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| Buck Wild |
Buck Wild is essentially good-natured horror comedy, with a
constant sense of humor that never allows the horror part of the comedy to ever
get too dark or disturbing. I think this can be noticed when Clyde discovers a “chupacabra”
in his shed (it looks like a deformed squirrel that eats some toxic waste found
in Tromaville) as it bites him. Clyde has a nympho (and quite hot) daughter
named Candy (hence, the line, “She’s so…sweet.”) that seems to have been possessed
by some sort of zombie virus. I know
: not
another zom-com. I have an
affinity for the zom-com, I must admit, and as long as those involved know how
to take the zombie genre and apply something clever or funny to it, it’s hard
for me to resist one of them.
Buck Wild focuses on a buddy hunting trip as four
guy pals encounter a zombie outbreak at a town and dude ranch (they rented out
a dude ranch called
Buck Wild). That’s basically it. The majority of the film
plays off the dynamics of the four actors (and their characters). Matthew
Albrecht is Craig, in denial regarding his cheating girlfriend (one of her lays
is buddy Lance, played by Isaac Harrison), and the trip could provide him with attributes
(integrity, pride, courage, and awareness) he didn’t have prior to it.
Accompanying Craig and womanizing Lance is Craig’s quirky, eccentric, possibly
psychotic cousin, Jerry (Jarrod Pistilli) and constantly-abused,
always-humiliated friend, Tom (Dru Lockwood, a source of plentiful comedy).
What they encounter and how they deal with each other as the zombie outbreak
occurs around (and to) them is the basics of the film. Like these films often
do, there’s a lot of “this would only happen in moments of absurd crisis” kinds
of black comedy like how multiple bullets have little effect on a zombie, a
tryst that turns violent as the zombie involved with a human target remains
sexually rough (how she was before turning) even as the hunger for flesh grows
stronger, Jerry (with a Samurai sword in hand) taking on a horde by himself and
surviving, Tom having a hard time keeping any clothes on (the poor guy just
wants a pair of pants and endures a paddle-spanking by a brood of hillbilly
idiots), a zombie giving relationship and psychiatric advice to Craig regarding
his mother and girlfriend, a group of hunting hicks led by an effeminate “badass”
named Billy Ray (Mark Ford), and a machine gun party where the zombies try to
get at Craig and Jerry but are mowed down in the process. Jerry is key to the
film’s overall humor as Jarrod Pistilli has plenty of expressions (some manic,
some unexpectedly warm, some oddball) and enough mystery about him (he does
perform his martial arts in the morning naked, claims to have strangled the
chupacabra that bites Clyde (starting the zombie outbreak), has an alarming
amount arsenal of weapons and military gear for a civilian, and his history in
New York, possibly criminal, isn’t too elaborated when the character is
introduced) to produce a share of surprise laughs. Tom is the butt of jokes
that often come from Jerry; the two are always linked to each other for
purposes of humor due to their range of differences. Yes, there are “zombie
kill” gore gags (an arm is pulled off as Craig screams, a pool stick is stabbed
into the shoulder of a zombie, the bloody body of Clyde just won’t stay dead, a
cold fish is used to beat a rotund hillbilly zombie into submission, etc) and
zombies are used themselves in humorous scenarios (Jerry’s Samurai sword
vanquishing, a normal human who looks creepy is hit with a window washer
because Tom thought he was a zombie due to how he stared at him, their
intrusion in a diner leads to a funny line from the waitress, the use of a
crucifix to kill a zombie priest, and the ridiculous source of the zombie
plague thanks to a chupacabra). I have seen so many of these and most have a
few inspired moments that tickle my funnybone. As a whole, a good bit of them
fail to truly maintain all the way to the end, but I think
Buck Wild produces
its fair share of giggles even if the “zombie” part of the film doesn’t quite
satisfy (more than likely due to a limited budget) as it might have with a
little more of the undead (lighting is used to darken many of them, with only a
few zombies truly elaborated sufficiently) on display. This is really about
four dudes and a whole lot of trouble encountered on a hunting trip…what could
go wrong does. Craig’s loyalty to his girlfriend and buddy is a topic of
special focus, as he just can’t seem to accept their betrayal towards him.
Oddly enough, Jerry becomes a special confidante for Craig!
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