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Writer's pictureJustin Whippo

Shingles: The Movie (2023)

Updated: Oct 27, 2023

My quick rating - 3.0/10. I am going into this one with reasonable expectations. This one serves up an anthology that is deemed for comedy/horror and is made on a shoestring budget. The stories are introduced by a group of less desirable kids from school telling their tales around a campfire while waiting for their scout leader. It leads in with the first saga being a short zombie wet dream with the hero being Ian Sunny as Jimmy Headshot. He ends up being one of the geeks serving up the "horror." It does a good job prepping you for the quality of effects to expect with some determined undead builds and the horrible CGI blood effect in the free software trial. The second story had some potential because when are ventriloquist dummies not creepy as hell? But instead, they handed the reins over to a 12-year-old and went for the fart and puke jokes. To add insult to injury, Steve Rudzinski couldn't even direct the effects crew to a half-decent-looking projectile vomit but instead a clear hose effect. Our third masterpiece takes place in a fraternity house (or their parent's house) and a couple of unwanted guests arriving that have some very bizarre tendencies. Again, this one has nothing along the lines of horror and the vast majority of the humor relies on inside jokes. An intergalactic frat game of beer Olympics against aliens who travel the universe looking for parties is what we get. The ominous music in the background during a "shots" contest is quite fitting. "These stories aren't scary, they are just depressing"- Jimmy Headshot nailed that one on the head. Finally, into the fourth campfire yarn we get some humor that satisfies. Granted, I may be comparing values to what I have previously seen. The story about a garden gnome that has his own amusing story to tell gives a bit of redeeming goofiness even if it is some juvenile stuff. And they finally snuck in some practical gore as well. I don't want to spoil where this one goes but it won't be what you are expecting. Even if they took that story entirely too far, it still is the standout of this whole debacle. Finally, the typical wrap-up story they have been using merges with Jimmy's zombie tale that his friends believed was fake. This led to some more practical effects hidden under terrible acting and editing. The circumstances end up involving the 4 kids with a tad of misdirection to their final laugh. The bonus credits scene brings the Gnome and the Dummy having a quick chat about a potential sequel. If you laughed earlier at these jokes, you'll get a kick out of the ending. For as dumb as it was, they pulled it together but not enough to recommend.

There are no streamers interested in this one which is always a bad sign. Edit: At the time of writing the review, there weren't any streamers listed on Justwatch, but as pointed out by Steve Rudzinski, it is now available in a couple of locations, including Amazon. Completely my mistake for not reverifying that before the post went live.

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2 commentaires


Steve Rudzinski
Steve Rudzinski
27 oct. 2023

I very specifically directed the vomit to look like a hose effect on purpose because the book had vomit and poop all over the stage and I think that kind of stuff in movies is gross, so I only agreed to put it in the film for the clients/book authors if I could make the vomit sequence obviously cartoonishly fake!


Also it's on multiple streaming services so I'm not sure why you linked to JustWatch claiming otherwise. here's the link showing it on Tubi, Reveel, and for some reason Amazon (which barely accepts indies anymore so I don't know how Shingles got pulled in): Shingles: The Movie streaming: where to watch online? (justwatch.com)

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Justin Whippo
Justin Whippo
27 oct. 2023
En réponse à

My apologies for the error on the links. At the time of writing, there were no streamers listed or I would've for surely linked them. Especially Amazon since it is an affiliate. I have corrected that. As far as the vomit, it can fall under the inside joke category then but it really looked beyond cheap. As you said though, it was for someone else so I guess it worked as designed. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Looking forward to Caroushell 3!

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