black comedy Archives

A Bucket Of Blood (1959)

Posted on October 25, 2023October 25, 2023 by fenrisfil

For tonight’s October Challenge Review, I’m checking out the Roger Corman directed black comedy horror “A Bucket of Blood” from 1959. This was a turning point in the legendary producer/directors career. While he had was always a master of B-Movies, this was the first of a strong run of films which including the original “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” in 1960, “Pit and the Pendulum” in 1961, “Tale of Terror” in 1962 and “The Raven” and “The Haunted Palace” in 1963. Despite being made in five days for $50k, its often considered one of Corman’s finest works. So let’s see if this is truly a work of art or just a feat of clay….

Walter Paisley Is Born!

A Bucket of Blood was written by Charles B. Griffith who would go on to pen two more of Corman’s cult classics “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Death Race 2000”. The movie stars Dick Miller as the slow, impressionable, busboy and wannabe artist “Walter Paisley”. Supporting cast includes Barboura Morris, Antony Carbone and Julian Burton.

The straight forward plot sees Walter desperately trying to become an artist so he can fit in with the crowd of Beatnik Hipsters at “The Yellow Door Cafe” and win the affections of cafe hostess “Carla” (Morris). His problem is he completely lacks talent and gets easily frustrated. One evening at home he hears his neighbours cat stuck in the wall and in attempting to free the pet Walter accidentally kills it. Feeling creatively inspired and desiring to cover up the accident he covers the cat in clay and presents it as a sculpture to Carla and his boss Leonard (Carbone). The “Sculpture” goes down well with Carla and the crowd at the cafe and encourage him to create more.

After Walter murders a police officer that was trying to arrest him for possession of heroin (Given to him by a fan at the cafe), he turns the corpse into a new “Sculpture”, gaining further accolades from the crowd at the cafe. Encouraged by their praise and afraid of being forgotten, Walter continues to murder people to turn them into even more macabre “Art”. This can’t go on forever of course, especially not with someone as dimwitted as Walter doing it. Leonard has already figured it out, but gaining a big cut of his sales he has so far kept quiet. When Leonard puts on a bit exhibition for Walter, things are bound to come to a head.

What is Art?

So first of all, I loved how well this movie sends up the pretentious and fickle nature of the beatnik art scene. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same and I can’t help but feel you could remake this film in the modern day and this side of it would work just as well now as it did then. The bohemian crowd at the cafe where Walter works initially look down their nose at him, much as they do anyone they consider mundane and not creative. But as soon as he presents his work to them, they (mostly) treat him like a superstar. Falling over themselves to hang out with him and offering large amounts for his work. They even greet the unimaginative, purely descriptive titles of his pieces (Such as “Dead Cat”) like the naming itself is a work of genius.

Every character here is a clever parody of the kinds of characters you would find in such a community. Leonard is both repulsed by the art, even before realizing what they really are. Yet he is overcome with greed when bids start coming in for it. After a man offers him $300 for “Dead Cat”, Leonard gives Walter just $50 as his cut and only does this as an excuse for Walter not to work as a bus boy anymore since he understandably creeps him out. Later Leonard remarks “I’m starting for feel responsible for this”.

Go Down You Murderer!

One benefit of the setting is that it provides a Jazz heavy soundtrack, which was actually pretty common in 1959 but I’m yet to find this a negative. A lot of the score mixes in the Jazz elements with standard horror elements and the result is a pretty intense, fast paced soundtrack. Mixed in with that are the diegetic tracks such as the folk track “The Ballad of Tim Evans” (The story of a man condemned for murder) played shortly after the first murder. All told, excellent use of music throughout.

Effects wise… well there aren’t any really outside of the clay statues (Which is more prop than effect) and the ending especially you can tell they didn’t have the time or budget to quite do it justice. Fortunately though the ending still works (And actually makes sense given Walter’s incompetence is an important theme of the story). The rest of the film didn’t really need effects. It’s actually very much designed from the ground up to work with the limitations that Corman had in place. This is why he is the master of the B-movies.

