‘Murdaritaville’ Review

Stars: Austin Naulty, Manon Pages, Jenna-Francis Duvic, Heather Campos, Kenny Bellau, Dylan McGovern, Carter Simoneaux, Pierre Simoneaux, Charles Early | Written by Paul Dale, Dylan McGovern | Directed by Paul Dale

Having released over 30 albums and sold over 20 million records worldwide, Jimmy Buffett is among the world’s best-selling music artists. Director Paul Dale (Killer Kites, Sewer Gators) and co-writer Dylan McGovern (Fast Food & Cigarettes, Silent But Deadly) have opted to base a horror-comedy around the tropical rocker, with the opening text describing Murdaritaville as “a weird love letter” to Buffett and his music.

The story opens in 1993, as a couple drive from a Buffett concert when they pick up another fellow fan. As the car journey leads to an argument, it all comes to a tragic end as an unseen creature commits murder. 30 years later, a group of friends are brought together for a Jimmy Buffett impersonator contest, although their fun time is threatened by a murderous parrot man who attacks people that are not big enough Buffett fans.

A horror-comedy centered around adoration for an artist is a fun idea, however such aspirations are limited by a clear uncertainty of what to do. The filmmakers throw a lot into this 62-minute feature, including an opera-singing viral star who is swallowed whole by a shark, and a strange framing device of a drunk police officer being told this story, yet little of it actually sticks. The effort could have instead been put into fleshing out the characters or making the locations look anything but drab.

The most damning thing is how this horror/comedy manages to be unsuccessful on both those fronts. The comedy elements are too one note to elicit even a chuckle, while the horror elements are let down by the key creature not being seen for half of the film. This is even more disappointing when the kills largely happen off-screen or end up feeling toothless. Much like Killer Kites, Murdaritaville feels like a fake trailer idea that cannot sustain the feature runtime.

½  0.5/5

Murdaritaville will be available via amazon and bythehorns.store, on digital, Blu-ray and VHS on March 1st.