All About Evil

Two things attracted me to this film: Natasha Lyonne and a mix of horror and comedy. You can't go wrong with that combination, right? The film starts out as a comedy and even though it remains funny until the end, the second half is very dark and bloody. There are quite graphic killings and the ending is nothing short of a massacre. Yet, it still remains entertaining and keeps you guessing how it will all end.

The performances from all the leads are great. Natasha Lyonne totally disappears in her character as a somewhat demented auteur who gets consumed by her newly found fame. Cassandra Peterson puts on a very solid performance as a worried mother and there's even a nice little nod to her Elvira character.

If you can enjoy a mix of horror and comedy with a touch of the bizarre and macabre, definitely watch this film. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

I recently watched All About Evil (2010) on Shudder. The storyline follows a new, up-and-coming independent director in the horror genre who is taking the industry by storm. She has some local fans obsessed with her work who begin to suspect that the kills in her films might be real. The director will do anything to keep her trade secrets, including adding her fans to her next film...

This film is written and directed by Joshua Grannell, in his directorial debut, and stars Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face), Julie Caitlin Brown (Babylon 5), Jack Donner (Four Christmases), and Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

This movie does a great job of not taking itself too seriously. The storyline is fun, and Jack Donner delivers an awesome performance. While Natasha Lyonne can be a bit annoying at times, she's offset by fantastic kills, gore, and blood splatter. The horror effects in this are top-notch, and there's a memorable use of a guillotine that made me smile. The ending, reminiscent of Carrie, is a perfect conclusion to the premise. The makeup and hair are wild, purposefully so, and if you watch this just for the horror elements and shut your brain off to the rest of the film, you'll have a good time.

In conclusion, All About Evil has its hits and misses, but the horror elements are so good that it's a must-see for fans of the genre. I would score it a 5.5-6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I was fortunate enough to catch the 4-D All About Evil Experience in Milwaukee.

Not only was the pre-show with Peaches Christ and Mink Stole a blast, but the film couldn't have been more enjoyable!

There is a fine balance that Horror films of this genre run where the comedy and heightened acting can either be extremely entertaining and clever or completely immature and ridiculous. All About Evil definitely fell into the first camp and all of the performances were top notch for this style of film! I couldn't help but laughing constantly throughout the film even though parts of it got rather morbid.

Secondly, clearly this film has its inspirations and in some respects it becomes a homage to many great filmmakers and genres. I have seen many homage genre films fall apart and become a complete waste of time due to the lack of ingenuity and a lack of understanding of the genre. Clearly Joshua has done his homework and delivered a skilled and well-crafted film that not only does the genre-filmmaking justice but brought much fun to the style. His film even has enough of his personal touch that All About Evil supersedes being just another homage film and stands well enough on it's own freakish legs as a new, great installment to horror films!

Go check it out! It's a blast!

Mousy librarian Deborah Tennis (Natasha Lyonne) inherits her father's beloved old theatre (the Victoria) which shows only horror films. Somebody pushes her too far one night...and she kills them in a VERY gory manner. The audience sees it...and think it's just a movie! Deborah realizes she enjoys what she's doing and decides to kill off other people and film it...and pass it off as fiction.

Wildly overacted with dime store gore but this sucker works! It pulled me in very quickly (cause I'm a horror fan) and I was loving it halfway through. It's chockful of black BLACK humor and throw everything they can think of up on the screen. It's a throwback to those incredibly gory horror films of the 1980s that actually got booking in respectful cinemas. Tons of blood and gore are in here but it's impossible to take it seriously. Also add a cast that includes Mink Stole and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) and u have a genuine cult movie! Also Lyonne chews the scenery again and again and AGAIN...but she's a LOT of fun. A must-see for horror fans. It was unrated at the film festival I caught it at...but this is NC-17 material all the way. Let's hope it's not cut down to an R. Also the writer, producer and director all GAY were there! It was playing in a gay resort town (Provincetown) and when the gratuitous female nudity came on the mostly gay audience roared and accepted it as a joke and not some sleazy turn on:)

All about Evil tries so hard to be a culty camp classic and at first I really enjoyed it. All the references to other cult classics, including my favorite awful film of all time, "Blood Feast" . John Waters drag stars, and a lot of blood, Elvira, all these elements show in a not so subtle way that the filmmaker was trying so hard to make a cult classic. On some levels they succeeded

I am not a huge Natasha Lyonne fan to start. Maybe that was part of the problem. I loved a lot of things about the film for sure. The sisters from "The Shining" was a terrific touch, but about halfway through I had had enough. Campy over the top acting becomes, well, campy over the top acting after 45 minutes or so. It is no longer funny or clever. It is just grating. The Grand Guignol blood scenes go from funny to gross. That is likely how this movie is probably going to affect you. You will love its' style from frame one to the very end, or somewhere along the line, and hopefully that is not from frame one. You will have had enough and start wondering when is this going to end.