Horrorfest 2021 Presents: Chillerama (2011, Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan, Adam Green, Joe Lynch)

Chillerama is a dumb, mostly amusing and decent enough send up of old school horror movies. This anthology flick opens with a guy’s dick being chomped on by his undead wife. He then shows up to work at a drive in movie theater showing a bunch of horror movies on it’s final day. If this isn’t the obvious wrap around story to you, it will be midway through. Or you haven’t seen enough movies.

We begin with Wadzilla, a fairly solid mocking of 1950s and 1960s monster flicks. Ray Wise’s doctor is responsible for a man’s sperm turning into a huge creature with teeth that eats people. This is mostly funny and also really gross, particularly in one scene where the poor guy’s blind date almost gets eaten by the monster! If there was one that could be a full length movie while also thankfully being a segment in this movie, it was Wadzilla. If this movie seems obsessed with disgusting moments that cross the lines of good taste, well guilty as charged.

I Was a Teenage Werebear is actually more funnier now I think about it, and it makes fun of movies that I’m not really a big fan of, although I did like Rebel Without a Cause. The songs were actually catchy in this one, and the final act is both outlandish and rather groovy. Also the coach got eaten! Or ripped apart, anyways. So much gore in this one. Lin Shaye makes an appearance in this one, making fun of the stereotypical gipsy woman in werewolf and horror movies.

The Diary of Anne Frankenstein is in really poor taste, although Joel David Moore mocking Hitler works, I guess. This was my least favorite one of the bunch and is thankfully not very long, as the material is rather thin. Legendary Jason actor Kane Hodder pops up as the monster Adolf brings to life, only to bring retribution down upon the Nazi leader.

The wrap around, Zom-B-Movie, is fun and enjoyable mostly because it has zombies and Richard Riehle kicking zombie ass the only way he knows how: with lots of guns. Kaili Thorne was a good final girl, too. Clearly this was made for die hard horror movie fans and those of us that don’t mind a little disgusting humor. Especially considering one short flick is literally a movie about people pooping, which was not very funny. I’m too old for poop jokes, I guess.

Horrorfest 2019 Presents: Mayhem (2017, Joe Lynch)

Mayhem is gory, over the top, hilarious and often pretty brutal. It is a horror movie, a comedy, an action movie and a nice satire of the evils of the workplace all wrapped into one insanely fun package. Joe Lynch has made a film that even if it covers familiar ground, that film does so in a unique and wonderful style. Give me more horror movies like this one, please. Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving have pretty solid chemistry together, teaming up to deal with being screwed by Yeun’s scummy corporate bosses. Does this movie have tons of excessive violence involving power tools? Yes. Are there plenty of fighting scenes and a huge co-worker brawl? Absolutely. Too bad I never got the chance to watch this in theaters.

Oh and after seeing this, The Babysitter and Ready or Not Weaving is unofficially the main actress of my 2019 Horrorfest. Clearly her family well prepared her to be a good actress, and I look forward to seeing her in more films. And Yeun clearly has a bright future beyond The Walking Dead, although I did like him a lot in that show. I think my favorite part of this movie was the office brawl, simply for the amount of violence but also because everyone has that co-worker or even co-workers they wouldn’t mind punching at least once or twice. Having recently seen myself lose hours because of corporate indifference to those below them in the company structure I like this movie even more. Plus the whole virus angle is a bit more interesting these days, that’s for sure.