Video Nasty #20- Toxic Zombies

By the time The House By The Cemetery ended, everyone else in my crew had fallen asleep. But I was determined to make it to the end, so I made one last trip to the snack bar and settled in to watch the final film of the weekend.

(1980)
Director: Charles McCrann
Writer: Charles McCrann

In Toxic Zombies (also known as Bloodeaters and Forest Of Fear), a group of hippie pot farmers, suspecting that the feds are onto them, decide to gather up what remains of their crop and make their escape. Unfortunately for them, a group of federal agents decide to have the remote area of Pennsylvania that the hippies call home to their operation crop dusted with an experimental new herbicide which turns them all into bloodthirsty maniacs. Forest ranger Tom Cole isn't deterred by the government's warnings to stay away from the area due to "severe flooding", and takes his annual fishing trip anyway, along with his wife and brother. While there they run into Amy and Jimmy, a brother and sister whose parents were slaughtered by the toxic zombies. Soon, the maniacal hippies descend upon them and they desperately try to escape back to civilization.

When the star of your film is also it's writer, director, and producer, it's a pretty safe bet that you're in for a stinker. Add to that some other terrible performances, not the least of which is the mentally challenged Jimmy played by an actor dressed like Simple Jack that goes "full retard". You never go full retard. There's also an actor that plays one of the zombies that looks remarkably like Tom Petty and it cracks me up every time.

I suppose this film fell onto the nasties list because of the gore in it, which is strange because it's not particularly good. In fact, it seems like the kind of movie that no one would pay any attention to if it weren't on the list. Except maybe for the kickass poster. The plot is stupid, the actors are terrible, and the effects are pretty awful. And that's kind of what makes Toxic Zombies worth watching. I give it 4 1/2 out of 6 beers.

And with that, the April Ghoul's Drive-In Monster-Rama was over. As The Spaniels' "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite" played over the radio and I climbed into my tent for a few hours of sleep, I could hardly wait to come back in the fall and enjoy another two nights of good times, great snacks, and awesome horror flicks.