Sunday, March 21, 2021

Evil Bong: High 5 (2016)


There was a time in my movie-watching life where I would buy any box set of movies if it was cheap. It didn’t matter if the box set was popular movies that I had seen before or ten unknown, low budget horror flicks I had never heard of. For the right price, I would put the set in my shopping cart and head off to pay for it. Now I have numerous box sets that I’ll likely never get all the way through.

Many of the movies in the cheaper box sets helped fuel the schedule for Sunday “Bad” Movies. I could look at any of the movies, choose one, and toss it into the schedule. That’s how I first discovered the Evil Bong franchise. One of the box sets had the first movie in it. The name, alone, sounded like something that would fit the blog. I tossed it in, watched it, and went onto the next week. Soon, I would find the second Evil Bong movie on another box set and I would plug that into Sunday “Bad” Movies. Now, I’m six movies into the franchise and it doesn’t look like I’ll be stopping anytime soon.

Evil Bong: High 5 was the fifth installment of the series, but sixth of the franchise. There had been a crossover movie following the first three. Larnell (John Patrick Jordan), Rabbit (Sonny Carl Davis), Sarah Leigh (Robin Sydney), Velicity (Amy Paffrath), and The Gingerdead Man (Alan Maxson and Robert Ramos) were trapped in the Bong World by Eebee (Michelle Mais). She gave them a deal that could help them escape. Larnell, Rabbit, and The Gingerdead Man would run a dispensary for one month. If they earned one million dollars, they would be freed. If not, they would be trapped in the Bong World forever.


The origins of Evil Bong: High 5 come from three separate horror series from Full Moon Features. The first was, obviously, the Evil Bong series. That was where Evil Bong: High 5 took its namesake. It was a continuation of that franchise, another sequel in a long line of sequels that will seemingly go on until the day that director/producer Charles Band dies. And, depending on who takes over the company when that day comes, perhaps even longer than that. The second series was The Gingerdead Man, a series that seemingly folded itself into the Evil Bong series after the crossover film. Finally, there was Ooga Booga, a spin-off of Doll Graveyard that somehow ended up tying into the Evil Bong franchise.

Evil Bong came out in 2006, ten years and many movies before Evil Bong: High 5. It introduced audiences to the characters they would love to watch, or love to hate-watch. There was the nerdy Alistair, the jock Brett, the surfer dude Bachman, and dropout burnout Larnell. They lived together in an apartment that would soon be terrorized by an evil bong named Eebee. (Get it? Eebee? E B? Evil Bong?) Also around were Brett’s girlfriend Luann, delivery guy Rabbit, Larnell’s gramps Cyril, and Eebee’s former owner Jimbo. These were characters that would leave a lasting impact on anyone who stuck with the series.

The Bong World was introduced in Evil Bong, though in a drastically different way than the movies that would follow. It was a strip club type of place, for the most part, that the characters’ souls would be transported to after smoking weed from Eebee. They were trapped there until Alistair figured out a way to get everyone out. If he didn’t work fast, their souls would be killed. A bunch of crossovers happened in the Bong World, as Charles Band inserted many characters from many of his other works. Jack Deth, a character from Trancers showed up, as did Ivan Burroughs, a character from Decadent Evil. There was even an appearance by The Gingerdead Man, who had premiered in his own movie a year earlier.

The most important thing about Evil Bong, however, was that it laid the groundwork for the franchise that would come from it. The characters were set up. The Bong World element was introduced. Things would change over the course of six movies, including the crossover. Some of the main characters would leave the series after three movies. Other characters would be introduced. Rabbit would move from a side character to a main character. Other bongs would be introduced, and Eebee’s Bong World would change into a jungle that featured porn star henchman that would entrance the minds of the people trapped there. Oh, and people would be completely transported to the Bong World instead of just their souls. But the essential elements of the Evil Bong movies were introduced in that first movie. People were being trapped in the Bong World after smoking weed through or provided by Ebeee.


Evil Bong wasn’t the only franchise essential to Evil Bong: High 5 being made. Another important part was The Gingerdead Man. That franchise centred around a serial killer whose soul was placed in a gingerbread man, who continued his serial killing ways. He killed in a bakery. He killed in a movie studio. He even went back in time to the 1970s and killed in a roller rink.

The first Gingerdead Man movie was the most important for Evil Bong: High 5, providing the character of The Gingerdead Man and the character of Sarah Leigh. It was the movie in which the serial killer’s spirit was transferred into the gingerbread man. Sarah Leah was one of the bakers at the bakery that he terrorized. Both characters would return for the crossover film, Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong.

