Smothered (2016)

Have you ever been in a crunch and need some extra money? In March 2016, I learned there is no such thing as “easy” money when you’re in a crunch.

Directing this 96 minute comedy/horror is John Scheider.

Some of the cast is: Kane Hodder as Striper, R.A. Mihailoff as R.A. Mihailoff, Bill Moseley as Soggy Christian, Dane Rhodes as Randy, Malcolm Danare as Malcolm Danare, Don Shanks as Don Shanks, Shanna Forrestall as Trixie,Brea Grant as Trixie and Amy Brassette as Agness.

Striper, who played a well known horror icon in movies, is stuck at a convention that’s not panning out the way he was hoping it would. So, when an offer to make some quick money comes along, Striper jumps on it. The job sounds easy enough, haunt a RV park and scare the customers. After persuading a few of his fellow horror icons to take the job with him, they jump into Striper’s RV and head out. Unfortunately, what was suppose to be an easy job turns into a night filled with true horror for these icons.

Ok, truth be told, the reason I caught this one was because I found out this was written and directed by Scheider. I’ve been a fan of his for a while. I grew up watching him on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) back in the day and then when he did the dad thing on Smallville (2001). Not to mention the movies he’s popped up in over time like Lake Placid 2 (2007), Snow Beast (2011) and Super Shark (2011) to name a few. So, when I found out Schneider wrote and directed a comedy/horror my interest was peaked, especially after I caught the trailer for it.

The story, that was written by John Schneider, is pretty funny and plays off of the real life angle of jumping from convention to convention on the merits of your movie work. There’s tons of humor filling the script along with plenty of chances for people to get bloody. I thought Scheider did a great job blending the horror icon real life while spoofing the horror genre. Yeah, this is a low… low budget flick, but they turned out an entertaining movie with what they had. Also, I dug the 80’s horror vibe it had.

The playthrough was good, but the story is told out of order of how things happen. Unfortunately, with the constant time jumping it can be hard to follow at times and figure out where you are in the story. Problem is I’m not sure if it would have been as good if it was told straight through from beginning to end. Part of the fun was finding someone standing next to a body and trying to figure out how it happened, but I think they could have made the time jump a little easier to follow. Now keep in mind, this is a comedy first, then a horror because some people might see who’s in it and go into this waiting to see Halloween or Friday The 13th level horror and that’s not it at all. This is a foul mouth sometimes crude humored comedy about things horror related.

The cast was awesome and while it was so cool to see so many great icons in one spot, a few stood out. After Hodder’s character, I think my next favorite was Mihailoff and then Moseley. Everyone brought a fun character but Mihailoff played such a warmhearted giant you could help but like him. It seemed like Moseley had some serious fun with his character and he was a crack up to watch. It was great getting to see these guys doing something completely different from what I’m use to seeing them in.

The work done by Wes Branton (special effects/make-up effects), Philip Sisk (visual effects) and Andrew Jewel (digital effects) made for some pretty gory scenes. Now, not everything effects wise blended in beautifully or looked smooth, but that actually was part of the charm of the overall film for me. They knew this wasn’t a big “blockbuster” film and didn’t try act like one or hide the fact it wasn’t. What you see is what you get, from beginning to end. Plus, they won me over by going with practical effects when it came to the gory scenes.