Frank Oz directs Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Levi Stubbs in the dark comedy musical about a carnivorous alien plant.

Stagey! A childhood favourite full of bonafide ear worms and cameos from my comedy legends. Steve Martin, John Candy, Jim Belushi (I was young!) AND Bill Murray… in his funniest three minutes ever. Feels like something Danny Devito or Joe Dante directed. Do you know what I mean? And while we are asking questions… Yes, I do know about the bleak 10 minute SFX ending they cut. I think the reshot happier ending works better. But then you can see what would have been (and definitely wouldn’t have worked) on YouTube after. Tough Titty! The modern Disney formula was chalked up on the board here. All hail Ashman and Menken.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

Gerald Kargl directs Erwin Leder, Robert Hunger-Bühler and Silvia Ryder in this gruesome German art house thriller where a young psychopath is released from prison and invades a home.

A cult Bête Noire. Actually not so dissimilar to In A Violent Nature in that we spend much of the film with the camera non-judgmentally following a killer closely over a day as he darts around. This sadistic freak is really incompetent but he puts the graft in. Sure he tortures and kills but it all unravels chaotically and clumsily. He makes terrible choices. What is he? Insane! Mad?! Work smarter not harder. I totally get what this purposefully cold and disgusting film is achieving but wouldn’t rush to rewatch. A progenitor of Haneke at his most extreme.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Benny’s Video (1992)

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Chris Nash directs Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic and Cameron Love in this indie slasher where a relentless killer is resurrected in a forest and we follow his deadly stalking of a group.

Very purposefully relaxed for a genre exercise. We occupy the killer’s POV with much of the action (/inaction) happening over his shoulder as he ambles through the woods. Which means lots of downtime just hiking through nature. A bigger picture does emerge as to why this is all happening, good solid mythology, but the doomed characters never really come to life. There is one spectacular kill. A genuine all-timer. The filmmakers have dubbed this experiment an “ambient slasher”. I’m not against the concept in theory but in practice I crave something a lil juicier.

5

Perfect Double Bill: When Evil Lurks (2023)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Yasujirô Ozu directs Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara and Yumeji Tsukioka in this Japanese drama where several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.

Slow and sweet. A little less drinking than the previous Ozus I watched. A very sympathetic lead performance.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Floating Weeds (1959)

Rob Zombie directs Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell and Danielle Harris in this sequel to the rock’n’roll gore autuer’s remake of the slasher classic.

A PTSD movie hidden in a loudmouth, squeaky voiced nasty fest. This is possibly one of Zombie’s weakest efforts but he delivers stunning classical horror in his own way in the first act. Everything else is indulgent and abrasive. That is the home brand of ketchup this guy slathers on all his French Fries. It might not completely work as a multiplex slasher after those first thirty minutes but it could be seen as Zombie’s love letter to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in its themes and most off-the-wall moments.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Halloween (2007)

Herb Freed directs Christopher George, Patch Mackenzie, and E. Danny Murphy in this slasher whodunnit where someone is offing all the members of a track and field team before they finish high school.

First cycle slasher that keeps you guessing. Some solid eerie fast edits, chases and grindhouse strangeness. Very much what you want from this era of horror. Better than any Friday The 13th.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Sweet Sixteen (1983)

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Lucio Fulci directs Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco and Ania Pieroni in this giallo involving a mystery killer and a ghost girl lurking around a spooky new home.

Doesn’t make a lick of sense and visually references The Shining often. Once we go down into the basement the fear factor shoots up. What lurks beneath the home jolts you out of all the woozy, incomprehensible tease.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Higuchinsky directs Eriko Hatsune, Fhi Fan, Hinako Saeki in the J-horror where the inhabitants of a small Japanese town become increasingly obsessed with and tormented by spirals.

I have enjoyed reading Jiro Ito’s pessimistic body horror mangas of late. Spiral is probably the most famous… starting small scale and seemingly trivial but ultimately becoming apocalyptic. This DV filmed movie adaptation captures the earlier eerie moments well. It feels a little softened at times, just hinting at that oppressive wider picture and the gory fatalism of the source material. It is often filmed in unnerving close-up POV shots giving the whole endeavour the feel of a 90s Tango advert gone rogue. Also the director loves shooting teenage girls legs. Bruv, can’t help himself!

6

Perfect Double Bill: Pulse (2001)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin

Henry Hathaway directs John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell in this western where a drunken Marshall is hired by a bossy teen to hunt her father’s killer.

“Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!”

Absolute childhood nostalgia. This pacey, funny and smarter-than-it-looks western owes everything to the Duke. Super relaxed, this was the role he worked his life to play. He has always been tough and often been funny but those words from Charles Portis’ novel’s dialogue just tumbles out of his mouth sweetly and with impact. Sure, the Coens remade this classier and more sophisticated but this version is hardwired into my movie loving DNA. Hell, Rooster Cogburn reminds me of my Grandad so much this feels like a Haynes Manual as to how I feel a “real man” should work. I often lead myself within difficult interactions with Rooster’s attitude at the front of my head. Dalton from Road House too. And John McClane. And Jimmy Smit’s Bobby Simone from NYPD Blue. Somewhere between the four is how all men should carry themselves through the world. And age wise, I’m entering the Cogburn phase of my life.

“Come see a fat old man sometime.”

9

Perfect Double Bill: True Grit (2010)

Yorgos Lanthimos directs Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Aidan Delbis in this satirical drama where two incels kidnap a young female CEO believing she is an alien in the end stages of colonising Earth.

Not my favourite Lanthimos. Just as it feels anyone could have made it. Where is his beloved fisheye lens, for example? Often this is merely a three hander play. Very talky, often numbingly sad. The fireworks come whenever Stone’s face resets whenever she realises whatever salvo of bullshit she is churning out isn’t helping her cause. And then ultimately it feels that late stage capitalism is let off the hook and we all must reap what we sow. Hmmm… Futile existence. Thanks for that message. The three leads giving Oscar worthy turns aside, the zany and gory Korean original is way more of a lark.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Save The Green Planet! (2003)

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