The Weird Kidz Review | Zach Passero | 2022 | 1 hr 20 min | PG-13 (US) |
- Director Zach Passero
- Starring Ellar Coltrane, Tess Passero, Sydney Wharton
- Runtime 1 hr 20 min
- Subgenre Animated horror comedy
- Reviewed by Hope Madden
Three sixth graders tag along on a desert camping weekend with one boy’s older brother and his girlfriend. Then a murderous monster turns up, and their bad choices start to cost them.
The Weird Kidz is Zach Passero’s hand-drawn horror comedy, written, directed and animated by Passero over eight years. Hope Madden’s The Weird Kidz review finds a crude, fond picture of a Gen X childhood in the New Mexico desert, where three sixth graders go camping with a mouthy older brother and his girlfriend and meet a murderous monster. If you read our piece on the fearsome power of animation, this is a very different cartoon nightmare: low-fi, late 80s and rough at the edges on purpose. It is one of the odder cartoons to reach the horror movie reviews on Ginger Nuts of Horror. Here is why Hope thinks it is an odd choice, but not a bad one.
Zach Passero’s hand-drawn labour of love is crude in every sense, and that is the point. The Weird Kidz looks back at an unsupervised Gen X childhood with real fondness for its foolish heroes, then slides from raunchy comedy into horror comedy without losing any of its honesty. An odd choice, but not a bad one.
The Weird Kidz Review: A Crude Love Letter to an Unsupervised Childhood
Let’s say you just watched Wildwood, and you need more animation. I’m going to be honest, The Weird Kidz would be an odd choice. But not a bad one.
Writer/director Zach Passero’s animation style bends a little closer to a decidedly white trash version of South Park, but the visuals perfectly suit the film’s low-fi, late 80s vibe. Somewhere in the New Mexico desert, sixth grader Dug (Tess Passero) and his buddies Fatt (Brian Ceely) and Mel (Glenn Bolton) head out for a cool camping weekend with Dug’s high school senior brother, Wyatt (Ellar Coltrane) and his very cool girlfriend, Mary (Sydney Wharton).
Yes, Wyatt needles his little brother and calls all the boys “scrote.” Indeed, he may not be a great choice to keep an eye on a gaggle of middle schoolers, especially once the murderous monster emerges. But Passero’s writing is full of genuine fondness for these characters, and they for each other, no matter what dangerously idiotic things they may do.
Hand-drawn over eight years, Passero’s film is an obvious labor of love, a crudely drawn but not inaccurate remembrance of a time when children went unsupervised. Youngsters were free to waste hours on end at a convenience store racking up an arcade game high score and eyeing the covers of porn magazines. Adults would look the other way as pre-teens shoplifted beers and headed, seatbelt free, out to the desert. You could just walk around with BB guns. The delightfully crude animation fits right in.
As does the violence, because dangerously idiotic choices often lead to bad places.
Passero never gives up on his kids, and I don’t mean that in a traditionally wholesome way. Mary’s been in the back seat of a squad car before. None of them have much of a future, and Passero presents them without judgment. The way his characters—dumbasses, all—care for each other is probably my favorite part of the film.
The Weird Kidz turns from sweetly raunchy comedy to horror comedy with little difficulty and without losing any of the unapologetic authenticity of its Gen X childhood vibe.
3 1/2 stars out of 5
The Verdict: Is The Weird Kidz Worth Watching?
3.5out of 5
The verdict
A crude, fond and honest horror comedy that turns its rough edges into charm.
Watch it if: you want animated horror with late 80s grit and real affection for its foolish kids.
Skip it if: you need polished animation, or like your childhood adventures wholesome.
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About Ginger Nuts of Horror
Ginger Nuts of Horror is an independent horror review and culture site based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edited by British Fantasy Award nominee Jim McLeod, it publishes horror book reviews, film reviews, author interviews, features and cover reveals. Ginger Nuts of Horror won Best Inclusive Film & Book Review Platform at the SME News UK Enterprise Awards 2026.
