black comedy Archives

Werewolf Triple Bill – Part II

Posted on February 18, 2025February 18, 2025 by fenrisfil

The full moon is up again here at Screen-Wolf, so it’s time for another werewolf triple bill. I think I’ve finally washed the bad taste of “Wolf Man” (2025) out of my mouth, so this will be the last one for now. Here are three more reviews of this difficult to pull off sub-genre of horror. Tonight I present you with “Bad Moon” from 1996, “Wolf Cop” from 2014 and “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” from 2020. One thing these all have in common is they are all from writer/directors (In the case of Snow Hollow also the star). So these are very much one man’s vision, yet each vision is radically different. I love the posters for all three of these by the way. It’s always nice to not have to share generic giant head posters. Anyway, let’s take a bite out of these movies shall we?

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)

“The Wolf of Snow Hollow” is from actor/writer/director Jim Cummings, who also stars in the movie. This black comedy horror is his second feature, after his acclaimed “Thunder Road” (2018) debut. He is supported by Riki Lindhome, Chloe East, Jimmy Tatro and Robert Forster (In his final performance). Cinematography is from Natalie Kingston and music is provided by Ben Lovett. The 2020 indie movie was made for a mere $2 million and clocks in at only 84 minutes. Cumming’s plays Jon Marshall, a Deputy Sheriff and struggling alcoholic with anger management issues and young daughter.

After a vacationer discovers the mangled body of his girlfriend at their rental house in Snow Hollow, the police begin a manhunt for her killer. Deputy Sheriff Marshall takes the lead. When a second victim is found with her head and arm torn off and wolf fur found at the scene the investigation takes a turn for the macabre. Marshall refuses to believe this can be a werewolf. He is hampered though by his struggle with alcoholism and his conflicts with those around him, including his daughter. No one seems to have faith in Marshall’s ability to solve this case, least of all himself.

Anger Management

This is one of those horror comedies that forgets to be either funny or scary. As a dark comedy, you expect this somewhat as usually the humour comes from quirky characters and odd situations. Here though it seems the comedy is meant to come from the incompetence of the police, and it just doesn’t land for me. Dark comedies are tricky though, as are werewolf movies, so they set themselves a difficult task here. The movie also falls prey to a lot of the cliches of more recent film making. None of the characters are likeable and the movie seems to be trying to present a message about toxic masculinity. It’s not preachy, but it is a bit too on the nose. Possibly the problem is the movie is a little too focused on it’s lead (and writer/director).

That said, the movie has some positives. The attacks are well filmed (For the budget). The cast is reasonable and the identity of the killer isn’t obvious. The only problem was the character wasn’t really involved in the plot much, so you had no reason to suspect them. Honestly I didn’t actually care who it was by the end. This tends to be a problem with “Guess the Werewolf” films. There is another twist in regards to the werewolf that was a bit more predictable, given the nature of the film. Ultimately the ending fell flat for me. The rest of the film I’d call solid, except for actively disliking the protagonist. Creatively that is fine, but it is harder to like a movie when you think the protagonist is a dick. Anyway, this is a solid 5/10. Not terrible, but not a recommendation.

Wolf Cop (2014)

“Wolf Cop” is a low budget Canadian horror comedy from writer/director Lowell Dean. Staring Leo Fafard and Amy Matysio. It is very much a Saskatchewan production, shot entirely in Regina, Saskatchewan, largely featuring natives of the area and with a soundtrack from “Shooting Guns”, an instrumental Metal band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The production budget of $1 million was granted through a canadian film contest. The concept won through social media engagements and fan votes against nearly 100 rivals.

The movie follows “Lou Garou” (Fafard), an alcoholic cop in the small town of Woodhaven. Lou is mocked and disrespected by most of the locals, especially the criminals. He spends most of his time sleeping or at a local bar (Even when on duty). After investigating a report of devil worshipers he stumbles upon the murder of a local politician and is knocked out. He awakens later with no memory and a pentagram carved into his stomach. That isn’t the only change as his facial hair is now rapidly growing and his senses are heightened. That is just the start of it as eventually Lou finds himself turning into a Wolf Man. Not a feral beast though, but one that is still very much Lou – A alcoholic and a cop. As he looks into what happens he begins to discover a vast conspiracy.

