Spring Fever

Director(s) - Izzy Sutton (A Grave Mistake, The Last Stop) and Chris McElyea (The Last Stop)

Starring - Joshua Kahn (Psycho Magnet, Cheese Fries), Dayton Kaiser, and Chris McElyea

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Horror/Comedy

Tagline - "It'll catch you"

Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I meet a lot of filmmakers through Horror Society and I've become good friends with many of them over the years.  Their movies are among some of my favorite films in my collection and I'm always looking forward to their next project.  However, the indie horror community is so vast that I can't meet them all.  I still try to meet as many as I can and the best place to meet filmmakers is the indie groups on Facebook.  A few weeks ago I made a post looking for news to share on the site when I met director Izzy Sutton.  Sutton contacted me to review his 2020 horror comedy Spring Fever.  I quickly said yes and soon found myself watching one of the most insane films I've seen in a long time.  I'm so glad I agreed to check it out but I wish he would have warned me about the insanity before hand.

     The film begins with an evil genius dumping chemical waste into the water turning anyone that comes into contact with it into flesh eating zombies.  A masked warrior, a clone of the evil genius, and his sidekick team up with two hippies to stop him before he turns everyone into zombies.  

     I was really curious about this film after I saw the artwork.  I fucking love posters like the one Spring Fever uses.  It really gets my imagination running which makes me really excited to see the film.  With that being said, the artwork does not do this movie justice.  It's a batshit crazy movie that I really enjoyed.  You can bet your sweet ass and half a tit that I will be adding this one to my collection!  The acting in this one is high energy and very entertaining.  A good portion of the cast has no experience so it's far from perfect but that doesn't stop them from getting into character and delivering an entertaining performance.  I really loved the outlandish characters in this one and how far the cast went to get into said characters.  They may have lacked experience but they did not lack dedication.  The story for this one is all over the place.  First and foremost, the film is a zombie movie.  It borrows heavily from classics like Return of the Living Dead and Redneck Zombies following chemicals turning people into zombies.  We then add the layer of the mad scientist, his clone, and organized crime.  The movie has several layers and if that wasn't enough we get puppets.  Yea, puppets appear in the film.  I love how this film never lets the viewer get a grasp at what is going on before they toss something else at them.  This is the movie you write while high on coke to give the viewer a grasp of what it's like to watch a movie high on coke.  Finally, the film has some bloody deaths but the effects are dictated by the film's budget.  We get some gore here and there but the movie was unable to deliver the fantastic practical effects that most horror fans are looking for.  We get practical effects but they are very limited.  The make-up effects are hit or miss as well.  Some of the undead look alright while others were not the same quality as others.  Overall, Spring Fever is the most Troma like movie not made by Troma that I've ever seen.  It's wild, erratic, and fun as fuck.  The effects are a bit of a let down but everything else is fucking fun.  I highly recommend checking out this slice of indie goodness.  You will not be disappointed.