The eighties are probably best remembered for big shoulder pads, terrible perms, lurid make up and leg warmers. It doesn’t exactly shriek death and danger (although, crimes to fashion are a pretty serious thing). Director Cody Calahan has managed to create a world that blends lurid neons and synth pop with the shadowy menace of a bunch of serial killers on the loose in his horror comedy, Vicious Fun.
Joel (Evan Marsh) is a horror writer, not a magazine journalist. He’s also hopelessly in love with his roommate. So much so, he’s followed her date to an out-of-town Chinese restaurant in order to get the measure of him. He drinks so much he passes out in a cupboard, only to wake up in the midst of a “serial killers anonymous” meeting. Can this Marty McFly rip off survive the night in amongst them?
The introduction of the various serial killers themselves is utterly hysterical. We have Hideo (Sean Baek), a cannibal who can slow his heart rate down to nothing in order to wait for his prey. Then there’s Mike (Robert Maillet) a humungous bruiser who has a taste for sorority girls. Fritz, the accountant (Julian Richings), is every bit as logical and prescriptive about his victims as you can imagine. Oh, he also likes to dress up as a clown. Then there’s Carla (Amber Goldfarb), the mysterious biker chick who seems to have racked up a pretty impressive ahem head count this year.
By far, the star of the show is Bob (Ari Millen). He has the thick, white pallor of a Twilight extra whilst dressed like he’s on the set of Miami Vice. Millen’s physicality is something else. He’s practically elastic as he stalks around the group, assuming a number of disguises along the way. He has the eyes of a silent film star and all the cutting one liners you would want for a kitsch super villain.
Much of the film is set in the shadows, the only light coming from the red and yellow lighting of the restaurant or the flickering light of a police cell. It’s moody and atmospheric, which only serves to make the comedy more absurd. It’s also punctuated by Steph Copeland’s synth-y, popp-y score, which feels like Halloween meets Suspiria meets Stranger Things. You will find yourself bopping along to it – no matter what’s going on on screen.
Calahan delivers all the hacking and slashing you’d expect from a nostalgic slasher movie. There’s a nail in the forehead, a desk to the face, a pencil through either ear and a disemboweling. The violence might make you squirm a bit, but the over the top blood splatters and “whomp whomp whomp” of the soundtrack sees it almost like an extension of the verbal comedy.
The comedy side of things derives from your typical “fish out of water” set up. Joel is whiny and uncool; forever in the friendzone. He tries to use his horror movie knowledge to get the serial killers to like him – a set up which is utterly hysterical as they try to unpick his MO. Evan Marsh is brilliant in the lead role. He has a real panache for comic delivery and some of his facial expressions are really well-timed.
Vicious Fun gives more than a few knowing nods to the films it lovingly sends up. There are some absolutely genius one-liners peppered throughout the script, but a particular favourite is: “I sure hope I don’t die. I’m the only thing my step daughter, Sharon, has left in the world.”
Extremely clever in its execution, the film is like a screwball comedy meets slasher flick. It’s knowingly hyperbolic and delivers on both sides of the genres it aims to blend. And, at just a 95 minute run time, it may well leave you wanting more.
Vicious Fun absolutely lives up to its name. My only regret is not getting to see this sitting amongst the lively Fright Fest crowd. The festival has, in the past few years, been throwing up some spectacular pieces of horror comedy – and this movie is certainly one of them.
Vicious Fun is screening at the Glasgow Film Festival until March 9. Click here to get your tickets.
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