The King of the B’s

It’s very easy to dismiss B-movies and those that make them as lesser cinema/film makers. But that doesn’t do justice to just how clever and skillful those that make them have to be to create something good with so little money and in such a short period of time. Not to mention how in tune you have to be with the audiences to actually be successful. Corman has produced a lot of bad movies, usually the ones that take effects, musics and entire scenes from other movies. But even those are far better than they probably had any right to be. Between those though there are actually a lot of good movies and it’s no shock really to find many Marvel fans still consider his unreleased (But leaked) Fantastic Four movie to be the most accurate version of the team to date.

While my favourite Corman movie will probably always be “Battle Beyond The Stars”, this is definitely one of his best. While it’s not scary or even particularly unsettling, the satire on the art community/beatnik community was absolutely nailed and doing it with such a macabre story is in itself quite poetic. This is a strong 6.5/10. Oh and there is a literal bucket of blood in it, so the title isn’t completely random!

Head of the Family (1996)

Posted on October 24, 2023October 24, 2023 by fenrisfil

Tonight for my October Challenge Review, I’m checking out the 1996 Horror Comedy “Head of the Family” from Charles Band. Band is mostly known as a producer and one of the most prolific producer of low budget (Mostly horror) movies in the history of the movies, likely only behind his idol Roger Corman. Every now and then, such as with this movie, he steps behind the camera himself. Well, to be fair he’s taken the directors chair 86 times, which is more than some of the most prolific Hollywood directors. Often the results of these more hands on movies are very good. For example one of my favourite cult classics “Trancers” (1984) was a Band directed movie.

As can often be the case with B-Movie horror, Head of the Family features actors mostly know for appearing in this movie. Indeed many of the actors IMDB bio’s use a photo from this movie for their publicity shot. Unlike some of those movies though (Troll 2 comes to mind), they have been in other films and actually their acting was perfectly reasonable. You don’t make movies for the kind of budgets Charles Band works with by hiring big name Hollywood stars. Anyway, Blake Adams plays the movies lead “Lance” alongside Jacqueline Lovell as “Loretta” while the titular Head is played by J.W. Perra.

Dawn Of The Head.

The plot of the movie sees Lance attempt to blackmail a family of freaks known as the “Stackpool” after witnessing them kidnap someone late at night. The family is run by “Myron” who is little more than a head. Myron’s over-sized brain is able to psychically control the other members of his family, who all are intellectual simpletons. Otis is the family’s muscle, inhumanly strong. Wheeler is the families eyes and ears, with superhuman perception and Ernestina… well I don’t have to tell you what she can do.

Lance has the family knock off the local crime boss so that he can steal his lady, the beautiful Loretta with whom he has been having an affair. After this is done though, Lance presses the rich family for more and causes Myron to take drastic action. This leads to a bizarre performance of Joan of Arc with a potentially fatal finale for Loretta.

Head And Butter.

The plot is simple, but has enough to it to for a little world building and allows the story to progress in a logical linear fashion. While the roles are fairly undemanding, the characters are quite fun. Lance and Loretta especially work well. Despite being total dirtbags, the pair present a lot of charm and personality. It definitely doesn’t hurt to get to see so much (Literally) of the lovely Mrs Lovell either. Most of the Stackpool family are one dimension by design, though their unique talents does makes them memorable. J.W. Perra did a particularly good job as Myron. I’m not sure if playing a head in a wheelchair is a hard role or an easy one, but he did a great job either way.

The effects are mostly in the bizarre look of the family (Myron in specific though Wheeler’s freaky eyes too) and they do their job fine. I have to give a mention to Richard Band’s soundtrack here as being particularly good and well suited to what was on screen. Richard is of course Charlies’ brother, so it’s no surprise to find he’s written over 100 movie scores, most of which for his brother’s productions. This one is a stand out though, with a quirky almost Addams Family vibe to it.

Conclusion (Sorry, No Pun Heading This Time).

