"My Best Friend's Exorcism" is an example of how horror comedies are a tough nut to crack. Moments fly by designed to be funny or scary but achieve neither, the inner workings of the would-be laugh or fright exposed for all to see. Either a music cue or punchline, we see all the tricks in the bag being tossed our way, sink deep into the couch depressed that we're smarter than the film we're watching.
Best friends Gretchen (Amiah Miller) and Abby (Elsie Fisher) are close, I mean real close. The film flirts with their non-platonic love as much as the two actually flirt, but it doesn't amount to much. It's one of many misfires here, as they're students at some sort of Christian school, and we all know that god just hates gays. Only I'm not sure it's Christian institute since Abby's Jewish, but then again would the academy be able to so freely discriminate? I have no idea and am spending more time on the subject then the actual flick does.
It also takes place during the 80's, for no discernible reason outside of loud clothing, big hair and a lot of references to Boy George, E.T., and the likes. No, the real reason was probably to remove cellphones from the equation, since like any conflict from media of the era would be solved in a flash. I get the impression it is supposed to be something of a satire here, with secondary characters loving yogurt or hanging out at the mall, but it never actually comments on the situation; it just shows it. So many times it says "wink wink, we just name-dropped Nancy Reagan, isn't that hilarious?" Not that any of this really matters; satire doesn't mean much decades after the fact.
Our leads join up with peers Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu) and Glee (Cathy Ang) at a cabin in the woods, and after a brief stint with a Ouija board leads to some unerotic skinny-dipping, then to a haunted decrepit house, and after a lot of wandering in the dark we finally get to the promised possession of Gretchen. Finally!
But it is another missed opportunity, because after the obligatory puking scene, all we get some cuts on her body and blemishes on her face and then poof, all that happens is a lot of also-ran adolescent antics. We see her work through her circle of pals making sure they all either almost die or hate each other. For every awesome scene involving tapeworms we get a feigned love letter or belittling prank involving a dunk tank. It's cruel without reason, like "Mean Girls" sans the heart or hilarity.
Before anyone knows what really happened to Gretchen, Abby initially believes her friend was raped, because that's what every comedy needs, but no one believes her. Not the parents, not Sister Kathleen (Ashley CeConte Campbell), not nobody. Eventually though she figures out what's going on, and this is where the film's best character comes into play. Christian Lemon (Chris Lowell), one of the Lemon Brothers, a group who preach the bible while working out. There's a great denseness to his performance, where he's smart enough to know he's over his head but dumb enough to get himself there in the first place, he's about the only time I came close to chortling. Him and Abby work together to divorce the demon from Gretchen's body, and that's about as far as I'll go with the plot. If I left you on your toes, just drooling over wanting to know what happens next, then that's just proof that I'm a better writer than half of Hollywood.
"My Best Friend's Exorcism" is watchable, it didn't actively work to make me hate it, but it left be flabbergasted and frustrated. There's good performances here and a classic story of friendship that just can't escape its genre trappings. When the best part of your movie is the candy I ate while watching it, you know you messed up.
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