With bucket loads of fake blood, some gloriously creative comic book deaths, and a screenplay that revels in fun, Bad Karaoke, premiering at FrightFest, knows exactly what it is: a highly entertaining and energetic popcorn horror.
Anyone who has ever sat through karaoke at their local bar or pub will know that despite some glimmers of brilliance, it’s largely a horror show. As you watch countless drunk people step onto a stage and murder your favourite songs, many of us will have found ourselves wishing there was a trap door under their feet that the audience could control. Well, if, like me, you have sat through your fair share of horrifying karaoke acts, Bad Karaoke is the film for you. Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.’s fabulously fun horror isn’t just an ode to karaoke, both good and bad; it’s a joyous, blood-soaked homage to the cursed-object sub-genre of horror that hits all the right notes.
Opening in 2012 in one of those classic wood-panelled rural bars somewhere in America where beer is cheap, neon signs illuminate entrances, and local heads turn whenever someone new enters, a karaoke night is in full swing as a barmaid (Kate Miner) takes to the stage. As she belts out “I Only Have Eyes for You”, bloody well in my opinion, an incredibly drunk punter (Justin Miner) staggers toward the stage and quite unfairly attempts to unplug the ‘Song-a-Ling’ karaoke machine, leading to his electrocution and our barmaid’s eyes alarmingly popping out of her head just as she reaches the crescendo. The scene is set: whatever happened in that instance, the Song-a-Ling machine now appears to have its own ideas of what constitutes a good performance!
We then jump forward in time to the present day, as a touring party band – Hannah (Kat Cunning), Emily (Lexi Underwood), Noah (Case Walker) and Logan (Kevin Clayette) – along with Hannah’s new girlfriend Ava (Jenna Karan) and Logan’s best buddy Matt (Jonathan Jason Green)- head to their next gig. Deciding to stop for a drink before they reach their rented cabin, they pull up at a small bar – the very same bar where the eye-popping karaoke took place years before. As the band enjoy drinks, with Noah confined to milk due to driving, Emily spots an old, dusty karaoke machine in a storage area near the toilets.
Now, at this point, you know where things are headed. The bar’s management is, of course, more than happy for the band to take the machine home, and the machine is more than happy to have found its next set of victims.
What could be better than a night of booze, snacks and singing? Well, as Logan picks up the mic and belts out “Sexy and I Know It” with more than a few glorious pelvic thrusts, our motley crew are about to discover that the Song-a-Ling is playing its own game, as the end of his performance is met with a message on screen: “Poor performance. Select your death.” It’s a joke, right? A karaoke machine can’t kill you… Or can it?
In classic form, the machine isn’t going to let our bandmates go until every one of them has taken their turn, and as blood flies, heads pop and bowels explode, the cabin slowly becomes a blood-soaked house of horror. As the machine picks them off one by one, it’s up to the lovable Noah and fiercely talented Emily, who have always fancied each other but never acted on it, to find the off switch before they too end up as a pile of goo on the cabin floor.
With bucket loads of fake blood, some gloriously creative comic book deaths, and a screenplay that revels in fun, Bad Karaoke knows exactly what it is: a highly entertaining and energetic popcorn horror. The cast plays perfectly to this brief throughout, in a movie that is very much an ensemble piece, with each character allowed to take centre stage during its runtime, even if they don’t make it past their chosen karaoke song. At the same time, Lightbody and Spencer Yaras’ screenplay offers a beautifully framed backstory for the cursed Song-a-Ling as we near the final act, one that delights in its discussions about songwriting and the challenges of getting new music heard in a world of endless replays.
After a night at your local pub or bar listening to a drunk crucify The Killers’ “Mr Brightside,” for the fifth time that night, with no trapdoor available to dispatch them, I can’t think of a better popcorn horror to enjoy than Bad Karaoke; hell, you might even find yourself singing along to “It Had to Be You” as body parts fly across the screen in front of you.
Follow Us