Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Cody Calahan
Starring: Evan Marsh, Amber Godfarb, Ari Millen, Julian
Richings, David Koechner
Canadian filmmaker Cody Calahan caught my attention back in 2016
with his third feature, Let Her Out, an impressive psychological horror that drew heavily on the work of
his compatriot David Cronenberg. It's a little disappointing that after
such a challenging but rewarding film, Calahan finds himself sucked into
the current wave of '80s nostalgia for horror-comedy
Vicious Fun. But as throwback tributes go, Vicious Fun certainly
nails the vibe it's seeking to recreate.
It's 1983 Minnesota, and our anti-hero is Joel (Evan Marsh), the
assistant editor of a Fangoria type horror fanzine called "Vicious
Fanatics". When we meet him first he's interviewing a filmmaker of low
budget schlock, whom he clearly has no respect for. Joel hijacks the
interview by pitching his own half-assed idea about a taxi driver who
uses his job as cover for serial killing.
That night, Joel finds himself pitching the same story, but now placing
himself in the role of the killer cabbie. Through a sequence of
misunderstandings, Joel has stumbled upon a Masonic-esque meeting for
serial killers, and must convince the other attendees that he is himself
a homicidal maniac. When the genuine killers figure out his ruse, he's
suddenly fighting for his life, taken under the wing of leather clad
serial killer hunter Carrie (Amber Goldfarb).
Vicious Fun has a lot of…well, fun playing with the
conventions of the horror genre. The group of killers falls into
specific archetypes, with a hulking Jason type who preys on coeds (Robert Maillet); a Lector-esque cannibal (Sean Baek); a John Wayne Gacy type
accountant by day, killer clown by night (Julian Richings); a
c-list Patrick Bateman (Ari Millen); and perhaps most chilling of
all, a CIA agent who boasts of wiping out entire Cambodian villages (David Koechner).
While the obligatory synth score and neon heavy cinematography are in
place, more important to capturing the '80s mood is the performance of
Marsh. He really nails the essence of the sort of teenage boys who found
themselves at the centre of such hijinks in horror movies of the period.
But crucially, Calahan's script recognises that a lot of these guys were
assholes. Vicious Fun refreshingly gives us a nerd
character whom we're not expected to sympathise with. Instead he's a sad
sack who blames the world for his woes and can't recognise that his
personality is far from endearing. Watching him be schooled on his
social failings by Carrie reminded me of the then revelatory dynamic
between Charlie Sheen and Nastassja Kinski in 1994's
Terminal Velocity.
It's this dynamic that ensures the "fun" part of
Vicious Fun delivers, but it never quite lives up to the
other half of its title. As a horror movie it's too often bogged down by
comic scenes that play out well past the stage where they've made their
point, and too much of the movie involves characters sitting around
engaging in Judd Apatow-esque schtick. The idea of a horror movie
obsessive as the protagonist is wasted here, as Calahan never finds a
way to integrate Joel's knowledge of the genre into the scenario, ala
Wes Craven's Scream series.
If evoking a past decade is enough to keep you happy,
Vicious Fun will certainly check that box, but its
ambitions sadly never rise to anything particularly original.
