Three unconventional horror films (two of them closer to comedies really) but are any of them really worth watching?
Knights of Badassery…My favorite of the lot but still not a very good movie. It’s about a group of role playing fantasy geeks who accidentally summon a real demon that just so happens to take the form of the lead character’s girlfriend. A great cast (Steve Zahn, Peter Dinklage, and Summer Glau, among others) makes this bad movie a very watchable bad movie, and that’s all you can ask for sometimes. Grade: C+
Stage Fright…A horror musical (yep, you read that right) about a masked slasher who terrorizes a summer camp for the musically aspirational. The idea of combining Broadway style songs with blood isn’t a bad one in and of itself, but I wish this thing had better execution. The opening kill is graphic and nasty in its brutality—kind-of undercutting the sillier theme the movie is going for—and the final third of the movie is a real mess, but also predictable. The closest this thing gets to being a good movie is the song and dance number when the kids first arrive at the camp. Grade: C-
Heatstroke…This one isn’t comedic in nature, but should be since it works best as unintentionally hilarious. It’s about a father, his girlfriend, and his rebellious daughter who are reluctantly thrown together on one of his African work trips as a quasi-punishment for the daughter. The high-minded girlfriend and the bored daughter don’t mix well, especially when the father is killed by some arms dealers. After that it’s a survival/chase film through the African desert that really doesn’t work very well. Grade: C-