I can’t fully call this a foursome of horror comedies, because the comedic content isn’t consistent, but they are all quirky enough to work as a movie marathon.
ANKLE BITERS (aka: Cherrypicker) (2020)
Not sure why this film about four little bad seed girls was originally called Cherrypicker, but I much prefer the Ankle Biters title.
This is an odd film with black humor, sexual content, some gore, and four young sisters (played by actual sisters) that are simply evil little bitches who decide they want to kill their soon-to-be stepfather.
In his plan to propose to their mother, the main guy takes the family to a cabin by a lake for a weekend getaway. He is totally oblivious to how much the girls hate him, despite them constantly scowling at him. As a result, there’s absolutely no tension for a majority of the film.
The girls aren’t just indiscriminate killers either. They just want the main guy dead. They pull one stunt involving spider eggs that gets a freaky pay-off later in the movie, but this isn’t one of those films in which humor is derived from them constantly trying to kill him but just missing every time. They seriously don’t intensely target him until the final act.
There is one unfortunate causality along the way, and it’s a disturbing scene since it involves children, but a majority of the film has the main guy hanging out shirtless in his Speedo (not complaining), without any real sign of the girls slowly escalating their attacks on him.
The final act does deliver a few twists, and the inevitable battle between the main guy and the four little girls is a lot of fun, but there’s just not much meat in the middle of this movie.
DON’T GET EATEN (2023)
I’m shocked at how much fun I had with this one. I anticipated a silly, family gateway “scary movie” based on its premise. In essence, that’s exactly what it is, and I’m still a sucker for those types of films anyway, but it also delivers some unexpected surprises in the final act that really enhanced my enjoyment.
The plot is simple. This fun and cute dad (with great thighs) and his three young daughters make zombie survival videos for his online channel. His obsession with creating content, however, is really testing his wife’s patience.
A therapist suggests they take a family trip to a cabin in the woods. No cameras, no social media, no making videos.
Easier said than done for dad, especially when he has an encounter with an actual zombie outside while the rest of the family is inside on their very first night at the cabin. He tries to keep it a secret at first (while recording with a camera he naturally snuck up there), but eventually the number of zombies outside grows.
Before long, the whole family has to join together and put dad’s survival tips to work in fending off zombies. This is where the family fun part really kicks in, including using big, air bubble balls to keep the onslaught of zombies at a distance. This also means there’s no contact, no flesh-eating, and no zombie mutilating. This is gore-free horror.
Even so, I was unprepared for the turn the film takes in the final act. It is quite clever and breathes new life into the movie, providing a refreshing plot trajectory.
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SNUFF (2016)
This is mostly my kind of fun, but it doesn’t steadily deliver the level of humor I expected based on the title, and it becomes repetitive, with little forward momentum at times. It also balances a very queer vibe with a misogynistic message and throws in a hint of a political statement if you pay attention to the décor on the walls of the home of the two main characters.
We meet two cute brothers—one who spends most of the movie in his tighty-whities (yay!). They are broke and need to make money fast. They are also totally oblivious to how gay their landlord is, but viewers aren’t, so this one lands on the does the gay guy die? page.
The landlord makes them aware of a filmmaking contest with a big monetary prize. So…they decide to make a fake, found footage snuff film. This means an immediate comedy sequence of them auditioning actresses. It’s one of the most common tropes in horror comedies about hacks making a movie, so it really does nothing for me.
During the casting call, the brothers find the perfect girl and then decide they can make the movie even more realistic by actually kidnapping her so she doesn’t know she’s in the movie.
This leaves them with mounting problems as they try to figure out what they can do to her once they have her strapped down in an old warehouse. The landlord, who supplied them with the location to shoot their movie, warned them that there’s a serial killer on the loose in the area who’s cutting off the penises of his victims. You would think that could have a huge impact on the events that unfold, but it doesn’t really come up until late in the movie.
Instead, the focus is on the main girl being a strong woman who isn’t scared of her captors (they’re wearing a gimp mask and an Obama mask). Their attempts to terrorize her begin to wear thin after a while, and there are only 30 minutes left when the main girl at last turns the tables on them.
This is the highlight of the movie, with the return of the landlord, penis humor, the promise of dick sucking, one of the brothers in leather, and the main girl going batshit crazy. She’s awesome. As fun as this final act is, it just feels like the whole movie needed a little bit more excitement…and humor…and suspense.
SLEEP. WALK. KILL. (2022)
While this is listed as a horror comedy, the humor is very dry, very dark, and subtly imbedded in a sinister plot.
The opening grabs you right away. There’s a man in leather fetish gear, a napping woman, a knife, and a lot of blood.
Immediately after that, we’re introduced to the street on which the film takes place. I absolutely loved the moody vibe and atmosphere, because to me the neighborhood where the film is shot holds an incredible sense of nostalgia, as if it comes from a simpler time. There’s nothing that screams modern day.
The film itself feels like creepy horror from the 1970s, in particular, The Crazies. It begins with the neighbors hearing a weird sound outside their houses. Pretty soon, individuals start walking—and killing—in their sleep. Eek!
This film manages to be effectively eerie despite being shot in daylight. It’s more like gray light, actually, and the cloudy conditions really work to the film’s advantage.
Our main guy quickly realizes that people are becoming homicidal maniacs when they fall asleep, so the warning to everyone becomes, “Don’t fall asleep!” I see what they did there.
While there are moments that will make you chuckle, I found the film to be successfully unnerving. There are also some incredibly disturbing kill scenes, including a brilliant segment involving the connection between her mother, the fetus in her belly, and how sleep affects them both.
A group of survivors eventually gathers in the main guy’s house in hopes of staying alive (the pace slows down a bit here), but we all know nobody can stay awake forever. Shit hits the fan eventually, and the film pulls a horror subgenre switch that also gives us a clue as to what it is that’s actually causing people to go psycho in their sleep. It revitalizes the movie just when it feels like it’s beginning to lose steam. If you like the ominous feel of the type of 1970s horror that gets under your skin, I’d definitely check this one out.
