FrightFest review – Bad Karaoke

FrightFest review – Bad Karaoke

Directed by Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller (who was a kid actor in The Ref and other 1990s films) from a script by Lightbody and Spencer Yaras, the high concept of this one is a possessed karaoke machine – if a given performance isn’t judged well, the singer gets to choose their own death (‘Head Pop’ etc).  Lightbody and Yaras worked in the music department on Charles Band’s Evil Bong films, but isn’t just a silly kill-count picture – it has a lot of heart (and not just the one a character coughs up when cursed), decent performances (acting and singing) and a sweet, appealing thread about making music.

In a prologue, bartender Melissa (Kate Miner) belts out ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’ in a back-of-beyond bar and suffers a gruesome song-appropriate fate as the ‘Song-a-Ling’ karaoke machine undergoes a transformation courtesy of a shambling drunk saboteur.  Years later, a band stop off at the same bar en route to a wedding gig and Emily (Lexi Underwood) finds the Song-a-Ling, which the new bartender is only to happy to have her take away.  That night, at the remote Air BnB – yes, it’s one of those Air BnB horrors – Emily breaks out the karaoke machine, and unleashes a curse which takes a while to understand.  The band are a rare bunch of likeable but believable horror movie characters with their own set of relationships and tics – compare with, say, Cabin Fever, where a friend group instantly turn against each other in a crisis … this crowd are a band, even if Emily disagrees with band leader Hannah (Kat Cunning – who is a showstopper in several senses) on a set list, and they try to cope with an apparently quixotic curse which lets Noah (Case Walker) off after his okay performance but slaughters others who give knockout turns.  Steinmiller and Bianca Castronovo have a guest spot as the hosts of the Air BnB, who turn out to be karaoke fiends with ‘It Had to Be You’ as a party piece.

The third act takes some interesting turns, exploring the reasons why the machine got possessed and the specific grudge which has led to all the carnage – and then opting for some crowd-pleasing shifts in tone.  I’m not sure we need as many Bad Karaoke sequels as there are Evil Bong films, but this is a nice surprise.