Violent Cannibal Comedy Will Make You Laugh When You Shouldn’t, Stream Without Netflix
It’s hard to talk about Lowlifes without spoiling any of its multiple reveals, but I was pleasantly surprised by this Tubi original horror comedy that recently showed up on my feed. Comedy slashers like Dude Bro Party Massacre III or Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead are great because they use gratuitous amounts of comically fake violence to drive the humor and get some cheap laughs.
Lowlifes, on the other hand, has some pretty realistic-looking gore, but it’s offset by the Leave It to Beaver kind of family that we’re supposed to be rooting for before the cannibalism starts, and they have to rely on their survival instincts to survive the horrors that await them.
Lowlifes On Tubi
Lowlifes boasts your typical horror plot about a family that doesn’t get along and embarks on their annual RV vacation. Okay, it’s not that they don’t get along, but there’s tension because teenagers Jeffrey (Josh Zaharia) and Amy (Amanda Fix) are approaching college age and ready to go on their own adventures.
Amy sneaks off to smoke whenever she gets a chance, and Jeffrey isn’t as enthusiastic about playing Mad Libs as he used to be, indicating that the family dynamic is changing.
A Not-So-Typical Family Vacation
Keith (Matthew MacCaull) and Kathleen (Elyse Levesque) are your by-the-numbers out-of-touch parents from LA in Lowlifes, but they mean well.
While Kathleen has to point out to Keith that their kids aren’t necessarily kids anymore, she is also a helicopter parent who tries to keep Jeffrey and Amy well-behaved despite their unwillingness to participate in the usual family activities.
The idyllic family’s vacation takes a sinister turn when they run into a couple of hillbillies named Vern (Richard Harmon) and Billy (Ben Sullivan), who are looking for their missing brother, Melior (Todd Masters).
Going Down The Wrong Road
The family, clearly shaken by Vern and Billy’s presence, decide to pack up their RV and continue down the road.
It doesn’t take long for them to run into the “lowlifes” again, but this time, Vern is brandishing a shotgun, and his broken-down truck is blocking the only road back to civilization.
After a healthy amount of bickering, Keith and Kathleen agree to drive Billy back to his family’s isolated house in the middle of nowhere so he can get what he needs to fix his car, but only if he gets into the RV without any weapons.
Not For The Faint Of Heart
Upon the family’s arrival, they’re introduced to Billy’s suspiciously hospitable family as they’re in the middle of preparing dinner.
From this point forward, Lowlifes is relentless with its use of misdirection and willingness to defy every single genre trope that you’re familiar with.
Though the second and third acts of this movie aren’t for the faint of heart, Lowlifes never loses its sense of humor. The RV family does whatever they can to get back on the road and continue their family vacation.
Need To See To Believe
For a production that has no celebrity actors, Lowlifes is one of those movies that you need to see to believe.
Not only is the acting strong but there are also surprises around every corner that are as unexpected as they are amusing.
I wish I could tell you more about this movie without spoiling what makes this violent horror comedy so fun, but you’ll be happy that I didn’t really tell you about much of anything outside of its first-act setup.
Streaming Lowlifes
REVIEW SCORE
If you’re looking for a refreshing take on the “family vacation gone wrong” plot that so many other horror movies have done in the past, then Lowlifes is the subversive slasher that you don’t want to sleep on. You can stream Lowlifes exclusively on Tubi whenever you’re ready to take a trip into uncharted territory.
