Chillerama

It's the closing night at the last drive-in theater in America and Cecil B. Kaufman (Richard Riehle) has planned the ultimate marathon of lost film prints to unleash upon his faithful cinephile patrons.

I had moderately high hopes for this film, and for the most part they were met. "Wadzilla" was better than I expected, and "Diary of Anne Frankenstein" far exceeded my hopes... it was, without a doubt the highlight of the film (the fake German was hilarious, Joel Moore plays a great Hitler, and Kane Hodder as a golem? Perfection). I also enjoyed "Deathification".

The problem comes with "I Was a Teenage Werebear". This is the segment I had the most hope for, and it was just boring. It slowed down the pace of the movie and made the overall film seem much too long. I appreciate the concept and the throwback to 60s beach films, but I think they blew it. I just did not find it very well developed.

I still recommend this one to all horror fans. If nothing else, watch the "Anne Frank" segment. Just downright hilarious. And see how many references to classic films you catch (some horror, some not). It is no secret that Joe Lynch and Adam Green are passionate about horror, and this film proves it.

This movie kinda blew it's load early with the first story being by far the best. I was laughing my ass off the whole way, definite fun.

That's where it went down hill a bit, with the second story having a very homo-erotic type of theme, the acting was pretty bad, and the storyline just wasn't there for me.

By the time the third one got going I was severely loosing interest, and it wasn't the "Troma" type of effects, again overall in the end it just felt too cheap, even for a super low budget, I've seen some masterpieces pulled off with a shoe-string budget. I gave it a five and that was mainly due to the first tale. Troma fans will enjoy, it's more of a comedy than anything else.

As my rating would suggest, I am very nearly in love with this movie. Horror-comedies can be quite fickle...very often having too many elements of one and not nearly enough of the other. Sure, you have movies like Shaun Of The Dead that get it just right, but for every one of "Shaun" there's about 15 that just don't get it. And now we have Chillerama.

From start to finish you get the impression that someone was trying to get the aforementioned mixture just right. It interweaves 3 different movies (essentially hilarious mockeries of the old grindhouse/midnight drive-in genre) with a story of what takes place in between at the drive-in where they're being shown (think of it as the play within a play from Hamlet). Mocking these types of films is certainly nothing new, but few have gone so over the top while still somehow staying true to the source material. I have to say my favorite segment has to be "The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein" if for no other reason that Joel David Moore's portrayal of Hitler. Watching him make up gibberish that was subtitled as legitimate German had me laughing my ass off.

Gripes? Only minor ones. The movie runs a bit long for this genre. Two solid hours is typically a bit more than you'd expect, but then again it doesn't feel stretched or wasted. I also kind of wished they had put a little more effort into the story of what happens at the drive-in. All in all I would (and already have) recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys a good, albeit sometimes crude, laugh.

Horror-comedy can be a very entertaining sub-genre. I can be a big fan of it. But... it can be the very best, or it can be the very worst. This film 'Chillerama' is the very worst, and not in a good way. I had this title on my Watchlist for quite sometime, because seeing the poster, the title and the description, I thought, that HAS to be something that I'm gonna love. Well, as it turns out, that is not a guarantee.

This is definitely not my kind of Horror/Comedy. A good Horror/Comedy in my opinion, first of all should be a decent watchable film. Just because you are doing the potentially fun and pretty crazy combination of comedy and horror (for some people not the most obvious combination of atmospheres) doesn't mean you can get away with everything. Just because you are making a parody of something, does not mean you can throw all seriousness overboard. In all reality, you are combining two genres in their own rights, something that the makers of Chillerama do a magnificent job at misunderstanding. You're combining Horror and Comedy, two potentially great genres, maybe even the greatest ones for a lot of film fans out there. But just because you are combining a genre that takes itself pretty seriously with a genre where apparently everything goes, does not mean you can get away with doing everything in a bad way. Campy does not equal bad. And parody does not equal being ridiculous. Good comedy is a serious business.

The 'cringe' is so strong here as to make the film totally unwatchable. You literally want to look away at how campy and unfunny everything is. You start questioning your own sense of humor, looking at how much fun the makers apparently had creating 'Chillerama', while you find yourself unable to produce even a single smile.

The segments in this anthology were just the worst combinations of bad taste, far-fetched plot, generally unlikable characters, cringy acting and unfunny jokes. Some of those elements can work well when done right, sometimes even combinations of them. But you have to see this film if you want to find out how they can NOT work in the most spectacular way.

Generally I think a Horror/Comedy works great if they manage to keep the fun, enticing subjects of a horror film and the exciting, spooky atmosphere, and combine it with genuinely funny jokes. Jokes that seem to be up for grabs when looking at horror, because let's face it, in general it's a pretty crazy genre with lots of clichés and elements that are easy to poke fun at, while still doing it in a way that respects the genre and the characters. Bus as with everything that seems easy and up for grabs, it generally isn't...

Also, a good Horror/Comedy should be more exhilarating than the average non-horror comedy film (because hey, there's monsters, suspense, murder, spooky locations and what not), while having such a great atmosphere that they can measure themselves with, even be an homage to the great films of the Horror genre. Besides not being very funny, this film lacks any kind of horror atmosphere that makes you love Horror. The Horror atmosphere is totally lacking. Yeah, it's superficially there because there's blood and screaming, but literally everything is done so badly that... it just doesn't work on any level. Instead, it manages to make you hate both Comedy AND Horror at the same time.

That's just my opinion, my attempt at putting into words what makes this Horror/Comedy genre work, potentially. All I'm sure of is that whatever the X-factor is, it is NOT to be found here, but there are plenty of genuine masterpieces in the genre to be found elsewhere.

If I may recommend some Horror/Comedy films that DO work: * Shaun of the Dead * Killer Clowns From Outer Space * Zombieland * Young Frankenstein * Dracula, Dead and Loving It * Return of the Living Dead * Fido * Once Bitten * The Little Shop of Horrors * Mad Monster Party * Nightmare Before Christmas * Corpse Bride * Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I guess you could call a Horror/Comedy crossover.

... and let's not forget films like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice!

It's just one of those poser "horror comedies". Decent poster/cover but nothing to offer. The jokes are obvious dad jokes, but dirty. The first segment is called "Wadzilla" about a Godzilla sized sperm, and from there it does not get any better or funnier. It's as if this movie was written by grade nine students who were kept after health class for detention.