RagingR2

Horror-comedy can be a very entertaining sub-genre. I can be a big fan of it. But... it can be the very best, or it can be the very worst. This film 'Chillerama' is the very worst, and not in a good way. I had this title on my Watchlist for quite sometime, because seeing the poster, the title and the description, I thought, that HAS to be something that I'm gonna love. Well, as it turns out, that is not a guarantee.

This is definitely not my kind of Horror/Comedy. A good Horror/Comedy in my opinion, first of all should be a decent watchable film. Just because you are doing the potentially fun and pretty crazy combination of comedy and horror (for some people not the most obvious combination of atmospheres) doesn't mean you can get away with everything. Just because you are making a parody of something, does not mean you can throw all seriousness overboard. In all reality, you are combining two genres in their own rights, something that the makers of Chillerama do a magnificent job at misunderstanding. You're combining Horror and Comedy, two potentially great genres, maybe even the greatest ones for a lot of film fans out there. But just because you are combining a genre that takes itself pretty seriously with a genre where apparently everything goes, does not mean you can get away with doing everything in a bad way. Campy does not equal bad. And parody does not equal being ridiculous. Good comedy is a serious business.

The 'cringe' is so strong here as to make the film totally unwatchable. You literally want to look away at how campy and unfunny everything is. You start questioning your own sense of humor, looking at how much fun the makers apparently had creating 'Chillerama', while you find yourself unable to produce even a single smile.

The segments in this anthology were just the worst combinations of bad taste, far-fetched plot, generally unlikable characters, cringy acting and unfunny jokes. Some of those elements can work well when done right, sometimes even combinations of them. But you have to see this film if you want to find out how they can NOT work in the most spectacular way.

Generally I think a Horror/Comedy works great if they manage to keep the fun, enticing subjects of a horror film and the exciting, spooky atmosphere, and combine it with genuinely funny jokes. Jokes that seem to be up for grabs when looking at horror, because let's face it, in general it's a pretty crazy genre with lots of clichés and elements that are easy to poke fun at, while still doing it in a way that respects the genre and the characters. Bus as with everything that seems easy and up for grabs, it generally isn't...

Also, a good Horror/Comedy should be more exhilarating than the average non-horror comedy film (because hey, there's monsters, suspense, murder, spooky locations and what not), while having such a great atmosphere that they can measure themselves with, even be an homage to the great films of the Horror genre. Besides not being very funny, this film lacks any kind of horror atmosphere that makes you love Horror. The Horror atmosphere is totally lacking. Yeah, it's superficially there because there's blood and screaming, but literally everything is done so badly that... it just doesn't work on any level. Instead, it manages to make you hate both Comedy AND Horror at the same time.

That's just my opinion, my attempt at putting into words what makes this Horror/Comedy genre work, potentially. All I'm sure of is that whatever the X-factor is, it is NOT to be found here, but there are plenty of genuine masterpieces in the genre to be found elsewhere.

If I may recommend some Horror/Comedy films that DO work: * Shaun of the Dead * Killer Clowns From Outer Space * Zombieland * Young Frankenstein * Dracula, Dead and Loving It * Return of the Living Dead * Fido * Once Bitten * The Little Shop of Horrors * Mad Monster Party * Nightmare Before Christmas * Corpse Bride * Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I guess you could call a Horror/Comedy crossover.

... and let's not forget films like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice!

As others have pointed out, this documentary provides a 'peek' into the past of the Netherlands. But as with most peeks in the past, they tend to get idealistic and nostalgic. With this documentary that's very easy, because the whole point of the documentary was to provide an optimistic view on Dutch life; something that was pretty necessary in Western Europe in this post-war era when the economic and social effects of World War II could still be felt all around. As a result, this documentary shows you only the beautiful, the innocent, the pleasant side of life. The most nasty thing you get to see here, is a couple fighting in the park. As long as you're aware of this however, it is a beautifully made work of art. This was also one of the first documentaries (at least in the Netherlands, but maybe even globally) which made extensive use of candid cameras. Pretty much the whole film consists of people being filmed without them being aware of it, or at least without their consent. This is also an interesting element of the film because it is a thing that you could never properly repeat nowadays. Bert Haanstra invented the candid camera as a way to show people in a vulnerable and innocent way. Camera's weren't all around in the public sphere; a lot of people didn't even have a TV yet. Nowadays, people are aware that everywhere, anytime, you could be filmed, especially when something unexpected happens out on the street. So if you were to repeat this experiment, you'd probably get quite different results; in all probability people would act much less vulnerable/natural the moment they notice they are being filmed. This was not the case then, so if only for that reason, this film is a unique document of both life and filmography.

