Film Review: OMG… We’re in a Horror Movie (2014)

SYNOPSIS:

ix friends having a weekly board game night are interrupted by a booming movie trailer voice from the sky. Inexplicably, they find themselves trapped in a Horror Movie. Who amongst them will turn into a homicidal killer? Who will be the sole survivor? And who will be the first to die in the shower? Struggling to break free from the stereotypes that would see them dead, each of the friends try to stay alive in whatever hopelessly desperate ways they can.

REVIEW:

Horror comedy seems to be the most creatively fertile subgenre of horror recently. While mainstream horror has turned into cliche-ridden jumpscare-fest, horror comedy took over its place and became an entertaining medium for delivering social commentary or author’s message to the masses, even if his sole message is Shut the hell up and enjoy yourselves.

But enough about good horror comedies, let’s talk about OMG… We’re in a Horror Movie.

Plot-wise the movie does not come close to reinventing the wheel, but something makes me think that Ajala Bandele & Tom Hatfield (writers/directors) thought that it’s insanely clever:

A group of friends who met for a game night end up becoming trapped in a horror movie After realizing what happened, they all, each in his or her own way, try to figure out how to survive.

That’s it. Scream meets Scary Movie meets The Cabin in the Woods meets any other 4^th wall breaking movie within a movie. You can put any title in here and I bet it’d be a better choice than wasting time on OMG…

I’m not claiming that I have a sixth sense of any kind, but more often than not I can tell whether I’ll like the movie or not after a few initial seconds that show me how the film looks like.

This one looks like a video clip – not a good sign. Everything is visually polished to the point of being annoying. Some people like it, some not. I’m more of a 70’s grindhouse esthetics person and squeaky-clean visuals make me think I’m looking at an oversized dollhouse full of mannequins.

That being said, I have to admit that I’ve ignored whatever my gut kept telling me for the first couple of minutes, because I’ve genuinely enjoyed the first scene, where the protagonists are sitting around the table and simply talking to each other.

It was not perfect by any means – humour felt a bit forced, it’s almost like the writers watched a bunch of stand-up routines on youtube and decided to put some of this stuff in their film, but still, the’ve managed to sneak in a couple of good ones and I can’t ignore the fact that they didn’t care much about being PC – that’s a plus.

Unfortunately after this scene the movie kicks off and it only gets worse from there.

First of all, the horror part is very underdeveloped. At the beginning the movie makes us think that it is going to get all nerdy on us – I’ve expected to see some knowing nods to the classics, little easter eggs and references to more or less mainstream genre films. In fact, even the dreadful Scary Movie franchise is more nerdy than OMG…Sure, there is a killer and a bunch of zombies, but, first of all, these things are not exclusively horror anymore, and, secondly, they just randomly appear at some points without really adding much to the product.

This leaves the  comedy as the only hope of this flick… And while in the opening scene it is enjoyable, it becomes lazier and lazier to the point that the reaction is not laugher or amusement, but simply acknowledgement that a given gag/situation/expression was supposed to be funny.

Performances, on the other hand, were surprisingly good. And not only oh-they-care-about-this-thing-good, but good-good! All the actors did really well, but some of them were really exceptional, so…

Big round of applause for:

Sharon Maye Wang who played the most entertaining lesbian vegan I’ve ever seen on-screen (…and she’s super hot when she goes homicidal during a car escape),

Liz Fenning, the crazy-ex-girlfriend every man would like to have,

Nils Jansson, the most awkward awkward friend I’ve seen in a long time,

and

Brendan McGowan – handsome douchebag extraordinaire.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish we’ve met in a better (or at least decent) movie.

To sum things up:

If you want horror comedy that does not have much horror or comedy in it – go for OMG… We’re in a Horror Movie. If not, avoid at all costs (…be a good sport and warn your friends, too, would you?)

Three-word Review: Better. Watch. Scream.