Murder Party (2007); Also: The Naturalist Presents three horror movies no one else would recommend

Filed Under BBT Magazine, New York, Soylent Screen, Jef Taylor, Art, Halloween, Brooklyn, Murder as Art, Murder Party, Lake Placid, Kingdom of the Spiders, The Blob, Extraterrestrial slime mold plasmodium, Big Bill Shatner

Movie Reviews with BBT Critic Jef Taylor

My original plan for this late October Soylent Screen column was to do "The Naturalist Presents," in other words a bunch of horror movies that no one but me would dare to recommend.  And don’t worry, I’ll still do so with a shortened list, but in between thinking of the idea and deadline time something happened to derail my train of thought.  That something was Murder Party, an indie horror comedy that deserves to be reviewed and recommended now, so that you wonderful BBT readers will be aware of it and have a chance to rent the dvd before Halloween.

I’ll admit that I’m charmed by low-budget movies.  I like to see the compromises that need to be made to make a time travel story for the cost of car repairs, or the kinds of monster effects concocted by a group of friends who are getting paid in pizza and beer.  But even the best indie efforts often require the viewer to pretend not to notice the bad acting, the wooden script, the clumsy editing (I’m looking in your direction, Kevin Smith).  But somehow the makers of Murder Party manage to pull off a hilarious comedy and effectively scary thriller, cast entirely with people who hung out together in high school, without drawing attention to the amateur status of those involved.

The story is not unlike Scorcese’s hilarious 1985 dark comedy After Hours: a kind of square everyman gets himself in trouble in the artsy parts of New York.  But instead of Griffin Dunne jumping from taxicab to punk club to suicidal date in Soho, we have straight man Chris Sharp tied to a chair and harangued by a room full of talentless and murderous artists in Brooklyn.  He’s a lonely civil servant taking a chance on a invitation to a Halloween party he finds in the street.  The hosts’ psycho killer impulses emanate directly from their pretension and desperate need to appear edgy and important.  Their lack of artistic talent is matched by their bungling when it comes to offing their helpless victim.  Distracted by their own egos, by drugs, by jealousy, what should be an easy murder turns into a bloody chase.  

The jokes are well-timed, the characters are believable (absurd, but believably so) and convincing performances are coaxed out of the cast of unknowns.  Sharp is particularly impressive given the limitation his director puts on him: he spends almost the entire movie gagged, or with his cardboard mask over his mouth.  (In the dvd extras the director ribs that he did it intentionally, because he didn’t trust his friend’s acting ability.)  The fact that almost all of the characters have the same names as the actors who play them hints that there was less than full confidence that the gang would pull it off.  Their stated objective was to go ahead and make a feature film without the money and connections that normally precede such a project.  I’d say they succeeded.  Now to get people to see it.


The Naturalist Presents!

So you want to rent some horror movies for Halloween, but the three best ones–Jaws, The Thing, and Alien–are already out.  What’s a horror fan who loves to see horrible creatures eat humans to do?    Well, this naturalist and horror fan has some suggestions for you.

I might be the only reviewer to recommend Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), but how can you miss Big Bill Shatner as a small town farm vet who has to save everyone from an invasion of millions of poisonous tarantulas?  (Of course, real tarantulas aren’t dangerous to humans, but this being the 70’s, they’re affected by pesticides, or women’s lib, or something.)  It starts like The Birds (really slowly) and finishes like Night of the Living Dead (on a down note).  Did I mention that it stars William Shatner?

Did you know that in 1988 there was a remake of The Blob?  Did you know that it wasn’t too bad?  It stars a pre-"Entourage" Kevin Dillon as a plucky motorcycle-driving teenager who battles a huge pile of goo from outer space.  Sure, he’s no Steve McQueen, but Matt’s bemulleted little brother has a certain dumb-struck, mouth-breathing appeal, don’t you think?  The Blob itself is often compared to a giant amoeba.  But amoebas don’t grow forever, they engulf some prey and then divide into many separate amoebas.  No, the naturalist recognizes The Blob as a form of extraterrestrial slime mold plasmodium.

Finally, try Lake Placid (1999).  No, hear me out, dammit!  This Jaws rip-off not only features Betty White in her best role, swearing up a storm and feeding cows to a monstrous crocodile, but it also has Oliver Platt as a croc biologist who makes the late great Steve Irwin look reserved and thoughtful.  They could have saved a half hour and a lot of bad reviews if they left out the Bill Pullman/Bridget Fonda romance subplot, though.  My favorite moment comes at the end, when they actually debate protecting the man-eating monster–after all, it’s a miracle of nature!  You know what side I’d be on.

 

Jef Taylor reviews movies for Blood Blade and Thruster, and roots for the crocodile.

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Comments

7 Responses to “Murder Party (2007); Also: The Naturalist Presents three horror movies no one else would recommend”

  1. Edie on October 22nd, 2007 7:52 pm

    I loved “After Hours”! Didn’t it also star Melanie Griffith as the femme fatale? I love the ending (”Good morning!”) I haven’t seen that since it came out. Thanks for the memories - and if I’m wrong, clue me in!

  2. Nicholas on October 22nd, 2007 7:58 pm

    Way to go, the Naturalist! Three good recommendations, all rationalized for all the right reasons. I have particularly fond memories of KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS. It was playing on cable all the time when I was a kid, and I never missed an opportunity to hunker down and enjoy another dose of hairy-spider-invasion goodness. Oh, and a few spiders probably _were_ harmed in the making of this film: but when you have several hundred skittering around on the sidewalk, a few are probably going to get stepped on!

  3. F. Andrew Taylor on October 22nd, 2007 9:19 pm

    Have you caught Squirm yet? I haven’t, but the pictures from Fangoria and the ilk are etched in my mind. It appears to be available via Netflix.

  4. Urbpan on October 23rd, 2007 1:54 am

    Edie: You might be confusing After Hours with Something Wild (the mid 80s was full of movies about square guys getting mixed up with wild women). But you have the ending of After Hours right.

    Nicholas: Yeah, I remember seeing the cast of KOTS step on a few tarantulas as they ran from car to house etc. I wonder if any animal rights people complained?

    F. Andrew: It’s in the ol’ Netflix queue. So many “death by animals” movies to catch up on!

  5. Bonnie on October 23rd, 2007 10:57 am

    and a few spiders probably _were_ harmed in the making of this film

    *SQUEAK!*

    *gets out her handy dandy collapsable pitchfork to protest*

    Those poor spiders! What did they ever do to deserve such a squishing? HUH? ;) :P

    No, really, what gives? No worms harmed in How to Eat Fried Worms, and yet those poor spiders in Kingdom of the Spiders being squished by careless actors? Yeesh!

    Well, at least now I know what to make my best friend, who is incredibly arachnophobic, watch on Halloween. hehe…

  6. interglossa on October 24th, 2007 5:37 am

    Jef thanks for this review which has broadened my horizons - I will never watch Golden Girls the same way again.

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