I was all in for a horror comedy triple feature with this selection of flicks from my Tubi watchlist, but things didn’t quite work out as planned. Let’s find out why.
BUZZ CUT (2021)
The scariest and not so funny thing about this horror comedy is that it runs 107 minutes long. No. Absolutely not. Just no.
The plot is basic. A “drinking club” comes to the woods to party, and a psychotic beekeeper starts killing them…mostly with a chainsaw. There’s literally one kill with a beehive, which begs the question: why even make the killer a beekeeper?
This movie drags so badly. It’s sort of a Clerks style approach in which these burnout characters stand around talking. Their dialogue, which is loaded with pop culture references, is supposed to also contain dry wit, but all I’ll say is that it sure did leave me parched. The edgiest thing about the content is that there’s a sort of blow-up sex doll mascot. In other words, in this day and age there’s nothing edgy at all about it.
The run time is also filled with things like a silent movie segment and a dance number, until the majority of kills kick in during the last 30 minutes as characters run around in a dark forest.
The highlight is absolutely Donna Wilkes of Angel and Jaws 2 fame. She totally steals the show in the final act. At the same time, Linnea Quigley makes a brief appearance and is severely underutilized.
PEOPLE IN THE WALLS (2024)
I watch everything the Crum brothers make, so I had to check out this one, which is very incorrectly labeled as a horror/comedy on Tubi, and a horror/dark comedy on IMDb. There really isn’t anything funny here beyond the usual kind of occasional humorous moment we get in many horror flicks.
The movie is definitely dark, with a creepiness that starts strong. There’s this viral video challenge online, and the object is to call the “people in the walls” in your house to come out to the real world.
In a tense opening scene, a teenager and her friend do it, and something does indeed come out of the walls and gets the friend.
The main girl and her family then move to a new house. Mom discovers a hole in one of the walls. The main girl meets a brother and sister in the woods who are determined to find a Wendigo they believe has abducted many people.
Instead, they team up to try to lure the people out of the walls in the main girl’s new house. The whole vibe reminded me of the 80s classic The Gate, only with a bit less excitement, although it does have some great moments.
This is definitely a lot tighter than the chaos that has ensued in more recent Crum brother movies, and the overall premise is frightening, with the thing that comes out of the wall seeming to actually be a Wendigo that takes over the bodies of people in the house. Also, the atmosphere is great, but we only get a few glimpses of what is coming out of the walls, so the movie never quite feels like it builds to a worthwhile climax.
FOR SALE BY EXORCIST (2025)
This film is a reminder that just because a movie is quirky doesn’t mean it’s funny.
It’s sort of a mockumentary about a real estate agent who does everything in her power to cleanse houses of spirits and demons before they’re sold. The whole movie consists of her doing interviews about her job in between visiting different houses to deal with their haunting issues.
There’s nothing in the way of connective tissues beyond that, so this feels more like a series of vignettes rather than a full-length movie. In fact, it feels like a low budget webseries that was strung together and labeled as a full-length movie.
Problem is, none of those vignettes are compelling, and the only time there’s any real “horror element” is in a final exorcism scene at the end—which is accompanied by a heavy metal band playing a full song for no apparent reason other than the fact that their performance appears to be what exorcises the demon.
The minimal highlights for me include the agent’s priest partner making a gay joke, a brief encounter with a gay leather gimp, and the fact that the film opens with a Halloween podcast and ends with a Halloween party.
However, the rest of the movie doesn’t take place on Halloween, so it’s not even a seasonal experience. More Halloween and funnier writing could have saved this one, because there are several segments that had great potential. I felt that the most interesting clients weren’t utilized to full advantage—like a gay couple at the beginning and a goth couple later in the movie.
