My first movie watch of 2023, viewed by
me on 3 January, was Moose The Movie,
which I'd wanted to see for a very long time and was kindly made possible for
me to do so now by my friend Jane Cooper - thanks Jane! (Incidentally, I'm still hoping to obtain its DVD release one day for my own collection, if I can ever track it down.)
Directed by G. Logan Dellinger, written by acclaimed Alaskan comic artist brothers Chad and Darin Carpenter (Chad created the extremely successful and self-syndicated daily comic panel strip Tundra), released in 2015 by Sons of Winter Productions, and filmed entirely in Alaska, this exceedingly offbeat comedy/horror/monster feature is all about a murderous supernatural entity called the Moose Man, combining a human body with the antlered head of a ferocious fanged moose – and thus dubbed a moosetaur by some of this film's characters.
After two lame-brained paint-ballers inadvertently release him from the Underworld where he'd been incarcerated for the past two centuries by the area's Native American Nation following his remorseless attacks upon them for many years, MM goes on a seemingly unstoppable rampage of slaughter amid the woodlands around the quaintly-named Alaskan backswoods town of Gangrene Gulch. Here, the inhabitants are not so much teetering on the brink of insanity as plunging headlong into its deepest darkest depths!
These 'good folk' include (but are by no means limited to!): an ultra-violent narcoleptic with a lethal talent for hurling dangerously sharp objects at anyone close by whenever she abruptly falls asleep; a greasy-spoon café waiter and cook who both happen to be hand puppets operated by a weird mute guy whose bald head, ferocious eyebrows, and wild staring eyes are the only portions of him visible above the table under which he hides himself; the local mayor who never feels insulted if called a chicken, because that's exactly what she is, a clucking chicken!*; and a diminutive but hyper-aggressive tin-hat wearer who unshakeably believes that everything happening in the town is due to aliens.
All of this mayhem and much, much more confront newly-arrived and thoroughly-bemused deputy park ranger Zack (played by Zack Lanphier), whereas his senior partner, Mike (Dave Nufer), as a longstanding Gangrene Gulch resident, is entirely unfazed by it all. Indeed, the one and only plus in this sack-load of minuses as far as Zack is concerned is the coroner's assistant, Samantha (Chantel Grover), whom he finds very easy on the eye, but is so tongue-tied and witless whenever he is in her presence that he helplessly (and hilariously) commits more Freudian slips than an Austrian psychologist walking along a pavement covered in banana skins!
Pendulum-swinging between darkly surreal and starkly silly as Zack and company desperately seek to pit their wits (such that these are!) against the savage fury of their antlered antagonist, Moose The Movie is one of the funniest films that I've seen for quite a while, and is seriously enjoyable, as long as you're not expecting any marginally sophisticated humour or anything even remotely suggestive of CGI effects, that is. Low on budget (much of it came from a Kickstarter campaign) but high on laughs, cheap and cheerful(ly macabre) is the phrase that comes to mind!
But don't take my word for it – click here and here to check out a couple of official trailers for Moose The Movie on YouTube, and see for yourself.
(* = The scenes at Gangrene Gulch were filmed in the real Alaskan town of Wassila, where a certain former US Vice-Presidential candidate, as opposed to a chicken, once served as mayor – remember Sarah Palin?)
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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