there were still some funny moments, such as Jonathan being even more of an awkward weirdo, Hopper and his attempt to tell his tragic past story constantly being interrupted and references to future events both in dialogue and character appearances.

Stranger Sings! The Musical Parody was something that I expected would either be amazing or terrible. Actually though, it was for me just decent. If I liked that style of singing and dancing I would have enjoyed this a whole lot more. Technical issues aside, the performers seemed perfectly suited for their roles, they all seemed really into it, and brought the characters to life. I will finish with some quotes from my family, with my dad saying "It's not really my sort of thing but it was ok", and my sister stating "I enjoyed it. Wasn't the best thing I've seen but have certainly seen worse!".

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Anna and the Apocalypse (2017) - Comedy Zombie Horror Film Review

Anna and the Apocalypse is a film I have been aware of for quite some time, I even almost saw it at the very last UK Festival of Zombie Culture (R.I.P) as it was one of the multiple choices the audience could vote to see. As it happened it didn't win the vote, and the event organiser commented that we were not really missing out on much. With a screener I had planned to watch not working I was free to choose my own film to watch, and seeing this on Shudder I thought it was about time to give it a try. Directed by John McPhail, the hook with this comedy zombie horror is that it is a musical, and were it not for that unique hook this really wouldn't have stood out.

It is the festive season in the small British town of Little Haven and unknown to all, in the background a zombie outbreak is brewing. Anna (Ella Hunt - Cold Feet TV series) has recently broken the news to her dad (Mark Benton - Catterick TV series), the school janitor, that she plans to go travelling once she leaves school the next year, something that her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) has supported her with. That night, during the performance of the school Christmas show, the zombie outbreak happens. At the behest of the tyrannical head teacher, Arthur Savage (Paul Raye), the performers and the audience are convinced to holdout at the school, awaiting rescue by the army. The next day, Anna and John meet, oblivious to the chaos unfolding all around them. Eventually they do notice, and it isn't long before they have teamed up with a few other school friends. These include American transfer student Steph (Sarah Swire), shy Chris (Christopher Leveaux), and Nick (Ben Wiggins - The Witcher) , the leader of the school jocks. Their plan is to battle their way across town in order to get to the school where they hope to meet up with their missing family and friends, due to the place being designated as an evacuation point.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the songs and it was with a little trepidation that I awaited the first one to begin. While I haven't seen it, I imagine the songs are maybe like something from High School Musical. Characters sing and dance around whatever location they happen to be in, full of sometimes embarrassing to watch choreography and exaggerated scripted movements. Some songs work better than others and unsurprisingly it is the ones that incorporate the undead that I enjoyed more. Anna sings a positive and uplifting song about new beginnings as she obliviously dances through chaotic scenes of zombies attacking survivors, which felt very similar to how Shaun doesn't notice the same thing in the classic Shaun of the Dead. Later on, when the character of Nick is introduced he gets his own action packed song about how much he and his friends are enjoying the new zombie filled world. Then you have the primary antagonist, the ever more twisted Savage who groans and gripes his way through a couple of bitter tunes about how he needs to rule the survivors. All of these never felt too off, but there were not really any that I felt were worthy of a second listen. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Children's Horror Film Review

Much as I was surprised that I didn't own the Disney stop-motion musical classic The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD or Blu-Ray earlier last week when I went to watch it I was also surprised that I had never reviewed it before on my blog. This is a film I'm sure virtually everyone is familiar with, one which weathered the love affair emo kids had with it in the early noughties and has once again returned to just being a great classic. I saw this when it was showing at the cinema originally, and have always been a big fan of this. It is a film that straddles the line between being a Christmas film and a Halloween one, this year I chose it as the first Christmas film I viewed for 2019.

Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon - Fright Night for the speaking voice, and Danny Elfman - Forbidden Zone for the singing voice) is the ruler of Halloween Town, and each Halloween in the real world he and his people 'invade' in order to make the event occur. Jack has grown tired of doing the same thing year after year though and yearns for something different. His prayers are answered when wandering one day he stumbles across a clearing in a forest which contains gateways into each of the other yearly special events. The Christmas door in particular draws his attention and so he enters, finding himself in Christmas Town. After his experience there he returns home, determined that the next years Christmas will be one done by him and his horrific subjects...

This was the first of the stop-motion films of Disney in the 90's and was also the best. This is helped by the typical Tim Burton Gothic aesthetic (Burton created the story and characters for this), and the typical playfully dramatic music of Danny Elfman. Throughout there are many songs and nearly all of them are great. From the introduction piece 'This is Halloween' to the festive feeling 'What's This?', and the usual villainous song in the form of 'Ooogie Boogie's Song'. There really isn't a bad song to be found here, from the sang numbers to instrumentals all work so well, unlike something such as The Corpse Bride which had mostly average songs. I guess here 'Making Christmas' is the worst one, visually appealing, showing as it does the contrast between Santa's Elves making presents, and the twisted Halloween Town version of this, but the song suffered due to not having a catchy chorus.

Dead & Breakfast (2004) - Zombie Film Review

Dead & Breakfast has a quote on the cover saying something like "Americas answer to Shaun of the Dead". Sadly not. The film attempts to combine horror and comedy, but falls flat on its face many many times.

A bunch of  kids in their twenties get lost on the way to a friends wedding. They decide to stay at a guest house in the small town of Lovelock run by a creepy man (David Carradine). During the night they find the chef brutally murdered, and the owner dead from a heart attack. As suspects the local sheriff says they cannot leave the town. Soon after an evil spirit is accidentally released from a weird box. The evil spirit starts possessing everyone in town. The survivors have to find a way to stop the evil spirit before it's too late.

My main problem with the film is it thinks it's so damn funny, and doesn't ever let up in showing you it is with ill fitting comedy moments. Sure some of the humour in the film is good (such as the bizarre Thriller style dance the zombies start doing randomly) but mostly it falls flat. This is nowhere more apparent than the main zombie (the one who was first possessed) who carries a severed head around with him, and keeps doing ventriloquism with it to rubbish effect. Throughout the film there is a singing narrator. He is ok, but becomes almost awkward to watch as he obviously thinks he's far cooler than he actually is.

The zombies look the part, but are really useless. They just seem so neutered, and inept. Maybe this was meant to be the case? One key scene which has the zombies assaulting a house is made farcical by only one zombie attempting to break in at a time, the others stand away from the house doing nothing. The main zombie battle is appalling, the main antagonist literally just stands there jabbering away before being extremely easily killed. What's the point of looking the part if your not going to act the part? The zombies just bring no threat with them.

There is some violence, but not too much. Some inspired death scenes early on, such as death by cymbal, and death by drumstick. Most the guns are specially made by one of the characters. The guns being big hollow lead pipes that a shotgun shell is hammered out of. The abundance of these is a bit silly.

The film can be quite funny in places, and has ace intro credits.  David Carradine's role is short, but a highlight. The singing narrator is a cool idea even if it isn't always that greatly done. Dead & Breakfast was not a great zombie film, but different enough I guess.

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