Blamire's created an interesting niche for himself - a talented and professional filmmaker who successfully makes good movies that pretend to be bad movies. "Dark And Stormy Night" is another of his affectionate and genuinely funny tributes to a staple of the late night Saturday movie - this time instead of Science Fiction or Jungle Safari, he takes on the "Old Dark House" shtick with enjoyable results.
It could be that the novelty of his approach is wearing off for me, because I thought this movie wasn't quite as sharp as the "Lost Skeleton" movies. The plot was just a bit over complicated, the sets were maybe a bit more enclosed and static, and the movie itself was maybe a bit too long. Or maybe the gruesome murders took away some of the light-as-air vibration of the "Skeleton" movies, no matter how humorously they were staged.(Characters barely got their hairstyles mussed in the Skeleton movies as I recall.)
Still, there's a wealth of quirky performances (for instance, "Trufin Newbin" is back as the world's most boring pants-obsessed raconteur), some excellent Abbot-and-Costello style word play, some fine sight gags and some physical comedy bits that all arise naturally out of the situation and the environment. And there's not a raunchy, quasi-topical "Scary Movie" style sex-and-fecal matter joke in the whole thing - it's as if Blamire not only avoided this kind of humor, he wasn't even aware it exists. I'm not offended by modern raunchy movie humor, but I liked this naive feeling a lot.
If the idea of seeing an Ed Wood tribute movie that's actually as intentionally funny as Ed's output was unintentionally funny...you should check Blamire out, and if you can't find the "Lost Skeleton" movies first, by all means see this one.
It could be that the novelty of his approach is wearing off for me, because I thought this movie wasn't quite as sharp as the "Lost Skeleton" movies. The plot was just a bit over complicated, the sets were maybe a bit more enclosed and static, and the movie itself was maybe a bit too long. Or maybe the gruesome murders took away some of the light-as-air vibration of the "Skeleton" movies, no matter how humorously they were staged.(Characters barely got their hairstyles mussed in the Skeleton movies as I recall.)
Still, there's a wealth of quirky performances (for instance, "Trufin Newbin" is back as the world's most boring pants-obsessed raconteur), some excellent Abbot-and-Costello style word play, some fine sight gags and some physical comedy bits that all arise naturally out of the situation and the environment. And there's not a raunchy, quasi-topical "Scary Movie" style sex-and-fecal matter joke in the whole thing - it's as if Blamire not only avoided this kind of humor, he wasn't even aware it exists. I'm not offended by modern raunchy movie humor, but I liked this naive feeling a lot.
If the idea of seeing an Ed Wood tribute movie that's actually as intentionally funny as Ed's output was unintentionally funny...you should check Blamire out, and if you can't find the "Lost Skeleton" movies first, by all means see this one.