The Obsessive Viewer

Premise: Struggling prog-rock musician William Brown finds himself in a living nightmare when he accidentally kills Vlad, the neighbor from hell.

• Director: Josh Forbes
• Writers: Charles Pieper and Jared Logan (Story by Charles Pieper and Mike Benner)
• Cast: Jonah Ray Rodrigues, Alex Winter, Kiran Deol, Christian Calloway, Randee Heller, DeMorge Brown, Jon Daly, Phil Hendrie, Ryan Kattner, and Thomas Lennon

In Destroy All Neighbors, prog-rock musician William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues) is struggling to finish his masterpiece. As his writer’s block and pressure in his day job mounts, he finds himself becoming more and more aggravated with various nuisances in his life. In particular Vlad (Alex Winter), a new neighbor in William’s building, gets under William’s skin from the moment he moves in. Vlad (Alex Winter) is obnoxious beyond belief and the exaggerated lengths to which the movie goes to demonstrate that helps pull us into the chaos of comedy that ensues. Vlad plays loud music, works out with cinder blocks and chains, and grunts heavily at all hours. Thanks to thin walls in their apartment building, Vlad’s behavior contributes much to William’s growing irritation at the world. His frustration toward Vlad is only exacerbated by his girlfriend Emily’s (Kiran Deol) unbothered attitude toward the noise polluting their home.

When a confrontation between William and Vlad leads to Vlad’s accidental (and slapstick laden) death, William suddenly finds himself in a situation where he must dispose of his neighbor’s body. Things become more complicated when Vlad’s remains reanimate and the dead neighbor starts taunting William, hurling insults that often target William’s insecurities. Of course it’s played for comedy (and mostly lands out of sheer absurdity), but it also works as an extrapolation of William’s concerns and lack of confidence regarding his music. But instead of letting the reanimated Vlad’s remarks drive him toward prog-rock greatness, William’s irritation (and pressure to dispose of the body) gets the better of him. What follows is an entertaining descent into something just left of madness for William that leaves a string of bodies in his wake. All of which add to the roster of corpses taunting him to finish his album.

The outright ridiculous turns the plot takes and the overall tone of surrealism throughout gives Destroy All Neighbors a nice, propulsive energy. Unfortunately, a fair amount of comedic beats simply don’t land, leaving the film a bit disjointed. Whether it’s an exasperated or pithy comment from William toward people who don’t deserve the brunt of his aggression or a pseudo threatening stance taken by Vlad’s disembodied head, the punchlines rarely feel written or delivered with as much gusto as the film’s premise demands. Encounters with an obnoxious musician in William’s day job as an audio engineer don’t land as well because the musician and William’s boss at the studio (Thomas Lennon) feel cut out of their own movie and transplanted into Destroy All Neighbors. Likewise, a persistent homeless man repeatedly asking William for a croissant is on the receiving end of a harsh outburst from William that comes across as slightly more aggressive and mean spirited than needed in the moment.

There are also countless moments ceded early in the script in order to be paid off later. Everything gets paid off but those loose connections made late in the film to seemingly innocuous dialogue spoken earlier were a bit disappointing. It’s weird that the importance of a long-winded camping trip story can be met with more incredulity than an electrocution victim’s corpse inspiring William to finish his album, yet here we are. A tight screenplay designed with setups and callbacks in mind can make for a fun movie experience, but when the script emphasizes too much otherwise unimportant dialogue so these moments can play a vital role in the climax of the story, the movie can lose some of its luster in the process. Characterization and story dynamics can get lost in the shuffle when a movie prioritizes these payoffs, which happens frequently in Destroy All Neighbors.

Conversely, the moments that aren’t designed to be called back shine a bit brighter. This is the case in a scene where William’s plan to gain access to a smelting refinery are thwarted by a quippy security guard (Kumail Nanjiani in a fun cameo). This interaction leads to a panicked meltdown wherein William tries to bribe the guard to no avail. It’s fun and relatively disconnected from the greater narrative of William stumbling into numerous situations involving death and mayhem.

The film’s use of practical effects and wonderful makeup design is the best part of Destroy All Neighbors. Characters are subject to grim accidents at the hands of a bumbling William and the design of those encounters (and subsequent haunting) are very memorable. The prosthetics and makeup design to turn Alex Winter into a grotesque monstrosity as Vlad look incredible as they present a very greasy and dirty texture to the character’s skin. A later addition to William’s cadre of corpses haunting him involves a Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow like design of a character whose flesh has been burned away from their head leaving only charred muscle and eyeballs. The effects are always interesting and varied, easily making them the high point of the movie.

Destroy All Neighbors also benefits from an endearing slacker portrayal of William by Jonah Ray Rodrigues. He’s not a slacker in the sense of being in a state of arrested development and resistant to the idea of growing up. On the contrary, he’s ambitious and confident that if his music can’t reach all people, it’ll reach the right people. The issue he faces is that of his ambition clouding other aspects of his life. Due to his focus on his musical work, other parts of his life (such as his job and relationship) become the recipients of his slacker mentality. His drive to finish his music cuts into his relationship with his girlfriend Emily, for instance. But unfortunately that relationship isn’t focused on enough aside from small things like William frequently forgetting to buy printer paper for her. Given how central the character is to William’s arc through the movie, Destroy All Neighbors would have benefited from focusing a bit more attention on developing their relationship.

Destroy All Neighbors is an at times charming throwback to 80s horror with impressive makeup effects and an endearingly mad protagonist. The practical effects used in the film are a real treat and by far the film’s biggest strength. From spurts of violence to the intricate makeup used to transform Alex Winter into a disembodied neighbor or Randee Heller into a fleshless ghoul reminiscent of the hay day of EC Comics, it’s clear the effects work in Destroy All Neighbors is a labor of love from the artists.

Destroy All Neighbors is currently streaming on Shudder

About the Writer: Matt Hurt is the creator of ObsessiveViewer.com. He also created, hosts, and produces The Obsessive Viewer, Anthology, and Tower Junkies podcasts. He is a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association.