You can smell the involvement of John Landis in this production very early on. It hits just the right tone of slapstick horror, comedy and family drama.
Ken Boyd (Kevin Corrigan) has been in a hospital for the treatment of his depression and suicidal tendencies. When he gets out, he acquires a little job working in an ice-cream parlour (the advertising of which provides many chuckles). We get flashbacks of bullies at school torturing him. Then, back in the present, the bullies start to get killed with a modicum of gratuitous violence. Throw into the mix his daughter Amy (Ariel Gade - Dark Water), who has just found out where her dad lives, and you've got the recipe for gory death pie topped with tender fatherliness.
This film has many strengths. It is well made and well written. Most of the funny lines go to the Sheriff and Boyd's mum and there are enough to keep you laughing throughout (your sense of humour needs to be on the black side though). The main strength is the acting and relationship of the father and daughter. Corrigan is fantastic as a man coming from depression into a state where he feels more able to cope with life by the end. Gade is wise beyond her years and the relationship between her and her dad comes across as very real.
One fly in the topical cream is the inclusion of Lucy Davis as a love interest for Boyd. She was in The Office. She's irritating.
If you can stomach a small amount of gore and blood you will be rewarded with a funny and touching experience.
