a review of

Oh well, it turns out that the movie with the ironically goofy title is unironically not that great. There were a few passably clever bits, but mostly it just left me thinking that I could have gotten much more entertainment out of watching Chopping Mall again. Knowing that the director went on to make A Talking Cat!?! makes a certain amount of sense, insofar as the movie feels extremely cheap and undercooked, even for its genre. There's basically no real FX or gore other than the animatronic imp and a few prosthetic effects, and lots of cutaways to reaction shots in lieu of these. Also, like A Talking Cat!?!, there seems to be an uncertainty of tone. Whereas ATC always seemed to be mere moments away from changing from a kids' movie into a straight up porno, this movie has the opposite feeling. The scares are so tame and the staging so amateurish, that if it wasn't for a couple of lingering nude scenes, this movie could have been made as a Gremlins-esque PG-13 film for the junior high set. As it is, it's neither fish nor fowl, and I was kind of bored in the end.