Horror Comedy

All posts tagged Horror Comedy

Review: Doctor Spine

Published December 19, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

doctor spineI know a couple of masochists who actually enjoy going to the chiropractor. For those who find bone cracking to be a bit more disturbing, though, writer-director John Wesley Norton has created the fun horror-comedy Doctor Spine.

Styled after the old EC comics, this lurid adventure follows Joe Spine, a mild mannered chiropractor, whose personality is split between his dead, truly demented father and Patch Castle, the villain from a series of childhood books, after a therapy session goes bad. Soon his father is controlling the day and there isn’t a slightly crooked psychologist or sexy dame in sight who is safe from Joe’s fatal fingers. It is only the love of Spine’s most devoted patient, Mindy, that could possibly restore the normally soft spoken healer to his former virtuousness.

Nicely, Norton frames and colors the action as if it were part of the fantastic cartoons that inspired him. The standout of the production, though, is its fantastic genre cast, who all turn in top notch performances. As expected, scream queen Tiffany Shepis, who provides the film’s penultimate shock piece, and The Addams Family’s Lisa Loring apply energetic sass as various seductresses in the doctor’s life. Comedian Judy Tenuta, Seinfeld ’s Larry Thomas, 60s TV favorite Kathy Garver and up and coming character actress Colleen Elizabeth Miller, also, supply moments of frothy fun. But it is Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister and indie exploitation king Joe Estevez, as Castle and Spine Sr., who bring the most to the table. Estevez, in particular, provides a smoothly wicked, truly accomplished turn here.

Most importantly, while some of the exposition scenes could have benefited from the zany goriness that dominates the film’s final third, actor Michael Wexler’s take on the title character is always engaging. He takes viewers through the various scenarios with skilled underhandedness, adding both tender heart and subtle mania to Norton’s admirable creation.

Unfortunately, on December 12th, 2015, mere days after his 52nd birthday, Wexler was hit by car and killed. Thus, this film stands not only as a testament to his talent, but as an accomplished memoriam as well.

http://www.doctorspinemovie.com/

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: The Slashening

Published October 23, 2015 by biggayhorrorfan

slashening
My sleepovers were always so boring. Not a jock strap or a blowjob in sight!

Fortunately for viewers, Lucy (Anna Cellegari) and her friends definitely make up for my deficiencies in writer-director Brandon Bassham’s outrageous and frequently fun The Slashening. Trying to get over a breakup with her unfaithful boyfriend, Lucy and her best friends gather for an overnight get-together. Of course, there is a serial killer on the loose – or is it actually the ghost of Rusty Joe, a homeless sex worker, who was murdered by his nervous clients!?! But, once the booze and drugs…and boys get flowing, the girls could care less about any outside dangers. Well, that is until they begin to be savagely murdered, one by one. As their numbers lessen, the popular Lucy and the awkward Margo (Samatha Reece Schecter) find themselves facing off against some very unexpected intruders. Will they both make it out alive?

Bassham fills this smart homage with a couple of truly inventive twists and obviously revels in the expected slasher stereotypes. Some of the sex jokes and humorous bits do go on for a bit too long, but the very competent cast commits to them with glorious enthusiasm. The murders, courtesy of Merritt Evelyn Christensen’s fine make-up effects, are also pretty effective and comically industrious, with the demises of coke fiend Beth (Dana Clinkman) and the very proper Eva (Lily Du) standing out from among the rest.

Nicely, the underlying homoeroticism of these films is, also, referenced here and Du and Callegari, also, hesitantly and subtly, address male viewers’ infatuation with hot lesbian co-eds in another fine moment.

The Slashening has been distributed by Troma and is, also, available on Amazon (where it has been heavily edited) and the FilmRise Channel on RoKu.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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