Overall this is a fun movie and in my opinion exactly what a low budget B-Movie Black Comedy Horror should be. A crazy idea, straight forward plot and fun characters. A movie executed with minimal fuss and presented with just enough polish to have it stand out above all the other low budget B-Movies. While it is still a B-Movie, it is one worthy to be a cult classic.

For me this a 6/10, though your mileage may vary depending on how much you like these kind of films. If you were a fan of Charles Band produced Horror/Comedies such as Terrorvision, Re-Animator and Evil Bong, you’ll probably get a kick out of this. If not, I imagine this will probably make your head hurt!

12 Hour Shift (2020)

Posted on October 12, 2023October 12, 2023 by fenrisfil

For tonight’s October Challenge Horror review I’m checking out the Black Comedy Horror “12 Hour Shift” from Brea Grant. This stars long time Horror pro Angela Bettis, who I’ve been a fan of ever since watching Lucky McGhee’s “May” (2002). A talented actress that seems to struggle to find quality films to be in but has been in a few decent horrors over the years. Usually seen in McGhee’s movies, but this is a director I’m unfamiliar with so wasn’t sure what to expect.

Missing Organs.

The plot of the movie is basically a calamity of errors with added violence. Angela plays “Mandy” an overworked drug addicted nurse. Not only does she steal patients drugs she also runs an organ harvesting ring, knocking off the occasional patient so that a colleague can harvest the organs later and then sending them off to a local criminal boss “Nicholas” played by none other than former WWE champion Mick Foley.

Delivering these organs is her cousin (by marriage) “Regina” played by Chloe Farnworth, a complete plank of a woman with the IQ of a part of shoes and the morality of a psychopath. Most of the plot revolves around her antics. The rest of the cast is made up of a variety of eccentric characters (Because this is a black comedy so everyone has to be eccentric apparently) including former WCW champion David Arquette (Yes, that happened) as a cop hating psychopath. Regina having lost her delivery ends up on a bit of a killing spree in an attempt to replace the organ, but naturally messes it up every time. Since this was Mandy’s scheme she is left trying to fix it all.

Calamity of Errors.

The movie is set in 1999, but this really doesn’t impact anything at all in the plot. The soundtrack is far more modern and avante garde. If I’m not mistaken it is trying to imitate the style of “The Big Lebowski”, which may also explain the 90’s setting. I’ll say this up front though, if that was the intent it fails miserably. The soundtrack doesn’t really add anything or enhance the scenes and while Mandy is taking drugs, it’s not like in The Big Lebowski where he’s constantly being knocked out. Instead it just draws too much attention to itself.

There are several major problems with the movie. First of all, it’s a mess. Obviously a good part of that is by design, but most of the pieces in this mess are irrelevant, pop up to push the next calamity and then seep back into irrelevance. Perhaps part of the problem is the movie only ever focuses on Mandy and Regina and really makes the other characters feel two dimensional, overly goofy and downright incompetent. The level of incompetence is so high that it damages verisimilitude.

Wrestling With Demons.

David Arquette is completely wasted and his character could largely be removed from the film without that much impact. Mostly he he just pops up, waves a knife around and then the plot basically ignores him until it wants to pop him up again. When he eventually does something it’s dismissed easily and quickly forgotten. Similarly Mick Foley is horrendously underused. He’s actually pretty convincing in his role, but it’s kept so short it’s barely a cameo.

On the other hand Angela does a great job as lead and while Chloe overdoes her role somewhat, I think that is probably more direction/script than the actresses performance. I think she did remarkably well with what she had to work with. Her stupid and murderous antics are pretty entertaining in places. The big problem though is these are both terrible people. Chloe is effectively the villain of the story, but she’s so stupid that she doesn’t really drive any tension. It’s more just “What random stuff will happen next”.

Competence and Paramedics.