The crossover came after three films in each franchise. It brought them together in a bigger way than the quick cameo crossover of the first Evil Bong film. Larnell and Sarah Leigh teamed up for a business venture and potential romance. Both Eebee and The Gingerdead Man interrupted their plans by attacking. The Gingerdead Man got trapped in the Bong World and that seemed like the end. Only it wasn’t. He would stick around in the franchise through each subsequent outing, as would Sarah Leigh. At least, she would stick around through the next two sequels.

Evil Bong 420 took place at a bowling alley and led directly into Evil Bong: High 5. It took a few characters from the Evil Bong franchise (Larnell, Rabbit, Eebee, and Velicity), and a couple characters from The Gingerdead Man (Sarah Leigh and The Gingerdead Man) and put them together for what would basically be another crossover film with the same characters as the official crossover film. The Evil Bong franchise became the Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong franchise, though with only the Evil Bong moniker.


One other tag-along in the crossover franchise that Evil Bong became was Hambo. He was a character introduced in Zombies vs. Strippers. He would subsequently appear in Ooga Booga before joining Ooga Booga in Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong, Evil Bong 420, and Evil Bong: High 5. Together, they provided comedic side-stories for what was happening with the main characters.

That meant that the franchise hadn’t become just a Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong crossover. It was a crossover of many, many Charles Band franchises. There were the three primary franchises coming together: Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man, and Ooga Booga. Ooga Booga was a character from Doll Graveyard, which then put that movie into the same universe. The Evil Bong series had also crossed over with Zombies vs. Strippers, Trancers, and Decadent Evil. It was a wide universe that Charles Band was building with the Evil Bong series.


The origins of Evil Bong: High 5 can thusly be summed up as such. It began as an Evil Bong movie, thanks to it being the fifth (sixth, including the crossover) film in the series. It incorporated characters from The Gingerdead Man and Ooga Booga, as well, which also tied it into Doll Graveyard. And it was built on a series of movies that started with a bunch of cameo crossovers, thus tying it into a bunch of Charles Band movies. The origin of Evil Bong: High 5 was the wide world of Charles Band flicks.

Having so many crossovers throughout the Evil Bong franchise, especially leading into Evil Bong: High 5 came at the detriment of telling a good story. Too much time was taken by inserting the characters from various franchises, including the Evil Bong franchise itself, into the fifth film. The Gingerdead Man became a fully-formed character for the franchise, going through his own relationship problems, until the final moments. That was when he pulled a knife and threatened everyone, and the movie ended. Velicity and Sarah Leigh were left to be damsels in distress that Rabbit, Larnell, and The Gingerdead Man had to save. Hambo didn’t do anything to help the story. He just spent the movie interrupting scenes and trying to sell dolls based on Full Moon characters.

All that didn’t even mention the characters from the previous Evil Bong movie that didn’t add anything to the plot. They just showed up, ate up screen time, and left. There was the east Asian couple from Evil Bong 420 who showed up and waved camera gear around before leaving as abruptly. David DeCoteau showed up at the dispensary and said he was looking for his afterparty before deciding to shoot a film there and disappearing from the movie. There were the two stoners who showed up talking about having money and wanting weed, then leaving when they got weed and never being mentioned again. And then there was the hillbilly family who spent five minutes of the runtime talking weird. That was their entire point to the movie. To talk weird.

Basically, Evil Bong: High 5 ended up being a parade of characters entering and exiting the movie, with the smallest amount of actual story possible. Mind you, there was a story, so the movie was a slight step up from Evil Bong 420. Larnell, Rabbit, and The Gingerdead Man had to raise one million dollars in a month to save Velicity and Sarah Leigh. Evil Bong 420 was simply a movie about Rabbit now having a bowling alley. So, yeah, slight step up. It still wasn’t great, though.


For a direct-to-video franchise that is five (six, depending on how you look at it) movies deep, there’s not too much to complain about. The series has been on a slight upward trajectory after the abysmal Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong. And I should know what to expect out of the movies at this point. It’s not like they aren’t exactly what I’ve expected. But they could be better. They could be much better.

My introduction to Evil Bong was through a ten-movie horror box set that I had laying around the house. The name sounded intriguing, so I popped it into the schedule and gave it a look. It was the same with the second film. I found it in another box set and gave it a watch. Since then, however, I’ve been seeking them out. It could be the completionist in me, wanting to finish the franchise to say that I could. Or it could be some sort of a comfort franchise. Go back to something familiar to recapture a little bit of nostalgia for those earlier films. Or it could be the theme song. Hell, it’s probably the theme song. The theme song is pretty great. The theme song always brings me back.


Now for a few notes to finish this off:

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