"Ding Dong Dead" is an expression of minimalism to a degree that even Jim Jarmusch would be envious. Shot on a shoestring budget using fewer than a dozen actors, it's pretty much nothing like I expected it to be. It's extremely slow-paced and lacking in all the departments that make a schlocky film fun to watch. It's not terrible enough to be funny, it's not particularly gory, in no way is it deplorable, and the acting is simply average.
The main character, Doug (Luke Y. Thompson), is an unemployed loner who lusts over the housewife living across the street. While picking up her mail when she is away on vacation, Doug learns of a rogue group of girls known as the DDs, who get their kicks by ding-dong-ditching various houses in the neighborhood. Deciding these shenanigans have gone too far, Doug decides to take matters into his own hands.
In retrospect, this probably would have made a fairly decent short film, but instead it was stretched out to just under 90 minutes. Yet, somewhere along my journey through this movie, I found myself enjoying the film for what it was. Its homemade quality adds quite a bit of charm, as does the quirky dialogue and the barebones manner in which it is shot.
I'm slow to judge a film of this stature very harshly because it is within the indie-film genre that heart and dedication go a long way. "Ding Dong Dead" is akin to the early works of the Kuchar brothers with a dash of Troma humor. That said, I'm hesitant to compare this to the works of Troma because it is very subtle in its pacing as compared to the over-the-top nature of most Troma pictures. Albeit, the homemade special effects were straight out of a "Tromadance" compilation. I'd like to add that the lead in the film is played to perfection by Thompson. It is a daunting task to make a loser/creep/stalker like Doug a likeable character, but Thompson manages to steal the show.
Too much of what is considered schlock these days is centered around grossout humor, senseless violence and explicit nudity. While I am a fan of all these things in a horror movie, "Ding Dong Dead" manages to be a rare entry to The Schlock Vault with its family-friendly qualities. The film itself is not anything special or groundbreaking, really; in fact, some would write it off as strictly boring, but I found it to be surprisingly refreshing. I equate it to the short films I used to shoot with friends armed only with a handheld and a loosely thrown together script. The finished product may not be award-winning material, but when it comes to low-budget fare such as this, it's fun to just sit back and admire the various intricacies of the filmmaking process.