From Mill Creek comes a dozen horror and fantasy films so bad you’ll want to eventually claw your eyes out. You could call this a compilation of films from the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” gallery. Except without the hilarious commentary to ease the pain. If you’re interested in owning these films sans the commentaries, it’s here for the taking!
Director David Nutter and writer Scott Rosenberg take a page from Ira Levin’s “The Stepford Wives” to offer nineties kids a modern take on the author’s novel. Who am I kidding? The pair rip chapters from author Levin and basically just retro-fit it for a modern audience, when all is said and done. “Disturbing Behavior” is basically “The Stepford Wives” except replacing the commentary on conservative men adjusting to the rising tide of feminism, we’re given a town of parents so unwilling to work on their kids they’d much rather just operate on them to make them in to model citizens.
With “Pinocchio’s Revenge,” it feels as if Director and Writer Kevin Tenney concocted an entire script based on a serial killer whose spirit inhabits his beloved Pinocchio doll and begins wreaking havoc on a hot mom and her daughter. And then mid-way he thought that perhaps it’d skirt legal issues, and then he suddenly transformed it in to a dull whodunit dramatic thriller. That’s the only way I can figure the logic for the title, at all. There’s no actual revenge, and in the end there’s not a lot of reasoning for Pinocchio to commit these crimes. But at least there’s still the hot mom.
As usual, the way to conduct spoofs and satires these days is to base them around familiar material and deliver reliable jokes that anyone could really write. Most comedy is based around the formula and the “Scary Movie” series has made money off of familiarity. “Paranormal Activity” is popular, so that’s up for grabs. Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan are headlines so they have to be included. Snoop Dogg is still notable, so why not throw him in there? Ashley Tisdale is still a very popular star, so she’s a natural replacement for Anna Faris. And hey, people still kind of, sort of remember “Black Swan” and “Inception” so why not throw those in there for filler?
It’s a shame that “Idle Hands” is such an underrated and somewhat obscure nineties title, since it still manages to be a fun horror comedy. It’s a twisted and demented horror movie about a guy’s hand that takes on a life of its own and becomes a monster by the time the movie ends. It’s filled with a lot of laughs, Devon Sawa is great, and Jessica Alba was still just that really smoking hot mystery girl that no one really knew just yet. And we were happy with her being the smoking hot mystery girl, before we realized she couldn’t act to save her life. Those were simpler times.
Mel Brooks’ horror comedy classic completely and utterly challenged any and all norms and perceptions of formula comedy that I had when I was a kid. It was a black and white movie that was a comedy and though the film bordered on absolutely insane in the comedy meter, the cast in the film played everything with a straight face. Particularly Gene Wilder whose entire performance is deadpan and dramatic in spite of the fact he’s probably the funniest character in the film.
Many people insist that Mel Brooks pretty much lost it once the nineties introduced itself. His comedy was somewhat outdated and he’d run out of material. I say thee nay! Sure, Mr. Brooks didn’t deliver any films in the level of “Blazing Saddles” in the nineties, but damn it I think his later efforts were entertaining in their own right. I think “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” is wacky fun, and you know what? I happen to find “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” to be hilarious on more than one occasion.