From the first episode I found the narration of this series slightly irritating. Excuse my European point of view, but after watching numerous other nature series (mostly by David Attenborough) I was really disappointed with the level of ignorance and misplaced pseudo-nationalism here. Granted, officially the series is about North America as a continent and not about the USA as a country, but every time the narrator said " 'Murica..." I couldn't help but feel the narrator wanted to convey his pride of the U.S.A. 'Muricans are tough, and so are it's animals -- or something like that. I really felt disgusted how they managed to turn an otherwise beautiful nature series into what felt like right wing propaganda 101. How do you turn footage of a rodent gathering flowers to survive winter into a piece of right-wing propaganda? Watch "North America", and Tom Selleck will show you!

Halfway through the second episode I found myself thinking: seriously, if that guy is going to mention "only the strongest/toughest" one more time, I think I'm gonna break something.

After a quick Google search I found that the series is narrated by Tom Selleck, who in completely unrelated news is a right-wing NRA-member, and I found myself thinking: geee.... why the heck am I not surprised?

Not only do his cheesy one-liners give you an atmosphere of misplaced nationalism that really doesn't belong in a series about a subject so politically neutral as 'wildlife'; it is also filled with blatant lies. "Only the toughest survive." ...? and "Only the strongest deserve the right to call 'Murica HOME." ...? Apparently someone did an excellent job at misunderstanding how nature works, and raping Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" at the same time. For those of you who don't know: FYI, that is NOT what "survival of the fittest" means, or in any case not how modern day biologists would explain evolution or the way competition and survival in nature work. Not EVERYTHING in nature is about strength, toughness, physical power, or even absurd notions such as "courage".

Because the way the narrator 'personifies' animals with human character traits is another thing that started to irritate me more and more. Seriously, couldn't they have found a narrator who could bring a little more scientific neutrality into this? This kind of human projection on a 'tough' animal of your liking, is the kind of propaganda that would put the USSR to shame. The fact that the USA has chosen the bald eagle as it's symbol, does NOT mean that the bald eagle also chose America as it's home because it liked that particular country's "tough guy" image. But that is the kind of bullshit thing that you constantly get the feeling Tom Selleck wants to make you believe.

Newsflash: other countries in the world are ALSO home to supposedly 'tough' animals like mountain goats, eagles, bears, etc. But Tom Selleck wants you to believe that the 'magnificent' continent of North America is the only place where these "champions of nature" live, and so much as makes the claim that North America is the toughest natural environment on earth, which creates the toughest animals anywhere. While I think that claim is highly debatable, most of all I think: what a disgusting thing to turn a nature show into a schoolyard 'toughness' contest.

Instead of using nature to teach people as a species some humbleness, here it is used the opposite way and nature is abused as the supposed background that your imaginary god must have created to illustrate (North American) people's awesomeness? If you think I am exaggerating, watch two episodes of this series and see what you think of the commentary...

The imagery is beautiful, and the things you see are of course value- free; they are factual things that are actually happening in nature, simply captured on film for us to see. But the narrator does a perfect job of showing how a little narration can steer this value-free content into a certain direction. His narration forces you into a stunningly one-dimensional understanding of nature. And that may be the greatest flaw of all in this series that would otherwise be a beautiful and educational show.

So purely based on the stunning footage, I would give this show an 8 out of 10, but because of the way the narration ruins the entire thing, I really can't give it more than a 6. If you really want to learn something while you are looking at stunning imagery (instead of loosing 5 IQ points with every episode), I would recommend watching something from David Attenborough's huge oeuvre.