Chillerama

As my rating would suggest, I am very nearly in love with this movie. Horror-comedies can be quite fickle...very often having too many elements of one and not nearly enough of the other. Sure, you have movies like Shaun Of The Dead that get it just right, but for every one of "Shaun" there's about 15 that just don't get it. And now we have Chillerama.

From start to finish you get the impression that someone was trying to get the aforementioned mixture just right. It interweaves 3 different movies (essentially hilarious mockeries of the old grindhouse/midnight drive-in genre) with a story of what takes place in between at the drive-in where they're being shown (think of it as the play within a play from Hamlet). Mocking these types of films is certainly nothing new, but few have gone so over the top while still somehow staying true to the source material. I have to say my favorite segment has to be "The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein" if for no other reason that Joel David Moore's portrayal of Hitler. Watching him make up gibberish that was subtitled as legitimate German had me laughing my ass off.

Gripes? Only minor ones. The movie runs a bit long for this genre. Two solid hours is typically a bit more than you'd expect, but then again it doesn't feel stretched or wasted. I also kind of wished they had put a little more effort into the story of what happens at the drive-in. All in all I would (and already have) recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys a good, albeit sometimes crude, laugh.

It's just one of those poser "horror comedies". Decent poster/cover but nothing to offer. The jokes are obvious dad jokes, but dirty. The first segment is called "Wadzilla" about a Godzilla sized sperm, and from there it does not get any better or funnier. It's as if this movie was written by grade nine students who were kept after health class for detention.

Each of the four segments has its moments. The tributes are appreciated and there are a few laughs to be had. The Hitler/Frankenstein segment was probably my favorite. All that said, the grossness extends to a level where you cringe and want to throw up. This film makes you laugh as quickly as you want to forget. I would never willingly watch this film a second time.

From some of this generations most innovative filmmakers comes a film that pushes the boundaries of good taste and endeavors to bring the good ol' style of the drive-in right into your living room. Does it succeed? For the most part, yes! Segment One, Wadzilla, features star/director Adam Rifkin (Detroit Rock City)as a timid businessman who is given experimental medicine to increase his sperm count, only to unleash a monster of immeasurable horror! The effects are charmingly horrible but it is quite a funny ride.

Segment Two, I Was a Teenage Werebear is, unfortunately, the proverbial black sheep of the family. Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) is a real talent but the short's taboo pressing plot line only serves to alienate this movie's target demographic (straight males). It is a rousing musical about a sexually confused young man who is bitten by a were-bear (long story) and struggles to keep his morality.

Segment Three, Adam Green's (Hatchet, Frozen)The Diary of Anne Frankenstien, is a real treat. Although admittedly a little short on the horror aspect, it is actually quite funny. The Nazi's, led by Joel David Moore as Hitler, attempt to use Anne Frankenstien's journal to build a monster to help in the war effort. This segment is shot in a sublime old fashioned style and is subtitled as everyone speaks authentic German except for Hitler himself, who comes off as quite a bumbling fool.

Segment Four, Joe Lynch's (Wrong Turn 2) Zom-B-Movie, serves as the wraparound story and as the finale and it is just righteously over the top fun enough to completely win over this reviewer. A zombie outbreak threatens the people who had to sit through the last three shorts only to be threatened by a pack of sexually charged zombies. The real highlight is character actor Richard Riehle who gets to brandish a shotgun and quote more movies then any character in history.

For this reviewer's money, this movie succeeded at becoming exploitation without falling prey to insincerity like the similarly themed Grindhouse.

"Wazilla:" 9/10. "I Was a Teenage Wearbear:" 7/10. "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein:" 8/10. "Zom B Movie:" 8/10.

Chillerama is one great big homage to the drive-in films that were once one of the biggest ways to view a film. Now, we have midnight showings and regular movie theaters. Though the number of American drive-in theaters have decimated to almost the point of utter extinction, Chillerama proves that if this was the seventies, it would've been the main attraction.

This is an anthology film in the vein of things like Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt. It plays like true anthology goodness; several short stories and then a wrap-around story to conclude the spectacle, where all the characters come together, also making the narrative come full circle. I have rated all the segments on their own since they serve as their own mini-movie. I believe that it's impossible to give one final rating to an anthology film without rating each individual vignette and then finding the average of the numbers. Thankfully, every one of Chillerama's stories is of passable quality.

Since each short is directed by a different person and focuses on a different period of horror, it gives sort of an ambiguous presence off. We get the homage to the time period, and the director's way of establishing it showcasing his style and his way of storytelling. Our first short just happens to be the best one. The Adam Rifkin directed "Wadzilla" is a crafty, creative, and endearing short mimicking the goofiness and the cheesiness of monster movies that dominated the fifties. The story focuses on a man, played by Rifkin as well, who has been giving a pill because of low sperm count. After taking this pill multiple times, he realizes his sperm have enlarged, and after one "escapes" from his body, it runs dangerously downtown, destroying everything in its path. Its jokes at films like The Blob are noticeable, and the idea itself is so unique and witty I can't help but have an undying fondness for such a short.

The next short, while the weakest, still has plenty of flair and wit. It's "I Was a Teenage Werebear," a short that is supposed to lampoon Rebel Without a Cause, Grease, and The Twilight Saga. Funny thing is I didn't think of any of those films when watching the short. I feel this is more a homage to beach movies and quirky musicals of the sixties and seventies. You know? Where characters randomly broke out in song and danced the night away. Beach Blanket Bingo comes to mind. As well as The Lost Boys, for its use of an unlikely clan and The Rocky Horror Picture Show for its bizarre costumes. I didn't find the story all that exciting, as much as I did the little dance numbers and the overall vibe it shot through my screen. A fun little short, that's too out there to be ordinary.

After that, we have "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein" directed by Adam Green, another director I'm well acquainted with. Green directed both Hatchet and its sequel, as well as the chilling, no pun intended, claustrophobic horror flick Frozen. Green furthers his style of flashback filmmaking with this short about Hitler (Moore) who breaks into Anne Frank's attic and recovers her book about how there was a strange monster created in her family. Hitler plans to revive this monster in order to win World War II. The film is subtitled because of its German origin, and is shot in black and white. The short is supposed to remind us of strange, foreign black and white films that were popular in the twenties and thirties. This is another change of pitch for Green, and hopefully will continue his line of films that throw us back to a simpler, more involved time.

I forgot to mention that the shorts we are watching are being played in a drive-in theater in the film. There are a number of characters we become more familiar with between intermissions of the shorts. They all join together to fight a massive zombie outbreak in the closing short "Zom B Movie." The short is similar to the outbreak in Troma's film Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, and mirroring the style of zombie films like Dawn of the Dead. This is beautifully directed by Joe Lynch, the same person who directed the great sequel to Wrong Turn.

If you've never heard of the company Troma then this film is worthless to you. You have to have a certain love for low-budget, throwback style filmmaking to develop the love for Chillerama like I did. I was rarely so involved in a horror film until I saw this and now I fear that I'll be expecting this quality next time I see an anthology film. Green, Lynch, Rifkin, and Sullivan have all proved themselves worthy of making a good horror-movie script and an uncanny talent of handling a camera. Maybe if we have a Thrillerama at one point we'll get more out of these four capable men.

Starring: Richard Riehle, Adam Rifkin, Ray Wise, Miles Dougal, Sean Paul Lockhart, Ron Jeremy, Joel David Moore, Kane Hodder, and Kristina Klebe. "Wadzilla" directed by Adam Rifkin. "I Was a Teenage Werebear" directed by Tim Sullivan. "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein" directed by Adam Green. And "Zom B Movie" directed by Joe Lynch.