“Killer Weekend” is an outrageous, adrenaline-fueled comedy of errors boasting sharp British wit, well-written characters, and a bit of bloody mayhem.
Ben Kent’s epic horror comedy and feature film debut Killer Weekend is not a zombie movie, so let’s rip that Band-Aid off right now. If you looked up the movie briefly online, you might get that impression from the film’s description. What Killer Weekend is, in fact, is an incredibly enjoyable film that I fear won’t get the love and appreciation it rightly deserves.
One reason this film may not have mass appeal is its unabashed wit and dry humor. This is classic British comedy at its finest. There will be many jokes that American viewers might not fully understand. For those who do, however, the film will take on an even deeper charm.
Killer Weekend follows a group of four friends at a stag party weekend. The group includes the groom-to-be, Sam (Sean Verey, Skins), who is often seen complaining, Myles (Timothy Renouf, Set the Thames on Fire), an incredibly self-centered lawyer, Toby (David Mumeni, Mission: Impossible – Fallout), who recently had a child and will not shut up about it, and Eric (Danny Kirrane, Wasted), who wants nothing more than to get their old gang, The Crazy Crew, back together.
Their strange bonds of friendship are tested over the next few days as things go from bad to about ten shades of worse.
The weekend gets off to a bad start when Sam learns his highly anticipated stag weekend consists of a mock zombie, paintball battle, survival experience — something he’s less than thrilled about. He’s also none too pleased that his disapproving father-in-law-to-be has been invited to join the friends. The tense situation is exacerbated when the bachelor party arrives to find the “zombies” are played by a bunch of psychotic ex-soldiers.
After a rather aggressive interaction leaves one of the fake zombies dead, the Crazy Crew realizes that their festivities have turned into a life or death situation. What follows is just one mishap after another as the body count rises, with each death becoming more enjoyably absurd along the way.
The film plays out like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, but without the whimsical charm of its star actors. Killer Weekend is a much darker film. And while many of the actions are accidental, the climactic ending delivers a true fight for survival.
Killer Weekend is rich with clever one-liners that blend well into the snappy dialogue.
Each actor has his own unique style of humor, and the script plays well into that. The situations are sometimes zany, but there is enough character-building that the reactions seem genuine, while still managing to be slightly unpredictable. And while the actual gore is lacking, there’s enough humor to balance out the horror.
Killer Weekend is such a smart and well-crafted movie. What it lacks in star power, it makes up for with well-written dialogue and believable characters. The writer for the film took a rather muddled idea and turned it into something that is quite entertaining.
This is a must see for fans of British comedy, and I loved the extra horror twist and the over-the-top finale. Killer Weekend is an easy watch that ends up being incredibly rewarding, and each additional viewing gives me more reasons to appreciate it.
Fair warning, sound-mixing is an issue in the beginning of the film. But once the weekend mayhem gets under way, those issues fall by the wayside.
Overall Rating (Out of 5 Butterflies): 4.6
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