Weird and unsettling imagery always draws my attention. When browsing for movies to watch, I happened upon the trailer for Chompy & The Girls (2021). It is a bizarre horror-comedy about a young woman, Jackson (Christy St. John), who wants to meet her biological father, Sam (Steve Marvel). Sam is shocked to learn that he even has a daughter, and once contacted by Jackson, he wishes to keep her existence a secret from his emotionally distant wife. This all leads up to a rather awkward meeting between Sam and Jackson at a local park.
If the story had continued down this road, I probably would have lost interest. However, their chance meeting at the park is interrupted by an extremely upsetting and strange event. Just as Sam and Jackson prepare to go their separate ways, Sam witnesses something strange. A man with an enormous mouth walks up to a little girl and swallows her whole. The man then proceeds to walk quickly towards them, forcing Sam and Jackson to jump into their cars and take off.
Unsure how to proceed, Sam contacts Jackson again and sets out to kill the giant-mouth man, whom she decides to call Chompy. She also enlists the help of her eccentric friend and paranormal enthusiast, Lotus (Hari Williams). As they drive around town, the trio quickly discovers that Chompy seems to be following them, and the little girl who was eaten at the park reappears at every turn…
It goes without saying that Chompy is the main draw of the film. His sudden appearance in an otherwise straightforward family drama is both frightening and hilarious. The prosthetics and CGI used to create Chompy are not quite good enough to be believable, but this helps make the film all the more ridiculous (in a good way). The creature wordlessly follows the protagonists, much like the evil entity in It Follows (2014), though the latter film is far scarier and superior in almost every respect.
Once the filmmakers reveal the “monster,” Chompy & The Girls moves through a relatively straightforward plot progression. This doesn’t really work in the film’s favor, as it would have worked much better as a piece of purely absurdist cinema. Instead, we come to understand Chompy — to one degree or another — as well as the “girls” that he consumes. It takes away from that initial shock of seeing an other-worldly creature come out of nowhere. Thus, the first 30 minutes or so are as good as it gets; it’s all downhill from there.
I might just feel overly critical because I love absurdist and surrealist films. There’s no denying that Chompy & The Girls has elements of both, but it descends into very traditional Hollywood cinematic cliches. The low budget and indie vibe do not change the fact that director Skye Braband makes use of every predictable narrative device in the book. Even in a bizarre cinematic world with magical realism, altruistic entities, and multiplying children, you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen well in advance. Before the credits roll, you will already know the outcome with near certainty.
This is partly due to the fact that Chompy & The Girls tries to do too many things at once. The family drama takes attention away from the horrific elements, without adding much value. It only serves to give the characters something to work toward. Otherwise, the relationship between Sam, Jackson, and Jackson’s wife just distracts from Chompy’s mission. Meanwhile, the humor never really hits the mark, which makes me think the film would have been better without any “jokes” at all.
Even if you ignore the missed opportunity to make a purely surreal, absurdist horror film, it has a lot of weak points. The writing and acting both lack believability. Not only do they feel amateur, but they simply don’t make sense given the context of the narrative. A giant-mouthed man is literally eating children alive and then following people around. The fear should be palpable. Instead, the actors just seem to phone it in, doing the minimum to make it feel like a horror film.
Chompy & The Girls is, more than anything else, a missed opportunity. A different heroine might have improved things a bit, but better performances could not have resolved the script’s fundamental flaws. That said, it provides just enough trippy surprises, scares, and (mild) laughs to keep viewers entertained. I wish director Skye Braband had spent more time on the outlandish parts of Chompy & The Girls that really worked. Instead, he pushes it toward a very familiar and sentimental conclusion.
Chompy & The Girls (2021) Movie Rating: ★★½ out of 5
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