Playhouse

This is one of those horror films shot on a digital video camera that seems to have had a $900 budget. The director, Hunter F. Roberts, was also the writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, driver and shoeshine-boy. For any member of the cast or crew, you can imagine them just doing the film for screen credit, deferred payment, or a contract for Roberts' firstborn, secondborn, Friday evenings with his wife, etc.

With films of this caliber, you often can't expect much, and occasionally Playhouse delivers just that--it has more than its share of problems that aren't excusable to the lack of funds. However, just as often, Playhouse is good and occasionally even impressive. The performances are remarkably good for this type of film, the script is often funny and clever at least on a "micro" level, and despite an overall technical clunkiness, Roberts is surprisingly skilled at editing.

The story overall is a bit of a mess. It concerns a theater troupe in Pittsburgh, or more specifically, strange phenomena originating in the theater in which they are residents. Near the beginning of the film, the theater director, played by Joshua Haze, is murdered. Soon after, other bodies start turning up. A thread holding the film together is the investigation of the murders, headed up by Detective Eustas Black (Nikitas Menotiades). The janitor, Connelly (Ross Donaldson), keeps suspiciously showing up around the murder scenes with a suspicious "Scottish" accent, fluctuating make-up and occasionally even a Freddy Krueger outfit, and from the beginning of the film, we are also made aware of some ghost/zombie-like beings in the theater. Later, a kind of Bigfoot creature shows up, there is some incoherent possession stuff, some funny Necronomicon-like stuff, there might be a kind of serial killing going on, and so on.

On the commentary track even Roberts says he's not sure what the film is about. The overall structure seems more like a random collection of somewhat generic horror scenes. That doesn't exactly help create any momentum or suspense. It almost seems as if Roberts wrote scenes as they went along, and maybe he kept changing what he wanted the gist of the film to be.

Given that, it's surprising that when we look at individual scenes, Roberts' scriptwriting is often spot-on, despite the flirtation with clichés. Most of the scenes play more like a horror spoof. The dialogue is often very funny and postmodern in its playing with and twisting of the conventions of communication, language and the dramatic fourth wall.

The scenes featuring Detective Black are usually excellent, helped by Menotiades' skill as an actor. These often have a slight "Twin Peaks" (1990) flavor, with Detective Black as a more buffoonish version of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). The scenes featuring Janitor Connelly (when he's not with Black) are a close second. If Roberts would have centered the film more on these two characters (plus the secondary police/detective characters, who were also well-developed and funny), and taken greater care with the overall structure and flow of the story, Playhouse would have easily been an 8 or better.

On the other hand, there would have still been technical and other artistic hurdles to surmount. The biggest flaw on this end, and one not really excusable to a lack of budget, is the near-absence of sets and/or interesting locations. Roberts knows well how to shoot coverage and vary his wide shots and close-ups, but there needs to be a decent backdrop for the action. The bulk of the film appears to have been shot inside a theater (or something comparable), where back rooms served as the interiors. The stage remains empty, and the back rooms weren't properly dressed/decorated. There are far too many scenes featuring actors against plain black backgrounds, plain or mostly white backgrounds, cheap looking wood paneling, and so on. These tend to appear too close to the camera as well.

What makes it more of a pity is that there are some transition shots of Pittsburgh-area exteriors, some very wide, and these look beautiful (as does one field location that appears later in the film). If Roberts couldn't find anyone to even do amateur production design, he should have set much more of the film outside.

Other technical problems include the sound, which tends to have an "inside an empty bathroom" timbre (although the sound isn't horrible, but it could easily be improved), and the lighting, which often struggles to find a balance. There's also the disappointing absence of gratuitous nudity, but I can't really subtract a point for that.

On the third hand, there are a number of technical elements that are excellent. The special make-up/gore effects are fabulous. I don't know how they managed such professional-looking work at this budget level (maybe they recruited credit-hungry students from Tom Savini's school near Pittsburgh?). Although Playhouse isn't the goriest film around, gorehounds should be more than happy.

Just as impressive is Roberts' editing. He has a great sense of timing, and quite a few scenes are made hilarious by the reaction shots that he cuts in. The music is also good.

If you're not used to "no-budget" horror, you may be quite put off by Playhouse. It's probably better to watch a couple crappy no-budget flicks first--try something like The Seekers (2003) or Insaniac (2002). The no-budget "style" takes some getting used to--obviously you can't expect the technical finesse of a 100 million dollar film, but it's difficult to adjust yourself at first. If you're used to no-budget horror, Playhouse is worth checking out for its positive aspects. Just don't expect a masterpiece.

Most of the lead characters are playing people who should be 10 to 20 years older. So you have to get used to this "let's dress up" aspect. The first ghosts appearance is creepy but this is really a comedy and a pretty funny one at that.

Production values are high end student film/video level. Dialog is in the early going sometimes hard to hear but it's watchable on a tech level. Though it's all in focus it looks very much like medium to low end video which you do have to get used to. It's not camcorder level quality but it's not Hi Def either--though when the film was made Hi Def wasn't really an option. Lighting is pretty flat a better look would have helped.

The actors are mostly actually pretty good, overlooking the age thing, and there are some inspired bits and good comic timing. Some of the comedy is of the, gross out gag and vomit variety but there is some funny wordplay and a few inspired bits of slap stick. The writing delivers some good one liners and plot overall idea isn't bad. But this is not a horror film it's a comedy and a horrific situation and much of it just plays as a comedy.

Some of the actors were great, some weren't. And at times the movie was fun to watch, but sadly these moments were rare. Even for 83 minutes it lacks the most important thing a film needs not to be boring: a story. There was a killing, then the police investigates, another killing, the police investigates and so on. No new clues and more reacting than acting. That's sad, because some of the jokes were great and the three detectives could have been great main characters. Even if they have much screen time, they are never really part of the thin story. This is by the way the other problem the movie has: it doesn't really have two or three main characters, just a bunch of people who are getting killed. Don't get me wrong: for a lowest-budget movie it could be fun to watch if you are in to this kind of genre-movies. But for those who just like to watch a good movie I cannot recommend it.

It's not going to make the list of 100 greatest movie or anything like that, but for a low budget movie, it was fantastic. As can be expected, some of the acting was weak, but David Friday and Ross Donaldson were tremendous. Andy Parks was brilliant, and is destined for big things, even bigger than the Taco Bell commercial that was played during the Super Bowl that he was also in. The language was quite a bit fouler than I would've guessed, so it's not one for your kids or parents (not my parents, anyways), but it held my attention to the very end. There were a few gems in the bloopers shown during the credits, as well. All in all, it was well worth the buy, and it's a great addition to my DVD collection.

Funny, Scary, Moving. all are words that describe this film's brilliance. Nikitas Menotiades is the next George Clooney. I mean this guy just oozes with talent. A talent rarely seen these days even among the greatest actors. There were times when this movie could have picked up the pace a little better, but when the blood came it was a lot of blood, and when the laughs came they were jubilant. A must see if this is ever released on video. This very much a throwback to Evil Dead 2. It incorporates the horror and the comedy perfectly. The end of this movie, too, brought me to tears. Honestly, it was so beautiful. Very remeniscient of a combo of Gordy and Angus.