Blood Alley

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater
Through April 9

This latest excursion into the macabre from the ever unpredictable Zombie Joe is cut in the mold of the earlier running hit, Urban Death, but is slightly more fun to watch.

The setting is a “forgotten” street alley where all sorts of horrors have played out over time. Some thirty plus scenes unfold over an hour that are sure to make your skin crawl (well, almost — some are rather tepid), and it’s all done with flashes of light and dark, lights on, lights off, in “flicker show” fashion, so that you never know what is evolving in the dark and coming around the corner.

In the opening tableau, a writhing mass of ghostly corpses, piled up against the wall, perform a delightfully grotesque song and dance number that is redolent of some eerie Druidic or Bacchanalian ritual. The bloody bodies, ghostly apparitions and creature beings who appear do so under the spell of a very unsettling musical score by Kevin Van Cott, who also provides some evocative work on the drums, and appears as the resident policeman.

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 11 p.m.; through April 9. (818) 202-4120 or www.Zombiejoes.com. Running time: one hour with no intermission.