Directed by Joey Evans
Review based upon a theatrical preview in 2008
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Writer and director Joey Evans conceived “Bubba’s Chili Parlor” while working at TGI Fridays in Dallas, and decided to rope in some friends to make his filmmaking dream a reality. Creating a throwback to some of the dodgier splatter flicks that came out of the 70’s and 80’s, Evans has produced a movie that has some interesting ideas which are lost partly due to the obvious budgetary constraints, but also thanks to some serious scripting and acting issues.
Bubba (S. Mike Davis) runs a small local chilli diner in what is best described as Backwoods, USA. The stereotypical locals sit on the balcony bitching about everyone that arrives, while his counter girl has a young daughter called Ashley (Audrey Evans) who regards Bubba as the Father she never had.
When a delivery of military meat arrives at the diner, Bubba snaps it up believing it to be a way of cutting his costs. However, the meals produced turn the customers into a hoard of marauding zombies, no longer craving the chilli that spawned them but instead desiring living, breathing human flesh. Can Bubba and his customers save the town, or will the infection spread before it can be contained?
Joey Evans was clearly trying to emulate Peter Jackson’s “Bad Taste” with this entry into the splatter genre, but despite some occasionally amusing moments (many of them not intended, incidentally) the film fails to come close to Jackson’s firs
t movie. The most obvious reasons for this are the script and performances. Where “Bad Taste” crackled with Python-esque hilarity and characters that were actually very endearing, “Bubba’s Chili Parlor” is filled with bargain basement dialogue and some incredibly flat performances (the exception being Audrey Evans as Ashley, who shows people over twice her age how it really should have been done). Some of the dialogue is so wooden it could have been lifted straight out of an Ikea catalogue, and the attempts to mask the low budget genesis of the picture by inserting dummy grindhouse advertisements at regular intervals might seem like a nice touch, but instead emphasises a lack of depth within the whole movie.The flick has the look and feel of a direct-to-video movie from the early 1980’s, and the need to throw in some attempt at character depth through lengthy relationship analysis dialogue is irritating and excruciatingly painful to watch at several points. All the clichés are present and correct here, from graituitous nudity (in one of the few inventive touches, one of Bubba’s patrons is killed post-coitus, resulting in a male zombie that walks around with a permanent erection) to a desperate siege (where the ravenous army of marauding zombies fail for some reason to break down a diner partition door).
“Buba’s Chili Parlor” is being sponsored in the UK by the TV channel Zone Horror, which does in many ways sum up the whole content and visual style of this film. There are some good intentions here, but unfo
rtunately in the screening I attended a large number of the intended audience left the auditorium shaking their heads. Joey Evans might have the guts to make a cheap horror flick starring all of his friends and family, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us should have to experience the results.Should anyone offer to show you a copy of “Buba’s Chili Parlor”, take my advice and watch it as late as possible with a large crate of Tennant's Super to hand. You might even want to consider drinking a larger crate before you start. This really is the only way that you might find something positive to take away from this film. A real shame, and best regarded as a wasted opportunity.
1 out of 10
This chili is best to be avoided... for your own sake
