Night of Something Strange
Written by Jonathan Straiton & Ron Bonk & Mean Gene
Directed by Jonathan Straiton
Starring Rebecca C. Kasek, Trey Harrison, Wayne W Johnson, Toni Ann Gambale, Michael Merchant, John Walsh, Tarrence Taylor, Nicola Fiore, Janet Mayson, Kirk LaSalle, Billy Garberina, Wes Reid, Brinke Stevens
Hurricane Bridge Entertainment
Release Date: November 22, 2016 (VOD)

In the glorious 1980s, horror movie fans found sanctuary in the aisles of video stores. Buried on shelves of VHS tapes you could find notorious “Video Nasties,” and I would spend hours pouring over the posters and tape boxes until finally choosing one. Last weekend at the New York City Horror Film Festival, I was reminded of those great days in my childhood that sadly my kids will likely never experience. I saw a poster for a film that looked cut and pasted out of my local 80s video store. It’s not every day you see a poster where a mutated tongue is coming out from between a woman’s legs… The film was Night of Something Strange, co-written and directed by Jonathan Straiton, and it was awarded Best Feature at the festival.

Night of Something Strange is good old fashioned 80s schlock horror at its best. Horror is maybe the only genre where filmmakers make films exclusively for themselves and fans. And you can clearly see that director Jonathan Straiton grew up amid the horror genre. Night of Something Strange starts where most films do”¦ with a corpse-raping scene. Unfortunately for poor Cornelius (Wayne Johnson), the body he enjoyed was riddled with some unknown STD that turns him in a zombie-like monster, except instead of eating brains, he wants to “spread the disease.” At the same time the virus is being transmitted, a group of horny teens escape school and head out for a fun weekend. Inevitably their paths cross with mutated STD-ridden zombies and gross-out hilarity ensures.

The teens here are your typical allotment of 80s stereotypes: the hot girl, the shy-er girl, the chubby friend, the black guy, the bully”¦ all, by the way, named for 80s horror icons. Their Spring Break weekend is put on pause when one of the girls contracts the zombified STD in a gross gas station bathroom. From there we head to a sleazy motel. The set pieces over the rest of the film are some of the craziest and most ridiculously great scenes I’ve seen in modern horror, many occurring at a sleazy hotel. This includes what I can only describe as the greatest accidental gay sex scene in movie history. There is certainly a “WHAT THE F*CK?!” vibe throughout.

When Night of Something Strange started, I was afraid this would boil down to a cliche-ridden low-budget horror movie. But this film continually surprised me by zigging when you think it’s going to zag. The film pays homage to some of the classics all the while creating something new. For instance, the hotel turns out to be something wholly unexpected, because hey, why the heck not? To top it off, we get a shockingly awesome hero with some hilariously badass one-liners.

If you grew up in the 80s and are looking for a kickass and fun movie to watch with friends, then this is the movie for you. I can totally see Night of Something Strange becoming a modern cult classic, akin to a Night of the Creeps only much more perverted and disgusting”¦ and that’s a good thing.

The film comes out Tuesday, November 22nd on iTunes and Vimeo Demand as well as Google Play and Amazon. It also premieres on Vudu on December 9th. Go to www.NoSSmovie.com for more info. Nationwide release of the Blu-Ray is expected for the Spring of 2017.

Trailer