It’s time for a really retro horror comedy. This is one of those films that is pretty fun as long as you enjoy the tone it’s going for. There’s nothing particularly unique about the film as it’s leaning into the gags that you’ve been seeing for over 50 years. Still, the execution is on point the whole time and the film’s also not very long. It ends up going pretty smoothly.
The movie starts with Jack showing up to the haunted mansion of his girlfriend Cynthia. They have only been dating for one month but he knows that she is the one for him. He wants to get her family’s consent to the marriage but he didn’t realize that her cousin had just died so everyone is in mourning. Additionally the whole family seems very eccentric to say the least so this won’t be as straight forward as he had been expecting. Is his life in danger over here?
Right away you can tell that Jack is the kind of guy who is a bit slow on the uptake. He sort of knows that his life is nearly over at several points but doesn’t really let it get to him. The guy is hopelessly in love with Cynthia and I can respect that at least. The guy is moving rather fast since they’ve only known each other for such a short amount of time but he just believes in true love. Jack also does get his witty comebacks in on occasion but make no mistake, he’s usually on the back foot.
The guy just doesn’t have much in the way of survival instincts. At one point a spider is in his bed and the guy takes a very long time to really notice it. Then you have the crazy guy in the basement named Muldoon and Jack gets real close to the door where he is nearly choked to death. At least in round 2 he was good at running away from the guy but he still got knocked out on several occasions. The house traps were too much for him.
I also give Jack some credit for resisting the attempts of Natalia to try and get him to cheat on Cynthia. Jack was not about to mess this up when he was so close to marriage. So the guy may have had his faults but he did good overall. I was less impressed with Cynthia who never really went out of her way to help Jack out until near the end. She really could have given him more of a heads up on what was going on here. At the very least once he showed up, she could have really had his back.
It felt like she would vanish for large chunks of the film and wasn’t as important as you’d expect. If anything I would argue that Muldoon may have had more of a role and he was just the crazy guy in the basement. The rest of the family all served their roles well as the crazy family all acting shady. We know that one of them is a murderer but who can it be? The doctor? The uncle? Natalia? There are quite a few suspects on this one but the film does a good job of never making it obvious. You should still be wondering what’s going on as the film ends.
We get a number of plot twists at the end of the film as well. In some cases you may say there were too many twists at once but the film was definitely trying to keep you on your toes. The writing is pretty solid overall and the pacing is on point, thanks in part to how short the film is. This is really a solid comfort film that you can watch at any point. Treat it like a Scooby Doo adventure where you’re trying to figure out who the main culprit is and that’ll add to the enjoyment. The film also has a really effective transition at the very end of the film that was handled more smoothly than most films could even dream of.
Now, murders aside I would have to say that the eccentric family weren’t al that bad. Often times the crazy family in these films would be downright antagonistic and petty but they really didn’t go down that route. They had some reasonable reservations about the impending marriage and it makes sense. They pointed out that Jack didn’t know anything about them and vice versa. Marriage is a pretty big decision and so usually you do wait at least 6 months minimum, if not a little longer than that. While Jack may have been disappointed, it seems like a W on their end.
Overall, This is one of those movies that you will either connect with or you won’t. It’s not particularly exciting but the humor worked well for me. It’s got a more subdued style in general but the laughs land well when they happen. Even Jack accidentally pushing his car through to the ocean below was pretty funny because it’s just such a massive unforced error. There was no reason he needed to do that, he just completey panicked and that set the stage for the rest of the events after this. The plot is very simple and so you can easily just turn your brain off while watching. This all probably sounds like backhanded complements all the way but there is always going to be room for a film like this. Watch it as a full blown comedy and you’re all set.
Overall 7/10
