Hooptober 12 #8

For better or for worse, this is basically an R-rated Disney Channel original movie. As much as I love schlock, I often have a hard time getting into parodies of shlock. They usually just don't feel as earnest, and the comedy feels like its at odds with the rest of the movie. To me, most of the comedy that comes from shlock is the dissonance caused by playing the material completely straight, a point that I think most parodies miss entirely. (Not saying that these movies never were intentionally silly, but they never really felt like they were trying to be ironic).

That said, this got a few good laughs out of me. A few killer lines and a pretty funny performance from the dad definitely helped. In general, this movie feels like a bunch of people having fun making something stupid, which is ideal for this kind of film. When it comes to the jokes though there's a few groaners, and I found a good portion of the 3rd act to be pretty annoying. The ending tries to parody sappy, cop-out, feel-good endings, but it ends up kind of becoming what's its trying to lampoon.

Still, I want to compare this to something like Versus (2001), wish is also an unapologetically stupid and gorey film featuring a bunch of people LARPing in the woods. Not only does that film take its own ridiculousness completely seriously, but it accomplishes being a lot more stylish and visually interesting.

P.S.

My friend Brian also compared the young kids controlling a demonic monster in this movie to the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, which I think is spot on. Though, Billy and Mandy feels more shocking to me, probably because it was actually intended for children.