Rating: ***
Review Date: 3/10/24
Written And Directed By: Larry Blamire
Cast: Daniel Roebuck, Jennifer Blaire, Dan Conroy, Larry Blamire,
Brian Howe, Andrew Parks, Bruce French, Trish Geiger, Jim Beaver, Alison Martin,
Fay Masterson, Susan McConnell, cameos by Marvin Kaplan, Bob Burns
This murder mystery spoof was inspired by the "old dark house" movies of the 1930's. The plot concerns the reading of a will for the recently deceased Sinus Cavender, but an addendum to the will goes missing and people start turning up dead. There are stories about Cavender's ghost returning from the grave, an ancient witch's curse, and a serial killer is roaming the moors near the estate. 8 O'Clock Farraday (Daniel Roebuck) and Billy Tuesday (Jennifer Blaire) are two competing reporters sent to cover the reading, and they quickly take charge of trying to solve the murders before becoming victims themselves.
It's a surprisingly fun and funny film, full of wacky characters and snappy dialog. A good portion of the rapid-fire dialog is complete nonsense, but the real magic is in the delivery. Nearly all of the characters are delightfully quirky, but a couple of them are written so poorly that they're just needlessly annoying. Daniel Roebuck and Jennifer Blaire are brilliant as the constantly bickering reporters who are always trying to one-up each other, and they both look fabulous in their period clothes. Brian Howe gives a fantastic performance as the sniveling Terry-Thomas inspired Burling Famish, Jr., which plays well off of Andrew Parks's crusty upper class Lord Partfine. Dan Conroy plays the New York cabbie role to perfection, serving as a clever reminder of how much East Coast accents used to dominate films in the 30's and 40's. In fact, the entire cast does a great job, with the possible exception of Larry Blamire's intentionally awful performance as Ray Vestinhaus, which constantly breaks the tension and forcibly reminds the audience that the film is supposed to be a parody.
Production-wise, it's a definite step up from Blamire's earlier "The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra" (2001). The sets are wonderful and the lighting is crisp and appropriately moody. The music score sets a delightfully spooky tone and does an excellent job of evoking the time period. It's a fun low budget outing and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, which really speaks to the talent of the people who were involved and the energy they brought to the project. Plus, it has a gorilla.