PUFF Review: ‘Night of Something Strange,’ Gross-Out Horror of the Year

Night of Something Strange is everything our sex ed teachers warned us about. The film, directed by Jonathan Straiton, and recent entry in Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival, opens with necrophiliac Cornelius (Wayne W. Johnson) defiling a Jane Doe at his place of occupation, a morgue. Had this sexual deviant read the toe tag of his victim he would know that not only is the body irradiated but infected with an unnamed STD.

After coming into contact with the body, Cornelius is most definitely infected with this enigmatic STD which, unbeknownst to him, is about to turn him into a blood crazed and lustful undead zombie. The STD, as it turns out, transforms its victims into mindless sex zombies, and the virulent strain is highly contagious.

A bloody prologue leads us to our cast of characters, a group of high school kids on their way to the beach for some unparented fun. Forced to stop for the night, they must stay at the Red Wood Budget Motel where they will soon come face-to-face with Cornelius, the infectious zombie, and must protect their bodies from potential, and incurable, disease.

Night of Something Strange is a hilarious gross-out, horror-sex-comedy that takes the zombie genre and adds a whole layer of subtext about teenage sexuality and safe sex. This take on body horror, with its phallic imagery and fear of the internal, approaches the likes of body horror master David Cronenberg, but with an added comic bite.

This one is definitely not for the squeamish as it features intense moments of gross-out gore and mutated sexual organs. However, purveyors of practical gore effects will be pleased with the abundance of blood and mutilation. The film incorporates graphic mutated phalluses and snappy vaginal mutations with buckets and buckets of blood.

Never short on laughs, or blood, Night of Something Strange is the gory horror-sex-comedy you never knew you wanted. A game-changer in the zombie genre, Night of Something Strange is a refreshing re-imagining of the sub-genre, which of late has lacked originality. This one is never short of that.

The film played at Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival and won multiple awards at the Crimson Screen Horror Film Fest including, Best Special Effects – Feature, Jury Award, and Best Actor for Trey Harrison. Furthermore, at the Phoenix International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, the film took the Best Horror Feature award.

For all the latest on the film and festival dates visit their Official Site or Facebook Page. Up next, Night of Something Strange hits Tucson Terror Fest (October 13) and Shock Around the Clock (October 15-16) an Ohio based 24-Hour movie marathon. Check out the official trailer below.