Review by Emily Craig (@emillycraig)
Directed by: Ajala Bandele
Starring: Ajala Bandele, Jenny Curtis, Liz Fenning, Sharon Mae Wang, Shanna Malcolm
Here is some great use of genre tropes, and considering Bandele did almost everything himself, he has done a pretty good job; perhaps some more spoof films will be coming his way (please let there be OMG…We’re in a Western!!!).
Ajale Bandele jumps in at the deep end, directing, producing, writing and starring in this quirky indie comedy horror, OMG... We’re in a Horror Movie, full of twists and turns.
The film follows six friends who’ve sat down to have a board game night; six becomes seven when one of the character’s ex-girlfriends crashes the party. At that table there are seven stereotypical characters that you may find in many popular horror films; we have Kyle (Nils Jansson), the suspected creepy nerd; Amy (Liz Fenning), the hot blonde chick; Tom (Brendan McGowan), her hot blonde stud of a boyfriend; Tanya (Shanna Malcolm), dark skinned mouthy diva; AJ (Ajale Bandele) and Chris (Chris Hampton), the two black friends whose main priority is trying not to die first; and finally Jesse (Sharon Mae Wang), the lesbian Asian who doesn’t seem to have a place within the genre.
In the middle of a game, they all are stopped in their tracks as a voice shouts down from the sky stating that they are all in a horror movie, and that the least suspected one will end up being the killer; from here on the group try their best to figure out what to do in their situation, trying to avoid all clichés where possible.
There have been a lot of spoof films in the past 15 years, notably the Scary Movie franchise, Superhero Movie, A Haunted House and Meet the Spartans. What sets OMG aside from these other films is that it spoofs the genre as a whole, whereas the aforementioned films have spoofed specific movies. Ajale Bandele, although not as subtle, has created a Cabin in the Woods type film, where it plays on popular characters of the horror genre to entice its viewers.
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this film, as the first 20 minutes seemed overly silly with few laughs; as time went on however, I found myself warming to the well thought out characters and laughing more and more at the witty script. You can see that Bandele is an expert on the genre as there is plenty of knowledge in the film.
I consider myself to be rather savvy when it comes to working out twists in films, but even though this is spoofing horror, I didn’t work out who the killer was, which is an accomplishment in itself. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some dry moments in this film (I don’t particularly like the sex scene), but for the most part I enjoyed watching it. There is some great use of genre tropes, and considering Bandele did almost everything himself, he has done a pretty good job; perhaps some more spoof films will be coming his way (please let there be OMG…We’re in a Western!!!).
