Nuclear Neighbourhood

Director - Matthew J. Oliver
Starring - Travis Cannon, Megan Schultz, and Steve Renouf
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "Coming to your neighborhood this summer"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      It's no secret that I am a huge fan of silly horror films that tend to be more comical than they are horrifying.  Horror comedies and black comedies are easily my favorites and that is why I am such a fan of Troma.  Troma flicks tend to have off-the-wall special effects and bat-shit stories.  Recently, I came across the film Nuclear Neighbourhood.  The film honestly looked like a fan film set in the Troma universe.  After looking a little harder I discovered it was not a Troma fan film at all but a film all it's own.  I reached out to director Matthew Oliver and he was kind enough to send me a review copy of the film.
     The film opens with a couple walking down the street when a mysterious white van pulls up beside them and nabs the young girl. The boy and his two friends set out to find his woman and kidnapper.  They venture down the street where they find the white van parked at a peculiar house and find his girlfriend's belongings inside.  They sneak inside and the house is a literal house of horrors.  Inside, they find a crazed woman wielding a knife, skeletons and decomposing bodies, a living science experiment, and a mad scientist that has been kidnapping the locals to run experiments on. Eventually they find the girl alive along with the mad scientist and they learn that he has been stealing plutonium for his experiences and has built a nuclear reactor in his basement.  They rescue the girl and the four are confronted by the scientist.  He then sees he is bested and shuts the cooling system down to overheat and explode.  The four then have to rush from the home before the nuclear meltdown.
     When it comes to horror comedies you never know what you are going to get.  Horror comedies have been around for a long time with many taking root in the classic Universal monster age.  Films like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was what made them mainstream and we have had countless other horror comedies show up in it's wake.  Since then the horror comedies have taken the cheap route with vulgar jokes and messy kill scenes.  Most of the have ridiculous story lines and that is the way I like em.  Films like The Taint, Dead Alive, Bad Taste, and the entire Troma catalog are the perfect examples of this.  Nuclear Neighbourhood attempts to join the ranks of those films but just can't capture the charm and humor that the greats are able to convey.  The acting in this one is very amateurish but that adds to the little bit of charm this film does have.  They showed heart and with some more practice and experience they may be able to make a name for themselves in the horror community.  The story itself is one told over and over again and this time it just happened to take place in a community that has roots in Tromaville.   The mad scientist angle is old and almost used out but in this film it was just the back story and that was very unique.  The four friends placed in the middle of a nuclear reactor was rather new but I felt the film would have played out a lot better if they were younger.  Having them all younger, possibly younger than 14, would have been something special like a more modern Ernest Scared Stupid and The Monster Squad.  We also get a micro-budget tribute to the Toxic Avenger.  We have a character that is green and oddly looks like a cheap Toxie.  Finally, the special effects for this film is lacking.  We have a few campy looking corpses, fake blood here and there, and horrible practical effects on the Toxie like character.  However, the film makes up for it with superb lighting and a look that puts me in mind of the S.O. V. era of horror.  Some of the lighting we get reminds me of the films of Dario Argento.  Overall, Nuclear Neighbourhood is a cheap film that has some surprising moments.  The film is far from perfect but has a charm all it's own.  Check it out if you are a fan of silly comedies and S.O.V. quality horror.  I recommend this one!