Thursday, November 01, 2007

Masters of Horror – “Family” [directed by John Landis]


(2006) ***

Fatter than ever George Wendt plays Harold, a seemingly nice guy who lives in an idyllic suburban neighborhood with his wife, daughter, and father. His “family” consists of people he has murdered over the years in order to create his perfect Norman Rockwell vision.



Harold’s routine is disrupted when cheerful new neighbors Celia and David move in next door. After becoming enamored with Celia he begins to believe that she would be better off without her husband. With David out of the way Celia could become Harold’s new “wife” and Harold could live happily ever after.

Family is an okay season 2 addition to the Masters of Horror collection. Although it’s a rip-off/homage to Psycho, it’s not nearly as clever; think Psycho-lite. Wendt is great and it was nice to see him play against type. The FX are unusually good for such low budget fare including an amazing shot of Harold pouring acid over a dead body in order to remove all the skin. This was a fun little story that could’ve been told in half the time.

1 comment:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

6 reviews in one day!? I can't keep up on reading them? How the hell are you writing them?

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...