Hideous! (1997)
“You’re fired!
You’re fired from everywhere!
You’re fired from the fucking universe!”
So after watching Charles Band’s Head of the Family (Review Here) I decided to follow it up with another one of his forgotten treasures.
Belinda Yost sells biological specimen’s i.e. deformed discarded foetuses on the side primarily to two buyers but has broken her first refusal agreement with one of them called Dr. Lorca.
Unfortunately Dr. Lorca has found out and steals this latest biological specimen from his rival Napoleon Lazar who is repeatedly referred to as Nappy.
That’s as embarrassing as a certain future ultimate galaxy baddie being referred to as Annie.
So Nappy and Elvina head along with her receptionist to Leonard Kantor who is a private detective and NOT an FBI agent like all the synopsis on the internet claim.
Kantor takes Nappy and the gang which is a good name for an 80’s band to Dr. Lorca’s to find proof and reclaim the specimen.
Along the way the specimen breaks free and gives life to 3 others who then hold everyone captive to force them to deactivate the security system in the castle (filmed in Romania as is common for Full Moon Pictures) that has trapped them.
Fun, Fun, Fun is all I can say. Even though the specimens don’t do anything until about 40 minutes through this 82 minutes film it is still fun to watch because of the characters.
Something it seems modern horror films neglect to work on.
Primarily it is the bickering between the two collectors as well as the detective who is the only sensible level-headed person in the film that keeps it entertaining though the money grabbing Belinda too is a very good watch.
Just like in Head of the Family the incredibly fun to watch Jacqueline Lovell is back and almost as naked but here her performance seems restrained and it shows. In HotF she was allowed to let go and not take it seriously that made her easily the best character in that film.
Here she only has a few moments to do something similar and shine for instance when she robs Nappy whilst wearing a gorilla mask and no top, seriously, that show how talented she is but that doesn’t mean the rest of the time she is giving a bad performance.
On the contrary, her character is as offbeat as anyone else’s making her once again a highlight of the film it is just I would’ve liked her to have been let off the reins a bit more.
Charles Band seems to have a fascination with knee high puppets in his films which doesn’t change here and hopefully will continue. The puppets are very nicely detailed and slimy but under utilised.
They only show up half way through and do not receive as much screen time as you would expect but the film does not drag at any point so you aren’t left with periods of dull, boring, interactions between the actors praying for the return of the puppets. That doesn’t mean the puppets couldn’t have been use more.
Another oddity from Full Moon that entertains like their films should so if you are into strange offerings then why not try this.
Good humour, good performances and if nothing else it isn’t too long.
I loved it.