Chompy and the Girls (2021) - Movie Review

What if I told you that there was an absurdist cosmic horror indie film that packs a ton of heart.

What if I told you that despite a low budget and gonzo camera work, that it’s really good.

A positive review?

Holy Shit.

Let’s discuss.

Chompy and the Girls is a 2021 Cosmic Horror Comedy brought to us by writer/director Skye Braband. You most likely aren’t familiar with Braband’s directing work, as it appears his previous directing credit is a short film from his university days. That doesn’t mean he’s not a skilled filmmaker. Far from it, don’t let his lack of IMDB credits dissuade you from checking this movie out.

I think if Skye makes a couple more of these, he might be on track to be the Ari Aster of horror comedy.

High praise?

Yes and no. Ari Aster burst onto the scene with two of my favorite films of all time, with 2018’s Hereditary and 2019’s Midsummar. Then he made 2023’s Beau is Afraid, which is the cinematic equivalent of a filmmaker committing a Freudian Slip that exposes his deep-seated Oedipal complex. It gave me the feeling of the weird kid in class who overshares, telling you about their family’s nudist vacations.

Yeah, it wasn’t great. I couldn’t even review it, because I didn’t care to finish it.

So, my praise of Brabrand has strings attached. However, based on the Aster measurement, he’s got one more film before he risks kick-flipping over the shark, because Chompy and the Girls is a home run.

The film focuses on Jackson, a troubled young woman aimlessly adrift in her sorrow. Her depression is only exacerbated by her addiction, which has led her to take her life. Fate has other plans for her, though, and after she fails at everything up to her attempted hanging, she decides it’s finally time to contact her birth father. Little does she know that he’s not doing any better. He’s financially set, but unsatisfied. He works at a boring job, lives in a loveless marriage, and can’t see a light anywhere down the tunnel. When the daughter, whom he’s never known,, texts him while being berated by his wife, he jumps at the chance to get out of the house. Little did he know that he and Jackson would witness a man eat a child whole in the middle of the park. Together, they have to go on the run from Chompy, lest they be his next meal. What follows is an absurdist adventure about addiction, co-dependency, and cosmic beasts. Will Jackson and her dad be able to stay one step ahead of the Chompy’s choppers, or will they end up masticated in the end? Find out in today’s feature, Chompy and the Girls.

This is a micro-budget gem that mixes the oddball world-building of David Lynch with the slightly juvenile humor of James Gunn.

The script isn’t super deep, but it’s got character development in spades. This wouldn’t work without the fantastic casting. Indie filmmakers often blow their budget on special effects and skimp on casting, but I’m happy to say that’s not the case. The cast, while relatively unknown, plays their roles well. The two leads, especially.

Jackson is played perfectly by the stunning Christy St. John. They try to ugly her up, but in my opinion, she is and will always be one of the most beautiful actresses alive. I’d only seen her work on American soap operas, which is more of a measure of an actress’s work ethic than acting skill. I’m happy to say, she’s got the skills. As a former heroine addict and pill popper, I can attest that her portrayal is pretty spot on to the reality. I had girlfriends who probably would have been this character’s frenemies. Sad sack characters are often a major drag in Hollywood productions. That’s because the filmmakers involved have been so separate from the suffering of the plebs below them. They have no conception of how to write these characters as anything other than a caricature.

It’s nice to see a writer understand the plight of the common man/woman.

Sam, played by Steve Marvel, is equally believable. A man who has settled at every step of his life, who’s never taken a risk, and who now feels adrift in a sea of his mediocrity. At first, I thought the character was just a cardboard cutout human, like so often happens in micro-budget productions, but I was wrong. He talks and behaves like so many co-workers and employees I’ve worked alongside. He’s a guy who did everything safely down the middle, but safe becomes boring for even the most introverted of people. I love Marvel’s performance because he becomes more and more animated as the film goes on. He stops being a cardboard cut-out and begins being a man of action.

This is a dual coming-of-age story of both a Millennial child and their Gen-X parent.

That being said, there’s also a man with an extremely large mouth. Chompy himself is an amazing accomplishment. I know the digital effects used aren’t complicated or fancy, but the simple tricks often hold up best. Chompy’s swallowing of people looks uncanny enough to fit perfectly within the narrative. That’s the great thing with cosmic horror, the things that occur are so coo-coo-bananas, that the effects don’t need to be incredibly detailed. They just need to be uncanny enough to fit the narrative, and this film does this perfectly.

The physical effects are the highlight of the film and Chompy himself. The static, practical mouth application is unsettling and comedic. It honestly looks incredible on camera, and I wish I had it hanging on my wall next to my Toxie bust.

Chompy is played physically by Reggie Koffman and voiced by the legendary Udo Kier. I’ve watched so many Udo Kier performances at this point in my life that I didn’t need to check the cast list. There’s only ever been one person who sounds like an ancient vampire playing a wizard, with a splash of Peter Lorre. It was the perfect voice choice for an ageless cosmic being.

This movie is cheap, absurd, and unashamed.

Every character is a fully fleshed-out basket case who has a back story and motivations. Every actor brings their best to the table, with a special shout-out to Hari Williams as the most likable drug dealer in film.

My viewing partner this week was my spouse, whose favorite horror sub-genre is horror-comedy. She got sucked into this one too. She normally does crafts or plays Diablo while watching movies, but with this one, she sat back and enjoyed.

So the haters can’t say that I’m fluffing this movie because I’m a terrible reviewer and I have awful taste.

They can say that my wife AND I both have awful taste—and also probably that I should delete my website and kill myself.

Trolls will be Trolls, God love'em.

But I digress.

This is one of those movies that drowns in the cesspool of AI-generated and public access quality trash that gets shoveled onto Amazon Prime Video, but it deserves better.

This is a well-crafted film with a heartfelt story and a cast and crew pulling out all the stops to make this micro-budget film more entertaining than most of Blumhouse’s recent releases.

Please give it a watch.

We need to support filmmakers who are interested in telling us new stories, we need to support filmmakers who aren’t into the modern, televangelist-esque message spewing that has bankrupted modern cinema, and most importantly, we need to support the filmmakers who are trying to entertain us.

Chompy and the Girls is available to stream for free on Amazon Prime and is available for purchase/rental on most digital platforms.

As always, I’ll be ordering a physical copy for the collection ASAP.