It’s the Fuzz

If the name was not a give away, this is very much on the “Fun B-Movie” side of horror films. It is fully aware of what it is, but doesn’t go so overboard. They avoid falling into the trap of trying too hard to be bad. The movie actually starts out somewhat like The Wolf of Snow Hollow, with a small town, a washed up alcoholic cop as the lead, a more competent female deputy and a Sheriff that is largely uninvolved for most of the movie. That’s where the similarities end though. The comedy in this movie is obvious, the gore over the top and the identity of the Werewolf… well, it’s in the title of the film! The film offers few surprises but generally delivers exactly what you would hope for.

Unsurprisingly they have gone for more of a “Wolf Man” werewolf instead of something more wolf-like or monstrous. That approach is usually chosen to allow a little bit more humanity in the character. This is the case here, however it’s not for sympathy but rather to allow Wolf Cop to deliver the occasional one liner and to use his gun. Yes, this film features a werewolf that shoots people. It’s also the rare situation of a werewolf that is basically good, even in monster form. The movie still provides monstrous villains however. Despite the comparatively straight forward make up job of the “Wolf” form they actually do put effort into a unique and impressive and quite funny transformation. This is a fun movie that is much better than it probably had any right to be. Shockingly, I’m giving it a solid 6/10.

Bad Moon (1996)

“Bad Moon” comes from writer/director Eric Red. Eric is best known as a writer and penned the horror classics “The Hitcher” (1986) and “Near Dark” (1987). This is another Canadian movie, this time from Morgan Creek Productions and with a significantly higher budget (Especially with inflation) of $7 million. It is based on the novel “Thor” by Wayne Smith. The movie stars Mariel Hemingway, with support from Michael Paré and Mason Gamble. All reasonable mid tier actors that never quite made it to the big time. Paré is all over genre entertainment and usually safe casting, so no surprise to see him here. Cinematography comes from Jan Kiesser and the score is provided by Daniel Licht (Who is most famous for scoring the TV series “Dexter”).

During an expedition to Nepal, photographer Ted Harrison (Paré) and his girlfriend are attacked by a werewolf. Paré survives but as a result now carries the curse. He returns home and hides away in his remote lakeside cabin to try and find a way to cure his condition or live with it. After reaching out to his remaining family, his sister “Janet” (Hemingway) and her son “Brett” (Gamble) he agrees to move his trailer to the back of their house and stay with them. While he struggles with his condition in secret, the families dog “Thor”, suspects the truth and instinctively wants to protect his family from the danger.

Man’s Beast Friend

Of this round of reviews “Bad Moon” is undoubtedly the most traditional werewolf story. We know who the werewolf is from the start and he transforms into the standard “Howling” style beast. The creature actually looks pretty good, better than I expected. But then, back in 1996 there were a lot physical effects masters around and no drive to use CGI (For this kind of film anyway). Although we see a bit of the tragedy of the cursed lycanthrope, the focus is more on his sister and nephew. It’s not really their story either though and that is the real twist with this movie. The lead of this movie is the families’ dog “Thor”. It’s a novel approach that isn’t without issues, but it did make this werewolf movie stand out from the pack.

The plot itself is stripped down and straightforward, but it didn’t really need to do anything more complicated. The characters are likable enough and have a little depth, mostly from the conflicted nature of dealing with a loved family member turning into a monster. The tragic aspect of the story could have had a little more to it. Ted flips at some point from a sympathetic character to an outright villain and the change is a little jarring. Part of the reason for this is that he isn’t the focal character. Janet fairs a little better and you do feel her internal conflict in the situation. Thor though is the star, but even this could have been explored a little more thoroughly. The truth is this straight forward movie does just enough to make it work. Not outstanding, but just about worthy of a 6/10.

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.