- Directors: Chris Lightbody, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr
- Writers: Chris Lightbody, Spencer Yaras
- Stars: Kat Cunning, Kate Miner, Lexi Underwood, Case Walker, Jenna Karan, Jonathan Jason Green, Kevin Clayette
REVIEW | Ryan Morrissey-Smith
In a small bar in 2012, a woman is singing ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ as a drunk man staggers toward the the Sing-a-Ling karaoke machine, as he unplugs it he electrocutes himself and inadvertently makes the woman’s eyes burst. We then skip ahead to the present day and we join band members Hannah (Cunning), Noah (Walker), Emily (Underwood), Logan (Clayette), with Hannah’s girlfriend Ava (Karan) plus Logan’s friend Matt (Green) all travelling to their next gig, as a party band (i.e They don’t sing originals, just hits from other bands).
As fate would have it the crew ends up stopping in at the small bar before making their way to the Airbnb they have rented. They find the cursed karaoke machine and the bar is only too happy to get rid of it and the band takes it with them to the house. After the first song, the machine gives a rating of poor performance and asks how the singer wants to die. Of course, everyone takes it as a joke until it becomes real…
Bad Karaoke starts slowly but finds its footing and gets better as it goes along. Plenty of riffs on music and creativity whilst the script gets the humour right most of the time. Despite the lower budget, Bad Karaoke is well made and does a decent job when it comes to the gore.
The acting is good from the ensemble cast and despite the silly nature of the premise, everyone buys in and it makes the film better for it. The directors Steinmiller Jr and Lightbody do a good job in keeping the film humming along whilst the script gets funnier toward the middle of the film and manages to hold one of two more serious moments. Being a film about music, the singing from the cast varies (just like real karaoke) and there is a lot of fun to be found within that construct and it even manages a plausible reason as to how a Karaoke machine became evil and sentient.
Bad Karaoke is a fun film, that I think especially fans of horror-comedy, will find very entertaining.
Bad Karaoke had its FrightFest World Premiere on August 30.
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