Count yourself lucky if you’ve never had a bad neighbor. While some folks can afford to put distance between themselves and the nuisance next door, others live in apartments with thin walls. Case in point: the main character in the new movie Destroy All Neighbors. Jonah Ray‘s frazzled character, a struggling musician named William, can’t get any work done with all the ruckus now coming from the recently leased unit next to his. Or so he claims. William has had the worst writer’s blocks for what seems like forever, and rather than focusing on the task before him, this nosy neighbor sets out to learn the origin of the sudden racket. As to be expected, William should have just minded his own business.
The horror-comedy remains a tricky meeting of genres, especially now that horror is more self-aware and cynical than ever. Delivering laughs with a straight face seems too old hat as well. Filmmaker Josh Forbes manages to find himself a nice medium, though. Destroy All Neighbors keeps a safe distance from on-the-nose meta-horror while also serving up a few earnest chuckles in this movie reminiscent of the divisive 1992 black comedy The Vagrant.
While Forbes can be commended for attempting a more straightforward execution than anticipated, this comedy’s sense of humor is hit or miss. Scenes tend to stay on jokes longer than necessary — for instance, one droll exchange between Ray and Kumail Nanjiani‘s character loses its appeal the longer it goes on — and the gross-out set-pieces could have been grosser. The struggle to maintain its funny bone is felt the most in the second and third acts as Ray repeats the same old routine until the movie’s semi-dramatic finish. You can only see William argue with a severed talking head once or twice before it’s time to move on.
On the plus side, Destroy All Neighbors is a relatively successful genre depiction of the timeless “follow your dreams” concept that needles its way into practically every comedy from the last thirty years. It’s not difficult to figure out from the outset what Williams’ real problem is — apart from his refuses-to-die neighbor — but the payoff is handled well enough. It doesn’t hurt that Ray plays a great straight man; he grounds an absurd and surreal story better than actors with more renown.
It would be pointless to decry the movie’s lack of scares because, after only a couple of minutes of watching, it should be evident that Destroy All Neighbors isn’t that kind of horror story. These macabre pests in William’s life are revolting to look at, yes. Terrifying, hardly. And that’s not a problem, either. The heavy use of practical effects and makeup to create and inspirit Williams’ undead peers could be terrifying in a more menacing context. Here, however, they don’t yield any frights because that’s not this movie’s ultimate objective.
Destroy All Neighbors struggles to earn its modest runtime of 80-ish minutes because its sense of humor is inconsistent. Absolute comedy is hard enough to pull off and the element of horror makes it only harder. As said before, though, the protagonist’s personal realization after everything is said and done is a beneficial one. This movie’s jokes and sight gags are only a partial victory, but its self-examination is a total win.
Watch Destroy All Neighbors on Shudder starting on January 12, 2024.
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