When he's not delivering pep and cheese, he kidnaps attractive teenage girls, names them all "Kim," chains them into rooms with very bright lights, and talks to them by phone . . . oh, and if they try to escape, he kills them. Upon delivering dinner to the dysfunctional suburban home of respectable daughter Riley (Ashley Johnson), Otis kidnaps her in the daytime and re-enacts the high school prom that he never had. But when Johnson's salty parents (Daniel Stern, Illeana Douglas) and rebellious brother get their girl back and find the creep's home address, they go about their revenge in the most bumbling ways.
Otis Fails From Identity Crisis
The film is such an annoying and twistedly oddball geek show, thinking it's a black comedy and an ironic satire. Well, news flash; it's not funny enough or campy enough to warrant a recommendation. It's just sick and disturbing exploitatoin with jabs at gallows humor. This particular blend of horror and comedy does exist but takes an adept writer and director, which it lacks here. The director, Tony Krantz, does have an evocative '70s soundtrack and perfectly dingy grindhouse look, but the material is so distinctly uninviting that you feel like saving the talented cast of actors. In fact, if you do end up renting this trash, you may want to consider taking a shower afterwards--it's that dirty. Even as it is, the film ends on an especially unsatisfying note to exacerbate matters.
Gorehounds Curious For...Gore
Horror fans expecting Otis to be a flat-out gorefest will be sorely disappointed. However, blood and gore do exist in often gratuitous amounts. Thing is, with the darkly comic approach, the gore seems to come in from a dingy, unpleasant picture and not the gleefully gruesome one that may have been intended, as say the Evil Dead pictures.
What Was The Normally Reliable Cast Thinking?
The cast goes half and half. The family is played extraordinarily over-the-top and broad but become irritating, save for Illeana Douglas, who's often a riot as the ruthless mother. And Jere Burns as the smarmy idiot investigator is cartoonish and not funny. Ashley Johnson as the captive teen "Kim" seems like she wasn't let in on the sick joke. As for Otis, Bostin Christopher tries to make us care about the pathetic title character by adding in an abusive but not completely psychotic brother (Kevin Pollak).
Do yourself and don't make a date with "Otis"---rent "Shaun of the Dead" and watch that expert piece of horror-comic filmmaking.
- 2 stars out of 4.
