Typically, I am not a fan of Troma movies. There are exceptions. Chillers (1987) , the original Toxic Avenger (1984) film and even the Toxic Crusaders cartoon (1991) were all fun. That said, I’m not a fan of their entries that try too hard to be cult horror classics which is bout 90% of their catalogue. Tromeo and Juliet (1996) and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) are perfect examples. By all accounts Lloyd Kaufman is an extremely nice guy who is willing to help any filmmaker. I am honestly very happy that he was able to obtain such a loyal following and stay strong in the industry for as long as he has . I just don’t get it. In the intros he does for his DVDs, I don’t find him funny. In fact, I think he’s annoying and intolerable. It is only because I hear so many good things about him from the horror community that I’m not saying worse things about him.
Most of the movies he produces are written and directed by talentless morons who have zero vision and even less respect for the genre they’re attempting to break into. I’m a crazy fan of real B movies. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is my favorite film of all time (tied with 12 Angry Men 1957). I’ve gone to the play countless times and dress the part every time.
Shock Treatment (1981) Xanadu (1980), Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band (1978) are all fantastic flicks. In horror, the amount of great B horror films are countless. The Stuff (1985), Chopping Mall (1986), Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978), and of course Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972) are all amazing. Most of these entries were made by those who knew they were making a B film, but they still tried. They weren’t winking at the camera every two seconds and they paid homage to the industry rather than made fun of it.
When my brother chose a Troma movie with the title Dead Dudes in the House (1989) I was ready to say goodnight and go home, but I remembered Chillers and decided to give it a shot. I was actually really impressed.
The film opens in 1948, with a blonde upper-class woman sitting on sipping clear pop from a straw. Pacing back and forth in front of her, was an old woman hunched over clutching a knife. When the elderly grandma puts down the weapon and picks up a cane, the audience is able to see a man dead on the floor.
Fast forward to present day (if present day was still 1989) and 8 friends arrive at the house ready to fix it up. On the downside, the character are absolutely interchangeable. Aside from the woman playing the old lady, there are no award-winning performances. Still, the old lady is creepy and as the friends arrive she’s still in the house peering out the window.
She wastes no time and begins killing the teens immediately. They don’t just die however. Instead, the become demonic entities who are also bloodthirsty which indicates it’s actually the home that is possessed and not the inhabitants.
Though, we aren’t provided any backstory on those that lived within the confines in the beginning, it does allow the viewer to determine whether it was they
who made the house evil with their murderous ways and their souls that refuse to rest or was it the home all along. I’m not sure but I like to think it was the home the whole time. To think that the old lady at one time was a pleasant and sweet woman driven mad is much more of a compelling story than a crazed murderer who has an equally insane daughter who happens to have evil powers. I do appreciate the fact that the story is open, but I would have liked to have a little more information.
Some watching will say the make-up on the old lady is awful and it is but that somehow makes it creepier. It’s as though the character is obviously hiding something and throughout the movie one questions what is really going on.
Obviously inspired by The Evil Dead (1981), this production really did attempt to pay homage and stick to a more serious tone utilizing black humor when appropriate. Today, there’s no subtlety to the jokes and they’re certainly not few and far between. Instead, we’re forced to see stupid attempts like a knife through someone’s head and then the protagonist utteirng, “that’s gotta hurt” as he literally winks at the camera. When I see something like that, I yell at my screen “FUCK YOU!” It’s such an insult! Don’t break the fourth wall unless plot dictates. It isn’t clever anymore. It’s been overused immensely and it pisses me off. I don’t want the characters to talk to me or to acknowledge my presence because it takes me out of the film and don’t have your characters, especially your main ones act in a manner outside the realm of reality. If you don’t have a clever joke, don’t use one and usually people in a dire situation do not joke around…so leave it out of the film!
Even though the jokes in Dead Dudes in the House weren’t funny, in a way they weren’t supposed to be. It was the demons who were making jokes to amuse themselves rather than to amuse the audience. It’s sadistic. Though lighter in tone, it’s the equivalent of the terrifying laugher coming from Linda (Betsy Baker) in The Evil Dead.
Surprisingly, I would certainly recommend this. It wlas interesting, fun, creepy and stuck to its tone throughout. The only thing that should change is its godawful title. Troma would certainly sell more copies if it was retitled to something more fitting. Even something simple like Killer Granny or The House that Would Not Rest would be better. Actually, when reviewing this I found on IMDB.com that the original title was The Dead Come Home. That’s a great title. Who decided to change it? Was it Mr. Kaufman? Mr. Kaufman, if you ever read this, I hear you are a really cool guy, but your jokes suck. They’re not funny. I don’t want to hurt your feelings because in a way I think you did a lot of good for horror, but you may be surrounding yourself with a lot of YES men. Take it from me as a devout horror fan. I’d go to the darkest depths of hell before giving up horror or B movies. You need to pull back a little bit and maybe get someone who has proven themselves a real draw behind the realms. What is Alexandre Aja up to? He’s awesome. Even those who make direct to DVD sequels like Victor Garcia has some vision. If you had someone who respected the genre and understood the longing from the horror community to see real horror in any format, TROMA could be bgger than it was in its heyday. You need someone who sees what James Wan or even Michael Flanagan is doing and enjoys that type of horror. That’s where we are going to and even if it’s something lighter and more ridiculous, those should be the people that TROMA looks to. I am certainly not proposing becoming the Asylum of production companies making awful copycats with TV stars from the 80s, but I am saying that TROMA should rise above the absolute awfulness of its current reputation. It’s not just that they’re bad movies. There are plenty of bad movies but you are currently helping people whose only intention is making really shitty movies for the sake of making shitty movies and its not taking serious at all. On a theatrical level, it’s the difference between Airplane! (1980) and Epic Movie (2007). I don’t know if you have someone whispering in your ear, “this is what kids like” the way that no-talent hack Joe Ripple did to the Late GREAT Don Dohler, but fuck that noise. It’s not the truth.
Horror and B Movies fans alike want films that at least attempt to be good. If we get a Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) out of it, fine because it’s PURE. It was done with a sincerity the same way Troll 2 (1990) was, but you can’t hire people who want to make a movie like The Room (2003) because it shows and its dreadful.
Still, there is hope! Bad films like Mirrors 2 (2010) and White Noise 2: The Light (2007) are so much fun. They respect the genre but have a level of stupidity that make the movies enjoyable. I would love Troma to be around in 50 years, but it definitely needs better insight into what good B Horror films are.
In 1989, they seemed to understand a bit more because I was highly impressed with Dead Dudes in the House.
If you want to check it out for free you can do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNZHms_OHqs
Scared Stiff Rating: 6.5/10 A B Movie Done Right
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