Given how serious and heavy the subject matter of the last movie I watched was, I figured it was time to try out some good, old fashioned horror comedy. Also, this is the first and possibly only of the horror movies on my list that aren’t about ghosts. Which the film even makes a joke about how there aren’t zombies in India and it’s all globalizations fault.

This movie is the classic stoner comedy meets horror in every way. An unabashed pothead, his friend that also smokes but has his life slightly more together, and their friend that doesn’t do drugs that they take advantage of go on a trip to an island for a rave party thrown by the Russian mafia. Surprisingly, the new drug that they are testing out that is supposed to be hyper addictive has the unfortunate side effect of also turning you into a zombie. As you can imagine, hijinks ensure.

The beginning of this movie is every Harold & Kumar-esque trope smashed together. This movie could have easily not had zombies and just been a standard “heartbroken loser on a quest for love” type of a thing but the horror elements make for some fun interactions. The comedy is especially good when they are slightly self aware about the whole situation but it does sometimes slip from funny observations to just outright saying what the trope is before doing it. While the zombies themselves aren’t exactly done with the best makeup effects ever, they’re just there to be run away from or shot and the film is not exactly trying to make them scary.

Just like any good stoner buddy comedy, the movie hinges on how well the main characters interact with each other. Thankfully Vir Das and Kunal Khemu, who play the main characters, have great banter and natural chemistry with each other that sells the relationship between them. I also really appreciate that nobody ends up getting with the main love interest of the movie. She early on tells both of them that she isn’t interested and it’s kind of refreshing that there isn’t a scene where she actually does fall for one of them.

While certainly not a laugh riot or as clever as something like Sean of the Dead, Go Goa Gone does manage to be a fairly fun and light movie that would be easy to watch with friends and great for a horror movie night where you don’t feel like actually getting scared.

Score: 3.5 out of 5