A BLOODY GOOD TIME // A FILM REVIEW OF "VICIOUS FUN"

BY MATEO MORENO

Often when I see films that have adjectives like "fun," "funny" or "amazing" in their title, I worry. If it doesn't live up to being exactly that, it's like giving a bad review from a critic an automatic weapon against it. If it has the word "bad" in it, same thing. However, I haven't seen a film live up to its title like VICIOUS FUN in quite a long time. The new film directed by Cody Calahan is bloody, fast paced, funny and above all very fun. Our eyes in is Joel (Evan Marsh), a horror film critic who revels in his takedown of hacks and seems to relish giving bad reviews. At home, he pines over his roommate Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele). She's dating who he deems is a loser, so one night he follows her new beau, a man named Bob (Ari Millen), to an out of the way bar. His goal is to out Bob as a cheat and someone who's not good enough for Sarah. Instead, he gets drunk and passes out in a broom closet. When he wakes up, things have significantly changed, and he now finds himself in what seems to be a very vicious and strange support group for killers. Forced to "blend in," he pretends that he's supposed to be there, but we all know that can't last forever, can it?

VICIOUS FUN throws itself firmly into the horror comedy genre with a gleeful abandon. It also joyfully pays homage to 1980's horror films, straight down to the synth soundtrack. Evan Marsh is a joyful idiot, a goofball everyday man with a great sense of comic timing. The killers in the group are a very fun mashup of classic serial killer stereotypes. There's the Jason-like lumbering killer of teenage girls (Rober Maillet), the smooth talking ladies man 80's bad guy (that would be Bob), a creep with no humanity left in him (Julian Richings) and several more to boot (including Amber Goldfarb, Sean Baek & David Koechner). There's tons of style in the look of the film, with neon lights a glow and an eye-popping set that just feels like a fun place to set a horror film in.

What's great is that even our hero Joel isn't above critique. It's pointed out to him that by following his roommates boyfriend to a bar in the middle of the night, he himself is being a creep, something that is often a plot device of films like this but rarely pointed out. The script by James Villeneuve is very funny and the entire ensemble cast shines, every one of them having a great moment or two (or three). The year is only halfway through, but it'll be tough to imagine a more fun horror film to come out this year. Settle in for some scares, some blood and guts and a whole lot of stylized and vicious fun.

GRADE: A

WRITTEN BY James Villeneuve DIRECTED BY Cody Calahan STARRING Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb, Ari Millen, Julian Richings, Robert Maillet, Sean Baek, David Koechner, Alexa Rose Steele, Kristopher Bowman, Mark Gibson, John Fray STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON SHUDDER JUNE 29TH. FOR MORE INFO: SHUDDER