Vicious Fun

A decent meta horror comedy, with some serious 80s vibes. In 2021, a film like this is anything but original, but Calahan is a decent horror director, so he deserved the benefit of the doubt. Vicious Fun has some very solid, memorable bits, but sadly loses quite a bit of steam during the second half.

Joel is a writer for a horror magazine. He fancies his roommate, but he's too much of a dork to do anything about it. When he follows home one of her dates, he ends up in a shady neon-lit bar. He gets shit-faced and sleeps it off in the janitor's closet. Waking up later that night, the bar is empty, apart from one group of complete wackos.

The first half of the film works best, as Calahan goes full for comedy. The circle meeting was no doubt the highlight of the entire film for me. The second half is more geared at horror, but Calahan fails to add much to the countless slasher flicks that came before. It's all a little too safe and "been there, done that", not exactly what you want from a horror comedy.