I had quite low expectations going into ‘Wacko’ Not because I figured it was going to be badly made or anything like that, its just that…whenever a movie markets itself on being ‘SO CERRR-AZY!’ it makes me nervous…ESPECIALLY with older films that do that… It basically sets the expectation that your going to be getting 90 minutes of the absolutley lowest common denonimation humour, nothing but fart jokes, sex jokes, nudity and probably a lot of racism, mysoginy or homophobia to boot.
Which is why I was honestly quite pleasently surprised by ‘Wacko’. rather than looking at the ‘Scary Movie’ mold of comedy horror, this film instead cuts its teeth by the zucker brothers tone of ‘Airplane!’ and ‘The Naked Gun’ with plenty of communcation gags, visual pieces and slapstick. Make no mistake, it’s nowhere near as GOOD as a Zucker production, in fact it takes stupid humour to new frontiers honestly…but it’s a good spirited watch thats totally daft, very light in tone and has plenty of surprises along the way.
The plot follows one Mary Graves, 13 years ago her sister was slaine by an infamous and mysterious pumpkin headed killer in a bizarre Lawnmower incident in front of several kids (including Mary) during the annual ‘Pumpkin Prom’ now 13 years later, It’s Mary’s turn to go to the prom, and the killer may be making a return.
On the case? One Joe Don Baker, who plays a grizzled cop who’s been on the case for the last 13 years and still hasnt found who it is. Complicating matters further, a few days before the prom an insane inmate escapes from the local asylum wearing nothing but a trenchcoat and boots…
As you can imagine, Hilarity ensues.
And…yeh; I actually kind of had a soft spot for this one, I enjoy comedies that do ‘Stupid’ in a kind of smart way, and ‘Wacko’ is most definitely one of those movies. While the comedy itself does feel a bit like someones been rooting around in the Zucker brothers trash for discarded gags, The pacing is good, the hit rate on humour is high. it feels pretty zippy for 86(ish) minutes and the tone couldnt really get any lighter if it tried.
One thing I was quite happy about is the lack of gross out humour here. its an easy ride to stuff comedies like this with jokes about bodily fluids, erections or lewd acts. But ‘Wacko’ really kind of manages to steer away from that. We do unfortunatley get a few parodies of major horror movies of the time (Alien, Halloween, The Exorcist) which felt strained and ‘done’ even by 1982…and it gets even WORSE when they do some of those parody gags MULTIPLE TIMES within the same act. But mercifully they’re few and far between and the film rumbles to completion with a satisfying ending to a daffy story.
The film absolutely doesnt take itself seriously to ANY degree, and as such the characters are surface level developed, which here only helps keep the comedy nice and pacey as you realise that noone here needs any kind of grounding because the film is THAT dedicated to not being serious. This is the kind of movie that could completely derail into another genre entirely for 25 minutes and you wouldnt bat an eye.
the direction is pretty basic, but it hits the right notes; I do wish they’d gone maybe a little bit grander in stylization, but hey, this thing was aiming to mop up folks who wernt going to the major releases of that year. It does what it sets out to do, while it’s basic, its effective; and while there was definitely room for improvement, it gets in, gets the job done, and gets out…thats all I can really ask for when such craziness is going on.
The cine is equally kind of basic, but what they lack in compositional flare they more than make up for with effects and grander set pieces, expect plenty of blood, pumpkin filling and strange visuals here make NO mistake, the edit keeps a good pace, it feels tight with sequences that breath just enough to really help an audience relax into it. If I was nitpicking, i’d argue that some of the scenes could have done with just a few more shots and takes to help give them a bit more life, but on the whole? this things fiiiiiine.
Its the performances here that really sell it, With the majority of the cast playing things very deadpan and straight, in the vein if ‘Airplane’ or ‘Naked Gun’. George Kennedy and Joe Don Baker are probably the best of the bunch here, but they’re both old hands at this kind of thing, and JDB doing essentially a parody of the role he played in ‘Mitchell’ is just a delight. they have great comedy timing, the express EXACTLY what was needed when it was needed. and I think arguably they’re the people who save this film from completely falling over.
Julia Duffy as Mary is equally in lock step with the pair, playing an animated and very physically present take on the character, I really enjoyed her performance and I think she really got what the kind of tone this film was aiming for. She aced the assignment for me.
Adding to this a soundtrack that does seem a little out of place for a movie like this, it almost feels like a bit of a hodge podge of ‘in joke’ style rock-pop tracks and references to other horror movies as parody tracks (probably the biggest being the ‘Alfred Hitchcock presents theme’ getting used frequently throughout…because…why not?
I came away from ‘Wacko’ pleasently surprised. It didnt blow me away, but I went in expecting ‘bad comedy’ and came away having genuinely laughed multiple times across the runtime. While it does have its flaws, I think ‘Wacko’ does ultimatley manage to stick the landing, and while I wont say it’s an essential watch. I’d say check it out if your looking for an answer to the question ‘what if the zuckers did a ‘slasher’ parody’.
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