Bubba the Redneck Werewolf (2014)
You’ll want to drink a beer or twenty with Bubba over and over again!
Do you like comic book movies? Do you like horror elements and comedy running into each other? Are you into really hairy dudes? Well, it’s time to test how well you can keep your getting offended in check, as tonight we found ourselves quite the little gem. Now, I’m not saying this movie is super offensive - but I would put money down on the fact that someone somewhere will get offended by it. It probably won’t be the rednecks - they’ll be too busy laughing about it. Enough prattling, grab a bear and your man’s best friend, it’s time to check out Bubba the Redneck Werewolf.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know nothing about no redneck werewolf comic books. If it wasn’t for the cover arts used during the end title and some other reviews mentioning it, I wouldn’t have the slightest it was even a thing. Put it on my tab of “doesn’t know the source material for a comparison” pile, it’s really the norm at this point anyways. Our story here is about a man named Bubba, who needs to learn to stick up for himself and ‘grow a pair’ - but the darn man is just too easy going lovable. He’s lost his girl to another man, he doesn’t have a fancy toaster, and his level of pathetic has actually summoned a devil to his little town in Cracker County. Good news is, for the low price of his soul he can have all his wishes - being strong, fearsome, loved by all, and with tons of hair. Bad news is - this is a devil, and all those wishes really amount to just being a werewolf. Funny part is, it don’t matter much to good ole Bubba. The rest of the town, on the other hand, isn’t having such fine luck with trading their souls, and it’s up to Bubba to beat the devil and revoke those contracts for the sake of his town, and specifically the bar.
Goofy plot? Yep. It’s actually pretty simple and at times meandering - although most the meandering is because of jokes, a few of those jokes will feel a bit like padding out the run time to get it to feature length. I mean, it’s only about 70 minutes long, so it won’t kill you with boredom regardless of the meandering. Not all of these little meanderings actually impact the plot - such as the random “zombie apocalypse” that comes up. It also doesn’t really care much about it’s own plot as far as being a motivating factor - yes, it’s there setting up the whole “destiny” style plot and quest, but Bubba rarely actually stays on topic. This is much larger a comedy then a horror - yes, it has a devil trading souls for messed up wishes like a Djinn, and a redneck werewolf who rips arms off robbers, but there isn’t really much truly scary in here.
The actors all do a good job. I mean, for this movie a good job is really just hamming it up and being a bit outrageous and stereotypical. It’s not unintentional. I’m pretty sure it’s not unintentional. I mean, when it comes down to it the question at best is are people doing a good job of bringing the character they are supposed to be on screen to life, and the answer is generally yes here - they might be pretty one note, but it feels like what your mind would create in a stereotypical back-water town full of rednecks that time forgot. You can see from that line probably why some people might start getting offended by watching the movie, but at the same time it doesn’t really feel spiteful as much as playful, and in my book intent and context can matter quite a bit as to if someone should be getting offended. Stand out actors are of course the main were-man Bubba, but also the Devil who just chews this movie apart and might be one of the best parts of it. Fun fact - the man playing the Devil also just so happens to be the creator and writer of the comics. Thanks for that fun fact IMDB!
Devil went down to nowhere, had a soul to steal.
So what about the jokes? I mean, if actors a doing a good job in that hammy sense, surely there should be some laughs right? Well, subjective and all that repetitive reminder aside, I had a few chuckles in here. I mean, the humor is largely dumb humor or pretty low-brow. Things like accidentally laying down in some dog poo, a bunch of testicle-related jokes, a few sex jokes, and a bunch of low-IQ stuff like not noticing your bar regular is a werewolf and just thinking he has a beard. Now, I’m a few steps removed from redneck, but I am a country dude and I wasn’t really feeling attacked watching this - instead I was more prone to laugh over the stupid stuff. For example, the bit about Bubba’s relationship with his truck, or the “zombie apocalypse” excitement. Of course, the handful of fart jokes had me laughing, but that stuff is comedic kryptonite for me, so it’s not really fair to necessarily say it’s funny just because I laughed at it. Still, don’t really except super high-end jokes here, set the bar more for slightly above a teen-comedy spoof like Scary Movie and you’ll be in better starting expectations.
Effects work is pretty good. I mean, it can be pretty not good at the same time - like fake arms. Still costumes, paints, and prosthetics all look good on the devil and werewolf. A lot of the other effects are suitably cheesy for what you’d expect - such as crude car explosions that you’ve seen far better off, stock blood splatter effects, and Halloween prop arms sticking out of butcher hats. Let’s be honest here - the movie never really feels like it’s trying to be more than a fun little B movie, and most the effects fit in the exact same syntax. It isn’t quite bad enough to dissuade a watch if you like B movies, but if you were expecting something a bit more polished than something like Tenacious D’s movie, then perhaps you aren’t going to be super happy about it.
Audio is balanced fine, and some of the songs are catchy. They don’t really stick around too long with me, but my memory is toss compared to the average human - but the main theme is fun and has a few little jokes in it as well. If you aren’t a fan of that country-type of music you won’t dig the soundtrack as much, but the soundtrack does fit the movie quite well all considering. Line deliveries are all easily heard and feel appropriately hammy.
Happy customers.
Is it for everyone? Nah. If you are looking for a corny werewolf movie though, it’s entertaining. Grab a couple of your friends who aren’t easily offended by redneck stereotypes and some low-brow humor, and you’ll have a good time. I watched it without the friends, and still had a pretty good time - the fact it’s so short helps keep it from dragging on too long, although the humor is going to be debatable and if you don’t enjoy that aspect of it you’ll be less happy within that run time. It’s corny, which puts it up my alley, so I’m a bit biased, but if you watch the trailer for it you’ll get a decent idea of if it’s for you or not. Well, I mean, that and the fact that it’s named Bubba the Redneck Werewolf.