Caesar and Otto's Paranormal Halloween
I want to start off this review by saying, I am a huge fan of horror-comedy genre since seeing Evil Dead 2 at the tender age of 8. Caeser and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween was made in the same vane of some of the great horror-comedies of years gone by. Now that being said it does also channel some (very many elements of the same film it draws its title from Halloween). That being said let’s dive in head first into this review.
The film opens with a familiar scene: a bored babysitter on an autumn night in suburban town. It doesn’t take long to realize that Caesar, dress himself in drag to get a paying job as a babysitter, a man in his early thirties, he is dressed in a blonde wig, crop top, and stuffed bra. Next we meet his half-brother Otto, he comes in to the house and begins to teases Caesar about his outfit. Otto turns on the TV a local news station is airing a report on severe funding cuts on mental health services in the state, right on que a second later, they cut to a breaking news story about a psychiatric patient, named Michael Myles, who has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane. The story goes on to tell how years ago, Myles had murdered a number of babysitters. They say his former doctors guess that he will return to his childhood home. Predictably, that’s exactly where Caesar and Otto are. The rest of the film is a Scary Movie-esq free for all the typical horror topics, Caesar and Otto discover the house is built on sacred Native American grounds and has a history bloodshed (shocker), people get possessed and a pair of priests discuss exorcism, Otto discovers that his mother was a witch, they throw in some ghosts, chaos ensues, and people get stabbed at a Halloween party. Throughout the film, classic and popular horror films are referenced and lampooned.
After doing some research online I realize that Caesar and Otto are a couple of guys who are hailed online as low budget next Abbott and Costello. Now as big fan of the Abbott and Costello films I have to say Caesar and Otto act more like the Three Stooges and less like Abbott and Costello. Caesar and Otto's Paranormal Halloween, honestly the film itself isn’t half bad. The cast comprised of some genre veterans the likes of Felissa Rose and Vernon Wells make the film funny and light by not taking themselves or the film series. The budget for this wasn’t the highest, but that doesn’t always mean it will be a bad film and it certainly doesn’t here.
In closing it’s dumb, goofy, and at times a bit grating film, but it knows what it is and it’s frequently entertaining. All in all, if you’re for a horror/comedy to bring to movie night with your friend that no one or almost no one has seen this will make for a good choice. It has its moments where you’ll look at the tv and say predictable or we know what movie that is from, but that is what makes it fun. Now as I mentioned above I did a small amount of research and found out this film is part of series” but I had no problem figuring out who they were without seeing the previous 5 entries, yes 5 previous films.
reviewed by Shawn
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