Prom went poorly this year, dear?
The Wicked of Oz (2026) is an odd collage of tropes: contemporary swipes such as smartphones, The Wizard of Oz and its many offspring, Night of the Living Dead franchise, and a pack of young men who seem deprived of any common sense. It’s weird, and the script would have benefited from one or two more drafts, if only to eliminate some plot holes that bothered me. The climactic battle was particularly ridiculous.
But mix in some competent acting, some good cinematic music, the use of tomatoes in place of shotgun shells, and it was actually surprisingly good. The actors play it straight, and it works. I’m not going out on a rotting limb and recommending a viewing, but sometimes I go into a movie wondering if I’ll last until the end, and, instead, I enjoy myself, if not entirely, at least in part. An example of previous movies of this type includes Predators (2010). And, to some extent, this movie, The Wicked of Oz, falls into the same category.
Kudos to what felt like a student-made film.
