Movie Review: Arbor Day (2023)

Written by Elmo Birch, and Hubie Giblets, and directed by Joseph Sikorski, Arbor Day is an indie horror-comedy film about a killer who strikes on… Arbor day. It begins showing the history of why the killer made him this was on Arbor Day, specifically, and after some backstory, it catches up to the current time and starts getting a lot more bizarre and interesting.

The style of the film and writing are definitely taken from the ’80s or early ’90s indie horror playbooks, which we really liked. It’s a horror-comedy, and it’s also very self-aware and uses that to its advantage. Another thing we liked was the cinematography. It reminded us of old SOV-style films like Sledgehammer. Sledgehammer was not as self-aware but was right there in a lot of the same ways, stylistically.

The practical effects were great and also bad, which we loved. Bring on the cheesy practical effects over CGI any day. It’s nice to see a lot of it in Arbor Day. They didn’t really hold back and pulled off some interesting kills. The score was also fantastic, and the 80’s rock was a nice touch. It isn’t often that a horror movie nails it with its own theme song and montage music, but they nail it here. The acting was bad, and that was a good thing.

Overall, Arbor Day is a really good indie horror film. It’s self-aware but funny about it. It has some pretty awesome cheese when it comes to the gore, the soundtrack, and the ’80s and ’90s horror tropes. It’s a fun film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s refreshing to see new horror filmmakers show some love to the old classics, while still being imaginative.

We would definitely recommend this to any horror fans and think most will enjoy it.

Arbor Day releases TOMORROW 4/28/2023, on Arbor Day! So be sure to get your copy and watch at all of your Arbor Day parties!
Rent it here on Amazon Prime! https://amzn.to/3HIZTVt

Watch the trailer here!: