What if a drunken karaoke performance was so bad it literally killed you? That’s essentially the premise of the horror-comedy “Bad Karaoke,” which world-premiered at Tubi FrightFest on Sunday.
Directed by Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., the film follows a traveling party band that stops at a local dive bar and discovers an old karaoke machine. Expecting a night of harmless singing and bonding, the band quickly realizes the machine has deadlier plans: as soon as the music starts, so does the bloodshed. When a stellar vocal performance temporarily spares one member, the crew thinks they’ve cracked the code to survival. Proven almost immediately wrong, it takes more horrifying deaths and a visit from a mysterious stranger to realize they may have a chance at survival after all.
While the cast largely plays into familiar tropes, the ensemble is surprisingly likable. Jonathan Jason Green turns in solid comedic timing, while Lexi Underwood, Case Walker, and Kat Cunning impress with vocal chops that offer anything but “bad” karaoke.
A killer karaoke machine sounds absurd, but the filmmakers keep the story grounded by treating the performances like a game of survival, rather than having the machine itself out for blood (even if they did do a decent job at making the Sing-a-ling look sinister). The inventive kills are the real draw, though. Sure, we’ve seen exploding heads and hearts ripped from chests before, but “death by butthole explosion?” That was definitely a genre first.
Music is naturally part of the film, though it wisely avoids becoming a full-blown musical. Most songs serve as fodder for the killer machine rather than plot-advancing set pieces, treating audiences to renditions of classics like LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love?”
Gorehounds will appreciate the sheer brutality on display. While the deaths rely heavily on digital effects, the film balances them with messy practical gore in the aftermath, making the less polished CGI much easier to swallow.
The film stumbles slightly with its tone. The humor doesn’t always land, and the shifts between horror-comedy and dramatic beats can feel jarring. One notable exception is a clever breakfast scene that successfully injects comedy straight into a tense moment.
Despite a few tonal misfires, “Bad Karaoke” is an energetic, entertaining popcorn horror flick and a solid directorial debut for Steinmiller Jr. and Lightbody. It delivers fun set pieces that never feel cheap, backed by a backstory that makes the absurdity surprisingly satisfying.
