From the fine folks at Well Go USA comes this exceedingly quirky horror comedy of both romantic and familial love, hitting blu-ray just in time for Valentine’s Day. Does it come out smelling fresh as a daisy or is it a bloated corpse rotting in its grave? Let’s dig it up and find out!

Oliver is a lonely guy. He has been sheltered by his mother all his life, but now just after turning 18, his mother has died and he finds himself in a sticky position. Due to his extreme isolation from the outside world, his two social workers are deeply concerned about his mental well-being with one of them pushing strongly to have him committed to an asylum until he can be deemed safe and sane enough for sociable living. The other doesn’t believe he’s that far gone, so they strike a deal with him. Make a friend in the next week, and he can stay out in the free world, living in his dead mother’s extremely garish pink house. So what’s a boy to do when he scares off the one girl who would deign talk to him and not think he’s a freak by immediately telling her about his screwed up family past on their first acquaintence? Well, on one of his daily visits to talk to his mom’s grave at the cemetery, he happens to overhear the funeral of a recently dead guy who bit it in a car accident about how this guy Mitch was friends with everybody. Naturally he jumps at the opportunity, so he digs him up and takes him home. The social workers think it’s great that he’s made a friend (although since they haven’t actually met the friend, the more skeptical one is immediately suspicious), they also happen to mention how great it is to have the perfect family. He agrees with that assertion and proceeds to dig up a crusty blue collar white guy, a friendly black lady and a little girl who have recently died in a plane crash to complete his ideal family unit. After taking a picture of the corpses on his couch, they spring to life as zombies, truly giving him that perfect family he feels like he needs. Zombie hijinks ensue as Oliver seeks to hide the truth from the nosy social worker, avoid bullies and woo the girl he likes.

I’ve been known to enjoy a fun horror comedy every now and again, and while this one definitely has some positive things going for it, it’s not totally successful due to some dodgy accents and gaping plot holes. What the movie does right is strike a very likable tone with a combination of Max Harwood’s performance in the lead role of Oliver, the richly textured wonky set design and thobbing ’80s soundtrack (why does this take place in the ’80s? Dunno…). The Loneliest Boy in the World posits itself almost like a fairy tale where the laws of reality don’t really apply. The problem is that it doesn’t push that idea quite enough. Much of the film outside Oliver’s house feels like business as usual, so the fairy tale premise it seeks to cement falls apart. What that means is that when the preposterousness of dug up corpses springing to life for no discernible reason, my brain kept trying to rationalize the silliness instead of embracing it. Without getting too spoilery, I will say there’s an even bigger plot hole that REALLY bugged me, leaving something of a bad taste in my mouth. Still, outside of the plot holes, it’s a very easy watch with some pretty solid practical makeup effects in the mix for those who dig that kind of thing too.

The technical specs on this one are actually quite nice. The 1080p transfer that Well Go gives us actually pops quite nicely, especially in Oliver’s ridiculous pink house with the dark levels in general looking solid as well. On the audio side, we have a quite nice DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound track that really bumps with that boss synth to evoke the time period. And yes, the Ghostbusters theme is in here, and you will want to dance. The disc also includes English subtitles, which is always appreciated.

Extras on this release are rather skimpy I’m afraid. Basically we have a 5 minute featurette interviewing some of the cast about their impressions of the film and some trailers. I would’ve like to have seen something on the production design and how they came up with that garish house, but oh well.

Overall I feel like this film has a lot of promise with a unique visual sense and a fun premise, but the writing is just a little too clunky to really nail any of the emotional beats or pull it together by the end the way it needs to. Still, it’s a breezy watch that works pretty well if you’re looking for a genre film that lends toward the lighter side of the spectrum.