Horror Favourites – Cody Calahan

Available exclusively on Shudder now Vicious Fun is exactly that and a whole lot more. A crazed horror comedy with an insanely inventive plot it comes from the mind of Cody Calahan and we managed to grab the brilliant director to chat about his favourite horror film.

Joel (Evan Marsh), a caustic 1980’s film critic for a national horror magazine, finds himself unwittingly trapped in a self-help group for serial killers. With no other choice, Joel attempts to blend in with his homicidal surroundings or risk becoming the next victim.

Directed by Cody Calahan (The Oak Room), the award-winning VICIOUS FUN stars Evan Marsh (Shazam!), Amber Goldfarb (Appiness), Ari Millen (Orphan Black), Julian Richings (Shudder’s Anything For Jackson), Robert Maillet (Sherlock Holmes), Sean Baek (Killjoys), David Koechner (Anchorman), Alexa Rose Steele (Jann), Mark Gibson (Exit Humanity), Kristopher Bowman (Deep River: The Island) and John Fray (The Silence).

A riotously exhilarating neon-soaked ride of nostalgia, self-aware laughs and gory thrills, VICIOUS FUN more than lives up to its name and is available on now. The film has been a hit with festival critics, and it recently won the Audience Award and the Golden Raven at the 2021 Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.

Below the creative and captivating Cody Calahan takes us on a deep dive through The Burbs:

“One film that’s always stuck with me, and probably holds the title of ‘most watched VHS tape’ growing up, is The Burbs directed by Joe Dante. You might think that’s an unusual choice, as it doesn’t pop up on a lot of people’s favorite horror movie lists and wasn’t well-received upon its release in 1989, but this movie is still special to me for multiple reasons. From the single cul-de-sac location that pulls you in and makes you feel like one of the neighbours to the slapstick comedy that, although isn’t reinventing the wheel, fits perfectly with Tom Hanks’ brilliant performance, there are so many things to love about it. The entire film is driven by an incredible soundtrack which creates a unique viewing experience that resonates even after multiple viewings.

For those who don’t remember The Burbs or haven’t stumbled upon it yet, the premise is simple: the film follows a group of stressed out and paranoid neighbours in the cookie-cutter midwestern suburb of Hinckleyville who believe their newest neighbours are satanic cultists. It’s an interesting and timeless pitch… especially today as we live in a paranoid world.

The audience essentially follows the interconnected lives of four families: the everyman Ray Peterson and his wife Carol (played by Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher), war veteran Mark Rumsfield and his wife Bonnie (Bruce Dern and Wendy Schaal), puffy food-devouring Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun) whose wife is out of the picture for the week, and local metalhead Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman) whose mission throughout the first two acts is to simply paint his parents’ house while they are away on vacation. All of the above characters spy on their new neighbours, the Klopeks (Henry Gibson, Theodore Gottlieb and Courtney Gains). I’m taking the time to list each character because they all contribute such worthy performances. This is a great example of an ensemble cast. Each character is well-developed with their own unique set of quirks and is given enough time to shine.

An element in the film that caught my attention right away is the multiple points of view from each of the neighbours. Ray is the main focal point of the story, but you also see a range of different perspectives from the other neighbours. All of this makes for a strong and surprisingly uncomplicated horror-comedy that quite simply just works and doesn’t detract from the momentum and the creepier aspects of the story. This is a hard balance to achieve and yet Dante and his writer Dana Olsen are able to tiptoe that line perfectly.

The camera work deserves a mention, especially in the opening shot when the camera leaves the Universal logo and zooms down from a wide shot of the world closer and closer until we’re seeing a bird’s eye view of the neighbourhood. It reminds me of the opening scene in Beetlejuice (a very close second for favourite horror movie). Perhaps Beetlejuice influenced Joe Dante, as it came out the year prior. Funny sidenote/anecdote: One of our associate producers, who helped shape the script for Vicious Fun, met Joe Dante a couple years ago so we sent him a screener of the movie. I’m not sure if he’s watched it yet but you’ll notice Joe Dante’s name in the special thanks of the final credits. Oh, and I also wrote a fantastically bad The Burbs 2 script.I should probably send him that too.

The camera work is engaging right from the start of the film and doesn’t let up for the 101-minute runtime. It’s always tracking and dollying with the group as they spy and stalk their way into the Klopeks’ home. It has a certain energy to it, which is both exciting and slightly nerve-racking. There’s one scene I’ve always loved where Dante starts to break the fourth wall. Art and Ray have just stumbled upon a bone that Ray’s dog has supposedly dug up from the Klopeks’ yard. Upon further inspection, Art realizes it’s a human femur and as both characters clue in that it probably belongs to their missing neighbour Walter, the camera zooms in and out without warning as they both scream until the camera stops and they break from the moment. It comes out of the blue and it’s just as funny as it is startling… and then the movie just keeps going as if nothing happened. I’ve always admired that scene – the fact that they had the guts to do something so wacky like that is so awesome. It’s almost as if they just said, “Fu** it, let’s try it,” and that’s a vibe that seems to pop up in a lot of Dante’s other films as well. That attitude sort of became the mantra on the set of Vicious Fun as well. If it felt like something could be funny, cool, or just plain weird, we tried it!

As a vignette of suburban life, I think The Burbs has become a great American satire. When the paranoia takes over the neighborhood, our heroes slowly turn into the villains of the story. It’s a fascinating concept, especially these days. It’s a movie that’s able to weave horror and comedy perfectly together while also being a fantastic example of a contained horror film. We never leave the neighborhood, nor do we care to. It’s a purely character-driven story and, in my opinion, that doesn’t just make a great horror film, it makes a great film in general.

It’s obvious that The Burbs wasn’t made for critics, at least not when it was released in 1989. I’ve always felt that it was made for movie lovers and horror-comedy fans. To me, it’s a bizarrely overlooked film – which is probably why I fell in love with it as a kid and why I chose it for this article. I love the setting, the simplicity of the premise, and the technical execution. You don’t have to read into it, you can just let it be what it is: solid filmmaking and hilarious entertainment – and that’s exactly the kind of feeling I wanted to capture in Vicious Fun. It may not be noticeable right away when watching Vicious Fun, but The Burbs was one of my biggest influences. Were we successful? That’s for the audience to decide.”

Watch Vicious Fun on Shudder now and read our full review right HERE: