While having dinner with his two youngest sons, Charles Band tossed around the idea of a weed movie. His mindset was to make a wacky stoner movie about a bong that teleports people to an alternate dimension. Essentially, he just wanted an excuse to, as he described it, “silliness and naked chicks,” so production got rolling. Since Band loved the idea of crossovers, he decided to add characters from previous Full Moon movies. He included characters from classics like Trancers and Demonic Toys and newer movies, The Gingerdead Man and Doll Graveyard. Because of the subject matter, they hired Tommy Chong to make a small appearance in the movie. The movie is also notable for being cinematographer Mac Ahlberg’s last credit before his passing in 2012. After a brief 7-day shooting period, Evil Bong made its way onto video store shelves in 2006.
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Synopsis
Nerdy college student Alistair McDowell (David Weidoff) has just moved into a new apartment with drop-out Larnell (John Patrick Jordan). Larnell lives with his two roommates, the stereotypical surfer Bachman (Mitch Eakins) and the stereotypical jock Brett (Brian Lloyd). Except for Alistair, all the guys are stoners, and Larnell decides to buy a new bong from a local listing. Supposedly, the original owner of the bong claimed it had supernatural powers and was cursed, but they smoke it anyway. After hitting the bong, each guy ends up in another world where demonic strippers kill them. The bong grows stronger with each new victim and starts reverting to its original look. Soon enough, the original owner, Jimbo Leary (Tommy Chong), arrives to destroy the bong and rid humanity of its evil. It’s one hell of a trip as our heroes must contend with Eebee (Michelle Mais), the Evil Bong!
Review
Going into this movie, you’ll know whether or not you’ll enjoy it based on the title. If your first reaction upon hearing Evil Bong is to groan, you’ll want to avoid this. This film scrapes the bottom of the barrel, even by Full Moon standards, compared to movies like Subspecies and Dollman. Still, unlike Puppet Master: The Legacy, this at least is a whole movie instead of a glorified highlight reel. You can tell this is a far cry from the Paramount era just by how cheap this movie looks. There’s only a handful of characters, most of it takes place on one set, and the puppet’s mouth doesn’t move. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the movie’s budget went to having Tommy Chong and Bill Mosely appear. I’m sure whatever was left was used to get Tim Thomerson to show up for one scene.
Tommy Chong seems to be having fun swinging a chainsaw at the titular bong to his credit. He delivers the usual stoned-out performance you would expect from his Cheech & Chong movies or That 70s Show. Sadly, the same sentiment can’t be said for the rest of the actors, who range from mediocre to stiff. Instead of playing three-dimensional characters, each cast member plays the most exaggerated stereotype you can think of. For instance, Mitch Eakins is playing a dollar-store version of Dante from Grandma’s Boy, which came out the same year. Weidoff seems miscast as Alistair, looking less like a nerd and more like a jock who’s dressed like a nerd. In fairness, this movie isn’t trying to be anything more than a dumb stoner horror-comedy for what it’s worth. Overall, Evil Bong is far from Full Moon’s peak, but there are worse ways to kill 90 minutes.
Buy Evil Bong from Amazon: https://amzn.to/38HOne4.
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