Destroy All Neighbors Is a Diabolical Good Time

There are plenty of cult horror movies that have as a theme, with an emphasis on heavy metal; think , , and . But far fewer pay glory to progressive rock, a genre stuffed with complicated riffs and tempo changes that’s more polarizing than most. plants its flag on the mountain of prog, and brings lots of squishy gore along for the ride.

Directed by Josh Forbes, with a story by Charles Pieper and Mike Benner and a script by Pieper and Jared Logan, —its title presumably winking at 1968 Godzilla palooza follows the gruesome journey of meek sound engineer William Brown ( 's Jonah Ray Rodrigues). William’s inability to finish the prog rock album he’s been noodling on in his home studio has become a psychological roadblock—not to mention a source of tension with girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol), who’s long been supportive but is running low on patience.

Things go from prickly to hellish when a dreadful new neighbor moves in next door: Vlad (an unrecognizable Alex Winter, of fame), who resembles an oversized troll and spends his days (and nights) lifting weights, throwing furniture around, bellowing, and blasting electronic dance music. Inevitably, there’s a confrontation.

Most people can relate to the problem of having an obnoxious neighbor, but swiftly careens into horror when Vlad is accidentally, uh, decapitated. Then, there’s another turn into the surreal, when Vlad’s disembodied head comes back to life and sorta becomes William’s new best friend. And the grisly hilarity doesn’t end there; while you’re never certain if William is imagining the reanimated corpses that become his pals, or if he’s actually a deranged guy that’s accidentally become a serial killer, one thing holds true: he has to finish that album, come hell or high water.

With endearing performances from the entire cast—including comedy veteran Thomas Lennon as William’s boss, who runs a recording studio and has a very particular outlook on what’s “rock n’ roll” and what isn’t; Randee Heller (Daniel’s mom in !) as the eccentric manager of William’s dingy apartment building; and the always welcome Kumail Nanjiani in an uncredited cameo— is infused with a goofy energy, something that kicks in right from the animated opening credits.

Yeah, it’s a basically a midlife crisis movie wrapped in a horror comedy. But it’s also able to tell a weirdly delightful story that combines blood soaked practical special effects with an earnest love of prog rock, and makes you root for its deeply flawed (and in some cases, literally rotting) characters in the process.

streams on Shudder starting January 12..