The Boneyard VHS Review
In The Boneyard, Detective Jersey Callum asks psychic Alley Cates, traumatized by the memories of dead children from her last case, for help with a new case. The investigation takes them to the coroner’s office which is overseen by iron-fisted Mrs. Poopinplatz played by Phyllis Diller and Shepard played by Norman Fell (TV’s Mr. Roper). The corpses of three children possessed by demons come to life and terrorize the morgue. The cast try everything to get out of the morgue and away from the zombie children.
The acting in The Boneyard is on par with any other Hollywood production and garners no rewards or complaints from this reviewer. The over-all production of the film is of good quality and makes for a decent watch.
The special effects were pretty top notch for 1991. The zombies were heavily decayed latex masterpieces. It was all good enough to get me to suspend my disbelief for the duration and enjoyment of the movie. *SPOILER ALERT* The Mega-Phyllis Diller zombie was obviously a large puppet on top of an operator, like that of any parade, but the sheer hilarity of the idea put into action on the screen makes up for any lack of quality in the execution. The inclusion of this is the best reason to watch this movie, that and the mega-poodle zombie. Let’s just say the movie takes a very entertaining turn for the absurd in its final half hour.
The Boneyard kind of plays out like a long version of “Murder She Wrote” with zombies, not that it’s bad or geared towards the elderly, but the era in which it was made and the age of most of the cast led me to this conclusion. I certainly enjoyed watching it and would recommend it to anyone with a good sense of humor and a love of zombies. I hear the DVD has a hilarious interview with Phyllis Diller that I will certainly check out and add to this review, given the chance.
