Misfits Heights

Director - James Burzelic (On Thursdays, I Do Laundry)
Starring - James Burzelic, Joey Banks (Adventures in Speed Dating), and T.C. De Witt (Troll Blog)
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horrror/Comedy
Tagline(s) - "Zombies. Puppets. Musical." and "What else do you need to know?"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     When it comes to puppets very few people will associate them with horror and horror films. However, our little felt covered friends have made several appearances in horror throughout the years.  Even the legendary director Peter Jackson assembled a cast of puppets to give us the outrageous black comedy Meet the Feebles and respected indie filmmaker Dustin Mills started his film career with the puppet based film Puppet Monster Massacre.  That brings me to my next review for the film Misfit Heights.  This film was recommended to me to review by a indie horror friend of mine.  I reached out to the Facebook page and they were kind enough to send me a screener and for that I want to say thank you very much!
     The film follows a young puppet who is placed in charge of an apartment building, Misfit Heights, for the weekend while the landlord is away.  Through a series of awkward tactics the young boy is able to secure a date from his crush but it comes at the worst time.  The evil Dr. Zoltar has been working on a way to resurrect the dead to create an army to take over the world.  His undead army takes over part of town and every level of Misfit Heights forcing the inhabitants to fight back.  However, not all hope is lost.  A down on his luck detective (a cat) wages a war on Dr. Zoltar and his undead minions and delivers his own brand of justice all while helping the young boy and girl find each other along the way.
     When someone recommends a film to me I am usually just hearing about it for the first time. I get really excited when this happens but I was actually more excited for this film than any other film I was recommend to review.  My excitement came when the film was compared to Dustin Mill's masterpiece Puppet Monster Massacre.  PMM is one of my favorite indie horror flicks released in the last 10 years so you can only imagine my excitement.  Once I received the film I had to watch it immediately and I am glad I did.  This film was absolutely brilliant minus the whole musical aspect. The voice acting in this film is very fun and spot on.  When it comes to other indie productions of this caliber the voice does not match the animation or puppetry.  However, this film matched almost spot on and that helps the viewer swallow the film a little better.  The story for this one is one told hundreds of times before but with a more modern angle and a comedic twist.  The story is one you can find from hundreds of b-movies from the 50s and 60s where a mad scientist tries to take over the world with an army of his creations.  The film's zombies are influenced by the 1985 classic Return of the Living Dead (send more paramedics!).  The film also has several homages to several other horror classics you just have to keep an eye out for them.  Sadly, I did not like the musical numbers.  I don't mind musicals but this one just did not fit the flow of the film.  Finally, the film does rely on a small amount of visual effects.  However, it does not take away from the film.  In fact, it adds to it tremendously.  The puppets also looked great.  The "human" puppets were all unique and imaginative.  However, not all of the zombie puppets were distinguishable.  Some of them did not actually look like zombies while others were undeniably undead.  Overall, Misfit Heights is as funny as it is entertaining.  If you like Romero's "Dead" series and Return of the Living Dead then this film is for you!  I highly recommend it.