Gingerdead Man Vs Evil Bong is a crossover between two b-movie horror villains but it fails to live up to its own core premise. Crossovers between horror icons is not a new idea, with early examples including 1943's Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. One of the most popular would be Freddy Vs Jason, a movie that took a decade to come to fruition. It was first pitched for the seventh Friday The 13th movie but development only started following 1993's Jason Goes To Hell, with an almost dizzying number of scripts being pitched and rejected. The resulting movie itself was fun, though it took about an hour for the title event to kick in.
The success of Freddy Vs Jason led to a greenlight for the long-stalled Alien Vs Predator in 2004. Many more crossovers were pitched in the years that followed, but despite the success of Freddy Vs Jason, none moved ahead. Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash was abandoned while Helloween - a proposed crossover between Halloween and Hellraiser - from Clive Barker and John Carpenter went nowhere. This is partly down to most filmmakers and critics feeling crossovers are blatant cash grabs, which is a hard point to argue given the quality of most of these films.
Horror fans will be familiar with production company Full Moon Features, who are behind the Puppet Master and Trancers franchises. Full Moon also specializes in movies featuring killer dolls or toys, and have made crossovers between their own series like Dollman Vs Demonic Toys or 2004's Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys. In 2006 they debuted two new franchises with The Gingerdead Man and Evil Bong. The former starred Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon) as a serial killer reincarnated as a gingerbread man while the latter is about a sentient bong who traps people inside it's "bong world," where they die in outlandish ways.
Both franchises are running to this day, but in 2013 it was time for them to crossover with Gingerdead Man Vs Evil Bong. The simple setup has the hero of the Evil Bong series Larnell (John Patrick Jordan, The Morning Show) head to a bakery owned by Gingerdead Man's final girl Sarah (Robin Sydney), but when the twisted cookie comes stalking them both, they need the Evil Bong's help. Sadly, the film is a bit of a slog, relying on flashbacks to previous movies to pad out the runtime while little of note happens in the present-day storyline, outside some forced stoner comedy.
Eventually, Gingerdead Man Vs Evil Bong puts the two killers in the same location, but there's no actual fight. They insult one another a little until Gingerdead Man is sucked into the bong world to continue his chase. The film runs a tight 80 minutes - copious flashbacks included - but it feels longer. Fans of both franchises might get something out of Gingerdead Man Vs Evil Bong, but its a very skippable crossover - though it does have a fun Shining reference.