“So you fucked up and killed somebody! Relax. When the band goes on tour, it’s gonna happen.”
Let the bloody fun begin! Full of a whole lot of unexpected camp, fun, and buckets of BLOOD, Destroy All Neighbors is a zombified thrill ride through suburbia . . . by way of an accidental beheading. Wait. What?! Exactly. At least, that’s what happens when a self-obsessed musician takes it upon himself to finish his masterwork of progressive rock . . . by any means necessary.
That’s right, William Brown (a crazy good performance from Jonah Ray Rodrigues), is all about prog-rock and his obsession with composing his magnum opus is constantly interrupted by his nosy (and otherwise awful) neighbor. Hell, even girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol) is running low on patience with the sound engineer. Poor William. No one understands.
His neighbor, the troll-like Vlad (Bill & Ted’s Alex Winter), is “partying” nonstop - well, lifting weights, screaming, playing EDM loudly, throwing furniture around - and doesn’t give two shits about William’s in-home studio or the music that he’s intending to complete, but all that changes when he’s finally confronted by his new neighbor. I guess he should have picked up a bit because getting impaled by a barbell probably wasn’t on the party agenda.
Yeah, so William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William's accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla. Now, with his neighbor’s head egging him on, William has nowhere to go but up . . . the charts of serial manslaughter as the kill count grows. He’s going to finish this prog-rock masterpiece! All others be damned. Seriously, he means that.
As the kills and the reanimation hilariously continues, it’s up to the audience to decide if he’s a killer or just crazy. He’s a bit of both, right? The cast includes comedy veteran Thomas Lennon as William’s boss, Randee Heller (The Karate Kid) as the manager of his apartment building, and Kumail Nanjiani in an uncredited cameo; and they all add to the madcap hilarity of this runaway prog-rock (soon to be) cult classic.
Full of lo-fi fun, Destroy All Neighbors, directed by Josh Forbes, proves that when Hollywood runs out of ideas, there are plenty of independent artists which need attention. This is a twisted comedy, for sure, and it is aided by some incredible practical effects. We’re talking prosthetics galore and it all works in adding to this zany ensemble as William finds himself in the company of some ghoulish fiends . . . err, victims of his prog-rock glory.
A prog-rock comedy-horror? Yes, please. Destroy All Neighbors starts streaming on Shudder January 12th.
MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 85 mins
Director: Josh Forbes
Writer: Mike Benner; Jared Logan; Charles A. Pieper
Cast: Jonah Ray; Kiran Deol; Randee Heller
Genre: Comedy | Horror
Tagline: A Shudder Original.
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Distributor: Shudder
Official Site:
Release Date: January 12, 2024
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Struggling prog-rock musician William Brown finds himself in a living nightmare when he accidentally kills Vlad, the neighbor from hell.
