Year: 1991
Director: Rolfe Kanefsky
Screenplay: Rolfe Kanefsky
Starring: Craig Peck, Wendy Bednarz, Mark Collver, John Carhart, Bonnie Bowers
Genre: Comedy, science-fiction, horror
Running Time: 91 minutes
Seven students head off to a remote house in the woods, and soon come under attack from a vicious alien creature. However, one of the group, Mike (Peck), is able to use his extensive knowledge of horror movies to help them defeat the creature.
This low-budget blend of comedy and horror is most notable as an early example of post-modern horror, five years before Wes Craven's hugely successful Scream (1996) popularised the genre. The film parodies the various tropes of teen slasher films, which are discussed at length by sarcastic movie fan Mike. Bits of the film are clever and funny, such as a character escaping the monster by grabbing the hanging microphone boom and using it to swing to safety, while the soundtrack plays a riff on the "Indiana Jones" theme. It's the kind of film that would probably work best if played at a horror festival or convention or towards the end of an all-night horror movie marathon, when an audience might be more kindly disposed to laugh at it. The film suffers from low production values, atrocious performances, and terrible special effects. The monster is a puppet that looks like a cross between a giant frog and a fish with large teeth and shoots green rays out of it's eyes, which enable it to take control of the minds of its victims. The female characters really have nothing to do except run around wearing as little as possible, and the film's ostensible hero is extremely unlikeable, with his constant sarcastic comments. The film is an interesting curio for fans of horror, but has little real value as a movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment