“Be gone. Walk with Satan. Don’t step on the pentagram!”

Justin’s rating: Oh Rexy, stay away from this messy!

Justin’s review: Allan Moyle. That name might mean nothing to you, but at Mutant Reviewers we give a jaunty half-salute any time someone mentions him in the hallway. While not the biggest cheese wheel at the cult curd factory, Moyle nevertheless has delivered to us at least two bonafide favorites: Pump Up The Volume and Empire Records. He’s never really broken into anything even neighboring the big time, but I grew curious what he’d been up to since the ’90s, which includes a Michael Jackson biopic and another possible cult flick of his called Weirdsville.

On paper, Weirdsville has been done before: Two stoner buddies stumble into wacky situations and misunderstandings, trying to keep their heads above the water just enough to take another toke on their bongs. I’ve seen this sort of thing played light and odd (Dude, Where’s My Car?), but Weirdsville takes a darker route that runs, stumbles, and flat-out falls through the story.

In the seedy districts of Toronto (is there such a thing?), drug consumers/salespeople Dexter and Royce are having a very bad night. They owe all manner of Loonies and Toonies to their thumbs-chopping dealer and have decided to resort to one big heist to solve their problems. Unfortunately, their key link in the plan, a girl named Matilda who knows the safe combination to a store, overdoses and winds up dead. A tad bummed, the impulsive Royce and introspective Dexter decide to bury her body at a drive-in movie theater (why not?) and continue with the plan anyway.

If only they knew what type of movie they were in, dear readers, if only. They’d probably just head straight on home and get a good night’s sleep if they did.

Before long, their simple criminal plan spirals far out of control, drawing them the ire and attention of angry Satanists, angrier medieval-focused little people, and the angriest drug dealer of them all. Plus, there’s some kidnapping, drug usage, and random violence to keep things spicy.

I like Moyle, I really do. I think he writes interesting characters, has a good head for comedy, and isn’t afraid to scribble outside the lines in his movie coloring book. Yet having druggies – particularly pushers – as your lead characters makes the job of having us root for them all that much harder. And as Weirdsville skews more toward black humor and away from laugh-out-loud silliness (although there are moments), it just keeps your interest somewhat sated without raising any standards.

But I can’t say that this movie demands your attention so much as pleads for it, and that isn’t a good thing. A very mixed bag indeed rather than a return to form.