The Cook - Es ist hingerichtet!

Merging genres in a film is never an easy thing to do. The filmmaker runs the risk of losing his/her intended message or focus. This is never more true when we are taking about the horror and comedy genres. The two are so completely opposite of each other that it is nearly impossible to pull off a horror-comedy effectively. Sure, there are examples of getting right, but there are definitely more examples of getting it wrong. "The Cook" doesn't get it wrong, so to speak, but would have been a much better, more effective film had he director completely eliminated the comedic elements of the film.

We are introduced to a typical college sorority house. It is break time, and several of the girls decide to stick around the house and have their own little celebration. At the same time, a new cook arrives. Now, this is the first puzzling element of the film; the sorority house is no bigger than a typical two story house. It does not appear to be that fancy of a college campus, judging by the house and its surroundings, so why or how on earth do they have their own personal Hungarian cook??? Ahhh....tuition money well spent, I suppose. Also, where does he stay, since he always seems to be there? Would a sorority house really hire a male chef to stay with the girls alone over a break? Anyway, The Cook ends up being a homicidal maniac and begins to off the sorority sisters one by one and use them in his recipes. Yes, he serves the dead girls to their sorority sisters in various forms, including hamburgers and barbecue.

The Good: The film is at its best when it is working as a horror film. The Cook is a creepy killer and the death scenes pretty brutal and unrelenting. The killings are very reminiscent of the kills we saw in the early "Friday the 13th" sequels and the other more gory entries into the 80's slasher genre, which is probably on purpose, as one scene has two characters talking about a death scene in "Friday the 13th Part 4" as the film intercuts a female victim is being killed in the exact same manner by The Cook. The direction is pretty competent, particularly during the death scenes, and the acting a tad above average. The film did manage to keep my attention and didn't drag in any parts.

The Bad: The film is at its worse when it is working as a comedy. The characters are complete clichés and the screenwriter tries to use this alone to provide comic relief. There is badly written banter between some of the girls and a completely unnecessary subplot involving the resident "badass-lesbian" who seduces the innocent, bible-thumping religious girl. In fact, the screenwriter must have a thing for lesbianism, because there are several unnecessary scenes of girl-on-girl action, as if this a normal thing in sororities. Still, the comedic tones to the film (and they are present) really, at least for me, killed the pacing and effectiveness of the movie. Again, The Cook is such a brutal killer (except when the writer is apparently trying to have him be funny by blabbering and saying stupid stuff in Hungarian) that this could have really been a kick-ass slasher film. Instead, after any brutal kill, there are bad moments of comic relief. The dailogue is clunky, the characters complete clichés and underdeveloped. There is no final confrontation between killer and final girl and the ending is too predictable and unsatisfying.

Another horror-comedy that should have just been strictly horror. Take the comedic element out of this film and you actually have a pretty decent, gory, slasher film. However, as is, the comedic elements diminish the films tone and effectiveness and aren't even all the funny to begin with. Average at best, but had the potential to be much better.

FrightMeter Grade: C

In a sorority some girls go on a vacation while others stay behind. We will follow those who stay at the sorority house. They're an entertaining bunch: an innocent fanatic Christian girl who is the object of lust of an aggressive girl, a medical student who does nothing but study, a slutty girl, a trio of friends made up of a dumb blonde and two foul-mouthed lesbians who spend most of the time high, an exercise fanatic who has a guy over to tutor her, but she doesn't want anything else with him.

Their new cook arrives, a Hungarian who can only say "OK" in English. He prepares them delicious meat dishes. But little by little the girls start disappearing. The cook doesn't appear as to them as a suspect because he's always covered in blood hacking meat. The pretty medical student sort of falls for the cook even though he tells her what he will to do her friends, in Hungarian, and she thinks it sounds sweet.

The dialogue is pretty funny and the girls are given good and distinct personalities. There's some gore, and a bit is gruesome. There are a couple of twists near the ending. Overall an OK lower budget horror movie saved by the fun girls and also the cook does a good job as a mad serial killer.

I liked the fact that the killing scenes were quite realistic and not overdone. The attacker did a good job of playing warm/friendly, then breaking into his bad role, then the height of his anger. Even though everyone knows from the poster who the bad guy will be, the element of surprise was nevertheless still there as to the method and details. I thought the coeds for the most part pulled off their death roles rather well, considering that they are not accomplished actresses. The meals served at the dining table were convincing, as were the few meat prep scenes in the kitchen. What I liked most were the 2 heads, but thought they would have been more effective if shown a few more seconds. The bit of humor that was included was a nice extra.

I found The Cook to be both enjoyable and boring at various moments through the film. Almost everything was inconsistent. One actor would deliver a memorable performance and the next...would leave something to be desired. Mark Hengst, as the cook, was the highlight of the entire film. He was both humorous and rather frightening at times. He played a cannibal cook pretty well, I thought. Some of the girls were attractive, with some nudity (I know that's one appeal to this film).

The dialogue was mediocre...and with three screenwriters you figure they could come up with something better. Cinematography was one minute bland and uninspiring and the next fairly well done. The gore was decent...however, some of it looked particularly fake and amateur.

The plot was almost non-existent, even for a slasher film. Essentially, the sorority house gets a new cook and he's, well, not very nice.

I would avoid this unless you're particularly bored as you can find better violence, better gore, better nudity, better plot, etc. in many other slasher films. However, I do recognize that The Cook didn't have a large budget, and so the effort is admirable.

Mark Hengst carries this film...with a less interesting cook this film would be dismal.

I've really had some trouble rating this movie. Through the first half hour of the movie I really had a feeling this movie was a complete waste of time. The special effects defied the laws of physics by sucking and blowing at the same time, even for a low budget movie, and the acting, from every angle, was to say the least very questionable. But still... Somehow there was something about it. Maybe it was simply that it didn't try too hard and didn't get too serious about the comedy being the most original ever. Or it could be the fact that it's got some very nice pairs of boobs. It's still unclear to me if it's supposed to be an actual horror movie, just a horror comedy or a comedy on the horror comedy genre. It really could've used a budget boost. If you think you can sit through a low budget horror comedy with a bit of nudity you might like it.