While we can sympathize with Mandy being overworked, living in her car between shifts and having to deal with all this craziness, we are constantly reminded that this organ harvesting ring is her idea and she is constantly stealing patients drugs. The plot hints at reasons why she may be so messed up, but does little else and because she is required to be the competent one, this largely conflicts with her constant drug taking and addiction. It seems she only gets away with what she does because everyone around her is completely incompetent. Perhaps the most incompetent is the cop that is called in after the first murder.

Overall, the movie has some amusing moments and there is some nice scene editing in places. However, it fails on most other levels. I never actually laughed at any of it or really felt any real tension. I didn’t care about or even like any of the characters and most importantly it didn’t draw me in enough to ignore how nonsensical most of the plot was. This movie is a 5/10. Not a total waste of time, but I wouldn’t go out of your way for it.

Babylon (2022)

Posted on April 2, 2023April 2, 2023 by fenrisfil

Today I’m reviewing Damien Chazelle’s all star black comedy epic drama. This behemoth of a movie clocks in at three hours and nine minutes in length and boy does it feel it! The movie has a lot of talent on screen with three leads in Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva. Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a brash ambitious young up and coming star of the silent screen. Pitt plays “Jack Conrad” an established star that is somewhat jaded and often having marital issues. Calva plays the true lead, “Manny Torres” a Mexican immigrant and studio assistant, who eventually works his way up to executive.

Naked Ambition.

Babylon is an ambitious look at the transition in Hollywood from silent movies to talkies, but in practice it is really just a collection of loosely connected scenes. The movie begins with Manny transporting an elephant to a debauched, drug-fuelled private festival for the rich and famous within the industry. This opening scene is long and provides much of the footage from the trailers. It’s not entirely clear if this is a celebration of the debauchery of classic Hollywood, a condemnation of it or just an excuse to film things that look good in the trailer. My guess is a bit of all three. The scene sets up Manny’s first meeting with Nellie and sets the tone for the movie.

From here we follow the characters through a series of scenes depicting movie productions, drunken, drug addled parties and occasionally the events in between. Manny becomes close with both Nellie, whom he has fallen for and Jack, so the story is really Manny’s. This contrasts the hard working backbone of classic Hollywood with the debauchery and mental instability of the stars that struggled not to believe their own hype. The concept there is solid enough, but the film is less solid in it’s execution.

Brad and Margot.

Margot Robbie does not provide the best performances of her career as the walking disaster Nellie (Who mostly drives the plot on by being randomly outrageous and self destructive). She is however in the movies best scene. One that comes on a fraught movie set during an early “Talkie” where tension over the quality of the sound recording drives everyone on set to their breaking point, with one character not even surviving. The scene is about fifteen minutes and is pretty deep into the movie.

Pitt however is almost totally wasted as disillusioned actor Jack Conrad. He has a few good scenes early on but ultimately you could remove him from the entire movie without impacting the overall narrative. This is especially true considering the other two main characters have a romantic relationship and so Jack’s scenes feel very much like a third wheel.

Make it Epic!

The big problem here is that dark comedies don’t really mesh well with ambitious epic story telling. On a scene by scene basis this is somewhat reminiscent of a Cohen Brothers movie, but their longest film is just over two hours and for good reason. This movie doesn’t even have it’s opening credits until the 40 minute mark. It largely just plods along and the events feel disconnected. Many of the scenes themselves are actually very good and the majority feature ambitious, flamboyant set pieces, which makes the movie appear more of a showcase of the directors talent than a coherent narrative.

This is a good example of a movie scaling up without reason, with a story that would have worked better more focused and personal. There is possibly a good, far shorter movie in here, but instead of that we got a movie that is self indulgent, pretentious and tiring to watch. I can’t help but wonder as well if this is meant to be a criticism of past Hollywood excess or a celebration of it. I mean you only have to look on social media to see modern actors are on the whole no more stable than their 1920’s counterparts. I can’t help but feel the movie missed an opportunity to make a genuine statement on all that.

The Final Word.

Ultimately the movie is a let down. Some scenes may be 7/10’s but as a whole the best I can give this film is 5/10. Unless you have a new sofa you really want to wear an ass grove into, I’d give it a skip.