If the van’s a-rockin’, don’t be knockin’ Uncle Peckerhead

Available now on Sky Movies, “Uncle Peckerhead” may have a weird title and an even weirder premise but it surprises by being good, goofy, gory fun, with a pretty good soundtrack to boot (if punk is your thing).

Looking to get their career going, up and coming punk band ‘Duh’ are heading out on the road but when their means of transport is confiscated by repo men, the band are forced to make a deal with local weirdo ‘Peckerhead’. Once on the road, they soon find out their genial and eminently helpful roadie is, by night, a flesh-eating demon but good help is hard to find and the band are split on whether to continue the tour or stop and flee for their lives.

A tongue-in-(often someone else’s)-cheek, bloodsoaked musical road trip romp, “Uncle Peckerhead” balances the sometimes tricky combo of humour and horror thanks in large part to the likeable performances from the main cast, especially David Littleton as Peckerhead himself. Brimming with folksy charm, he acts as mentor and driver by day and ravenous undead enforcer by night, devouring anyone who stands in the band’s way. In fact, the performances across the board are really strong, unusually so for these kinds of indie horror movies. The three members of ‘Duh’ – Chet Siegel, Ruby McCollister and Jeff Riddle have great chemistry together, landing somewhere between the Scooby Gang and Scott Pilgrim’s Sex Bob-Omb and while the character work isn’t to any great depth, what there is, is well done.

There’s a judicious and well- sprinkling of gleeful splatter scenes throughout sure to sate even the most bloodthirsty gorehound and while it may never get as dark as some may like but it’s a great big grizzly bear hug of a horror movie and one which would make a killer double-bill with “Deathgasm” for metal horror fans.