VICIOUS FUN Review–Horror Comedy Is a Rollicking Good Time
Starring Evan Marsh and Amber Goldfarb
Written by James Villeneuve
Directed by Cody Calahan
Indie horror comedies are to the aughts what low-budget, direct-to-video slashers were to the eighties. A quotidian staple of the modern horror landscape, horror comedies are precarious ground, often being neither funny nor scary enough to make much of an impact. Horror and comedy respectively both require such nuanced, measured control over tone and pacing, a successful hybrid of the two requires an abstruse degree of skill and forethought. Luckily, Cody Calahan’s Vicious Fun, available to stream through Shudder’s service as of June 29, possesses the requisite scares and laughs. Buried beneath the bloodshed, too, is a big, beating heart– Vicious Fun is one of the most endearing horror comedies of the year.
Related Article: New Trailer and Character Posters for VICIOUS FUN on Shudder 6/29
Evan Marsh stars as Joel, an editor at a prestigious horror magazine, Vicious Fanatics. While interviewing a famous horror director, Jack Portwood (Gord Rand), Jack mispronounces the title, referring to it as “Vicious Fun.” “It’s a better name,” he remarks. Joel is insecure yet hyperconfident, the kind of swaggering young genre fanboy who mistakes familiarity with affection. He knows a lot about horror– he’s even workshopping his own taxi driver slasher, an idea that pays dividends later– but he’s dismissive of both the genre’s trappings and those around him who simply don’t get it. Among them is roommate, Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele), an unrequited love interest who would rather watch Falcon Crest with the girls than rent a Betamax with Joel for some Friday night frights. He’s not a cad, though he’s a bit of a snob. Never callous and intermittently feckless, he’s developed– and played with enough puppy dog gusto– to remain affable despite his flaws.
After he catches Sarah having some late-night cable action outside, Joel follows her suitor, Bob (Ari Millen) to a local dive. He drinks to excess and passes out in a closet, only to awaken and stumble into a support group for serial killers. Joel’s taxicab slasher proves a transient distraction, but soon his cover is blown, and alongside “badass new friend,” Carrie (Amber Goldfarb), Joel has to survive the night.
In the early-goings, the entire eighties façade feels forced and dated– so 2017. The meta-humor is stale– including the aforementioned interview, an interminable exchange of self-aware genre jabs that Scream tackled with more grace two decades ago– and the eighties veneer feels like it’s chasing a trend that’s already passed. There are no licensed songs on account of the budget, so instead, the set and soundtrack are dressed like an old Sears catalog, big jackets and a synth score, neon demarcations that, yes, this is the eighties.
Those early misgivings are outliers because once Vicious Fun hits its stride, it’s both vicious and fun. Incredibly well-crafted, there’s a sense of tactility to the action– not unlike what was seen in this year’s other standout horror comedy, Bloody Hell– the propels the plot forward. Most indies suffer in this regard, never achieving any semblance of tangibility to the stunt work or effects, but Vicious Fun’s violence and choreography hit hard. Entrails are spilled, skulls are crushed, and Goldfarb’s Carrie in particular moves with the verve of an established action star.
The killers, too, are a diverse bunch, and the biggest fault levied against Vicious Fun might be its overemphasis on Bob as the proto-lead killer. A riff on Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman, he’s a second-rate suave slasher, though one inexplicably dressed like Ryan Gosling’s lead in Drive. It’s a killer/conman hybrid audiences have seen ad nauseum, and it’s rendered more redundant when flanked by Hideo (Sean Baek), a cannibal chef, or Fritz (horror stalwart Julian Richings, excellent in last year’s Anything for Jackson), a homicidal clown who moves with the finesse of a witch’s familiar.
The tension never subsides, and though Vicious Fun is never outright scary (and it was likely never its intent) it remains suspenseful, imbuing its fish-out-of-water narrative with considerably more stakes and stylized action than most of its ilk. Vicious Fun is also interminably likeable. Joel is one of this year’s best horror protagonists, and Carrie makes for an excellent foil. The ending is almost saccharine, but it works. It’s liable to be one of this year’s cutest horror finales.
Vicious Fun stumbles in its opening minutes, ostensibly establishing itself as a retread of other, better meta-horror exercises. Soon, though, the bodies start dropping. Blood is spilled, secrets are shared, and the humor arrives in earnest. It’s a sweet, bloody, heartfelt ode to horror and one of this year’s best. Vicious Fun is viciously, dangerously good.
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Vicious Fun
Summary
Bloody, heartfelt, and hilarious, Vicious Fun is one of the best horror comedies in years.
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