The Refrigerator

According to the quoted line on the cover of the VHS-box, The New York Post claimed this film is a nearly perfect and extremely tense amalgamation of "Poltergeist", "The Amityville Horror" and "Rosemary's Baby"…. What the hell? And that's an actual newspaper that said this? "The Refrigerator" isn't the worst 90's horror film out there, but it's VERY silly, totally incompetent and extremely cheap. The premise is retarded and seems to come straight from the over-imaginative mind of a flipping Marihuana-junkie. Dig this: a young couple (he strangely resembles Jerry Seinfeld and she looks a little like Heather Graham) invests their money in the crappiest apartment of the most pauperized New York ghetto area. The building's owner may very well be Satan himself and the fridge in the kitchen is actually a direct doorway to hell! Pretty soon after they moved in, the cooling device from hell causes Steve to hallucinate (he wakes up screaming he's the waffle maker, and similar crazy things) and begins to terrorize Eileen. The fridge then starts to kill random visitors and Eileen teams up with the flamenco-dancing janitor to defeat it. "The Refrigerator" features absolutely no horrific atmosphere of tension, but it's still warmly recommended to fans of cheesy & nonsensical 80-90's horror. Quite logically, if you spot a movie with this title, you know not to anticipate brilliantly written dialogs or intelligent plot twists. You get a couple of ridiculous situations, grotesque make-up effects and demented characters. Especially the climax is a total laugh riot. Preferably a movie to watch when there's beer and friends around.

Imagine you rent an apartment and the landlord neglects to tell you that the fridge is possessed and the gateway to hell. Okay, it sounds really bad but make no mistake, this low budget masterpiece is the business. The delivery is sometimes stilted, the characters are a little two dimensional and the script is over the top in places, but gloriously so. Jacob's direction is spot on, great camera work, smart lighting, good atmosphere and more than a few laughs to be had. plus: not since Brazil and House 2 have the plumbers/handymen of the world had such a hero to call their own, even if you hate schlocky horror films, watch this one for Angel Caban's impossibly smooth Juan, a hispanic Chow Yun Fat.

There's a whole world of horror films that are positively hilarious without intending to be...however, horror film parodies generally don't work well. This one is slightly better than most, and it's slickly made for a movie at this lowish production level. Still, THE REFRIGERATOR is as slight on laughs as it is on scares, and would probably have been more successful as a short subject than a feature.

The idea of a refrigerator being the Earthly gateway to Hell carries with it a lot of possibilities, but this film just doesn't begin to realize its own potential. It may be fun enough as a casual time-filler, but ultimately comes off feeling like a feature-length SNL skit. Take this one or leave it...you may find it enjoyable. I, for one, stand at the equator with one foot in the "no" zone.

4.5 out of 10 stars.

This exercise in cornball depicts a couple who moves into a New York apartment...only to find out that it has a killer refrigerator! "The Refrigerator" seems like the sort of movie that they probably made knowing that they were making a totally silly movie. Personally, I thought that John Schlesinger's movie "The Believers" (starring Martin Sheen as a man who moves to NYC and comes across a demonic offshoot of santeria) was more interesting.

But even so, this movie is a lot of fun. The first time that the refrigerator acted up reminded me a bit of the scene in "Ghostbusters" where Sigourney Weaver finds the monster in her fridge. Not particularly worth seeing, but entertaining.

THE REFRIGERATOR is one of the more cleverly original ideas for a campy horror flick and is pretty much played for laughs. While a bit slow moving at times, this is a must see for all fans of the slapstick comedy/horror sub-genre. If you're a fan of any of the following, then this movie is for you: EVIL DEAD II, STREET TRASH, BASKET CASE, BASKET CASE II, BASKET CASE III, DEAD ALIVE, MEET THE FEEBLES, RABID GRANNIES, or any of Troma's better known releases. If you can imagine an large, evil appliance which is somehow alive, a ghost-in-the-machine device which when opened, has all the ooze and spew of a Peter Jackson special effect, then you have the basic concept of THE REFRIGERATOR, in which machines terrorizes a young NYC housewife. For a low budget flick, this one is very well made, with excellent special effects (though mediocre acting). Highly recommended if you're looking for something a bit different.