Fright Flick – movie review
It really is as I and a thousand other critics have said – if there is something hard to do it is the horror comedy. Filmmakers seem to do one element right and in so doing neglect the other and there are very, very few films that bridge the gap and work as a horror film with comedic elements. Hey, it happens. Not that this deters filmmakers from going for the mash-up anyway, and good on them because when they work, the films can be pretty darned good. Enter Fright Flick, a new film from director Israel Luna, whose Ticked Off Trannies With Knives has become a fan fave among myself and my friends. Alas, where TOTWK really nailed the grindhouse feel of the seventies, Fright Flick is a bit too uneven for its own good.
We open on the set of the horror film Fright Flick a low grade horror film with more T&A than blood and gore and when the lead actress is brutally murdered the film’s future seems pretty bleak. Flash ahead to a new set and the beginning of filming for Fright Flick 3 where the shadows of the past hang very heavy indeed. With tensions high on the set things turn from stressful to deadly when someone with intimate knowledge of the film and its participants begins killing the cast and crew one by one and no one will survive unless they can stop this killer before it’s too late.
The laughs are broad and come often in FF which is not a bad thing at all but the movie suffers from a lack of real focus. Too often the corny humor takes precedence only to have the film try to get serious when the murderer strikes. The film’s cast is clearly having fun and that really helps make this a watchable movie and keeps you invested but really there is neither enough horror nor laughs to sell the premise. You have to give the filmmakers credit though because the kills are pretty fun and are generally well done for a low budget film. As fun as the cast is though they cannot make up for a very weak premise and script. Fright Flick borrows from far too many recent films and then takes a quick turn towards Friday the 13th at the end that is just odd to say the least. The film does look good, is filmed very well, and I loved the anamorphic framing but wasn’t sure why the soundtrack would drop out in some scenes.
More style than substance, Fright Flick is still a very watchable and entertaining movie. What I hope is that director Luna will work on a project that isn’t an homage or throwback but is a more original vision. This is a talented director who is making some charismatic movies, he just needs some better scripts to work with. Fun but nothing breathtaking. This is a Breaking Glass Pictures release.
6 out of 10
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 