A Haunted House

A Haunted House

January is an interesting period in the lifespan of movies. It is squeezed between high budget films that come around for Christmas and action movies that will definitely be around Feb. Wow, can there be anything more heteronormatively masculine then a dude all pumped up for his valentine’s day?! This is why January turns out to be the month for unwanted movies.

This is usually the time when the theater system will push out films that are considered commercial flicks. People will be going to watch the cinemas anyway and will end up watching those that they have no chance of doing so if the movies were release around fall. And this is precisely how the author of this article found A Haunted House. Because horror is good. And comedy is good. Together? Unquantifiable. Spoilers ahead.

When the author of this article first watched the trailer for A Haunted House, he thought it was primerost of some sort of comedy parody of the haunted house genre of horror film. But that’s not really what the movie ended up being. A Haunted House takes jabs and shoots at one particular film series: Paranormal Activity.

Now the article deals with the plot about a couple in love who have just begun cohabiting. (In fact, there are a few minor problems in the arrangement of things). And that’s when things start getting weird. Kisha (Essence Atkins) feels that there’s a ghost in the house while Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) is certain that it is Kisha who’s lost her mind.

When he finally agrees that there are strange things occurring, they set cameras and try to find out the reasons. Naturally ‘their’ efforts to investigate only provoke the ghost. Finally it comes out that the ghost wants Kisha because the devil has provided her with the shoes (They make her calves look great!). The next events are the traditional ghost and Kisha getting possessed by the demon/ghost from the shoes. They also are unable to try and take the demon away from Kisha.

Despite the dark implications of the name, A Haunted House is a comedic film. This film is a parody of the haunted house films and lets the audiences have a good time. It does take the sub-genre to the limits. And when the film is a bit suspenseful, it absolutely has its moments of making you jump as well (seriously, Rosa, quit leaping in front of the camera).

“Because it’s terrifying!” is the answer to the silliest question in the Paranormal Activity film…that’s a simple one, why don’t you just LEAVE? Why is there powder everywhere? And have you ever been pulled back by a ghost? A haunted House gives us an answer (duh, because she made a deal with the devil for designer clothes).

A Haunted House is equally relentless in mocking the ‘\missing footage’ films. Particularly in regards to the security guy who thinks these are actors filming a ‘pornographic’ scene set in a house fitted with cameras. The cameras manage to catch way more than just ghosts though (seriously, Rosa. WTF). The one thing we didn’t see here is the Blair Witch effort in shaky camera work (you can catch one of the “Blair Witch” symbols on the wall, though).

But is it worth the time? It probably is not the best film race, as Rotten Tomatoes predicts 9% (regarding it as pretty rotted). But 87% of viewers claim to have loved it. In fact, the author remembers that the first time he went to see it, it was already sold out. So. What is wrong this time? It tells us that this is not a movie that will appeal to the critics in the least.

And we get it. There are tons of jokes revolving around farts, there are jokes about Gays (that, frankly, are not very good) and there is also a very cheeky scene of Marlon Wayans getting it on with three unfortunate stuffed animals. So we do expect it will not make it anywhere close to the 2013 Academy Awards. But we do not think A Haunted House was meant for film critics in the first place. A Haunted House is aimed at people who were looking for “low-brow” comedy at the movies. And it gets the message across.

There are instances when I think the entire audience was just doubled over in laughter. And if their aim was to shoot a tongue in cheek movie with a few good ‘jump’ scenes and sufficient potty humor, they succeeded on all levels. If you do not fall in the movie snob category, then you should have no problem in enjoying A Haunted House.

Sensuous humor such as the swingers who wish to engage in a Mandingo party comes out in good taste in the film A Haunted House. However, the same can’t be said about the Gay humor. There are dos and don’ts when making fun of The Gays. And they got it wrong. Most of the jokes were inappropriate bordering on homosexuality discrimination.

They are pointless distractions to a great comedy. And by the way, there are a lot of sex-related jokes, and the majority of them work. Also, they poke fun at white people a lot. And it’s funny. But the Gay jokes? They weren’t needful and the humor wasn’t there. That was really the only point of criticism we had.

A scene that stands out as the highest in merriment in A Haunted House is the one in which the couple smokes with one of the evil spirits that dwell inside their house. Afterwards, the husband gets pushed out of the room in a reverse motion by the ghost, and then the wife has her turn to enjoy the exact same entertainment. Some great shotgun action then follows after the ghost. Isn’t this all what one expects who has a ghost in their house? And this ghost is not very clever. As a matter of fact it forgets how to spell the word ghost when a Ouija board is used and is subsequently ridiculed as well.

The cast in A Haunted House is the definition of funny. The chemistry that Marlon Wayans and Essence Atkins share is on point. They convincingly play the role of a newly moved in couple rather perfectly. And for anyone that has lived with a partner before, you can fully appreciate their annoyance towards one another. But the best part of this film for me was Cedric the Entertainer. Father Williams impacted my viewing experience tremendously.

I think a lot of people at the show laughed at him the most. That kind of goes without saying though. But who cares? And we say “low-brow” and in quotations because, who are we to judge? That kind of humor works. Five year old’s love fart jokes. Fifteen year old’s love dirty jokes. Which are the best kinds of jokes. A warning though: if you don’t want those kinds of jokes then do not watch A Haunted House. Go watch the film without caring and laughing.

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