Rating: 3/5
The Facade Band’s Say the Word plays as we watch Sam Nash, Independent Voice reporter, take photos of all the college activities at the University of Miami. He runs into Lauren Daly, instantly falls in love, and helps her avoid getting her red Chrysler Le Baron towed.
After some hijinx, the notorious Frank Duffy, a fellow school reporter, asks Sam about breaking into Dr. Ethridge’s office to see what he’s doing to those poor monkeys, but Sam’s too scared. And what is he doing? The movie tells us that he’s injecting baboon brains with a serum that theoretically revitalizes dead blood cells. Except oops! This stuff actually makes the baboon rage out.
Since Sam won’t break in, Duffy does, and he catches pictures of the baboon, only to accidentally let it out. The baboon bites him, then runs out into the street to instantly die from a head-on collision.
Sam and Duffy go on a double date with Lauren and Lauren’s new brilliant roommate, Debbie Gilbert. Sam and Lauren hit it off. So does Duffy and Debbie. That is until he gets violent with her and bites her. When Duffy goes to the school doctor, his wait is too long, so he rages out and destroys the place.
Uh oh! Looks like Duffy’s got a case of Primal Rage™️.
This movie is fun! I don’t love it as much as some other horror nerds, but it goes down smoothly and never dallies.
Stray Thoughts/Spoilers
- Ethridge has such an insane haircut and a rat tail to boot. Who did this to him?
- Another entry in the “all men are trash”-iverse. Everyone is trying to sexually assault college girls, including the math professor.
- The gore effects are decent, but it’s hard to tell what happens in the murder scenes. I think a guy in a baby costume gets scalped??
- The soundtrack flips between upbeat synth-pop and what sounds like a Faith No More cover band.
- The costumes at the Halloween party are absolutely wild. There’s a person whose head is a giant nose. I don’t know how to describe the one with three faces and a faucet for noses. It’s a lot of nose stuff, I guess.
- This movie makes the choice that most werewolf movies are too scared to make—you gotta bite more people, dude! Make a gang of werewolves! Not that the guys in this movie are werewolves, but they’re bitten and become ravenous animals. I guess maybe zombies?
- We hear Say the Word THREE TIMES in this movie.