Is this even a horror comedy? I guess we’ll find out.

Spoilers.

We start with a traumatic experience in Brent’s life, when he accidentally kills his father as he swerves off the road while driving in order to avoid some random guy, who just apppeared on the road. This leaves him depressed. Later on, Lola, a girl from his school, asks him to the prom, but he declines, telling her that he already has a date (which is true), but Lola doesn’t take this lightly. She and her dad kidnap him to have their own gettogether in which Brent is nailed to the floor by his feet.

We also find out that Lola and her dad actually have plenty of experience with the situation they are in. Brent is not the first guy they’ve had at their house. There’s been four previous ones, including Mia’s brother, who managed to get out (although he died later). The rest… are actually stored under the house. Instead of killing them, the pair drill a hole in their foreheads and lobotomize them with hot water. Based on the pictures Lola shows Brent, the first one was when Lola was just a pretty small child, probably under ten.

So, is it a comedy? I don’t really know. For the longest time I wasn’t going to cover this for this very reason, but if I can shed some light on lesser known movies, why not? There’s some elements, which are clearly meant to be funny, and there are elements that don’t feel like they are meant to be funny, but I do still find them kind of hilarious. For example, the way Brent finds the strength to drive over Lola in the end is comical, but I do feel it was meant to be a serious character moment. On the other hand, there is a pretty meaningless B-plot about Jamie, Brent’s friend, going to the prom with Mia, a girl who doesn’t seem that interested in either the prom or Jamie, but changes her mind on the latter. There is a connection in that the guy Brent almost ran over was actually Mia’s brother, but this doesn’t actually come into play in anyway other than as an explanation as to why she is so out of it.

Lola and her dad are also sort of funny, but not really. There’s an awkwardness to it, because of incestuous thoughts on both sides, although it seems like her dad is really into Lola in a sexual way, but Lola is just manipulating her dad with this knowledge. At least until she verbally acknowledges that she has that kind of feelings as well.

In the end, I don’t know if this is a comedy, but weirdly the dichotomous tone doesn’t take away from the movie very much like it so easily might do. It is still a very good movie even if there are multiple problems with it. The idea is just unusual, but well executed, if you just forget the meaningless b-plot, which is in itself fine, but just doesn’t fit into this movie. I guess it’s just padding they needed to get to the runtime they have.