So much of this is so good, but the insistence of the sexual assault jokes loses me at times. Sex to this movie is only dirty, every man is lecherous and the actual central romance is too chaste for even a kiss on the lips. Assault isn't exactly condoned (usually, there are some egregious counterexamples), but it is treated as a rich vein of comedy to be mined.
Thank god then that the film zeroes in on its 2 heroines…
This was a blast, I have to wonder a bit who it was made for, but in the best possible way. Feels like it would be a traumatising pillar of your childhood if you saw it at the right age and late enough at night. Just about everything feels iconic. It's gruesome and nasty but also sweet and precious. Unselfconscious child actor who doesn't really know how to read lines is so many many times better than uncanny actor child practising naturalism. Another wonderful haunted house set. Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna both just seem like such cool dudes.
Mostly vibes, but really spectacular vibes. Maybe the best haunted mansion I've seen, great music, fog, costumes and furniture. I spent half of it trying to work out how the characters map onto the scooby doo gang:
- Dr Barrett (the scientist) = Fred/Velma. Doesn't believe in things he can't explain. Also the self-imposed leader of the gang and a bit of a blowhard. Believes in himself too much.
- Ann Barrett (the wife) = Daphne. Doesn't have much agency…
