What scares
Andrew Goodridge?
He’s giving us a month to find out.
Follow along with Andrew as he plans to get into the spirit of his favorite holiday by watching a different horror movie every day in the month of October.
October 6
I’m not dying from laughter
“Motel Hell” (1980)
Directed by: Kevin Connor
Screenplay by: Robert Jaffe, Steven Charles Jaffe
In my “Killer Klowns” write-up, I mentioned that horror movies are only fun if they spare us the torture and gore that can turn a fun time into a sick one. “Motel Hell” (1980) doesn’t so much tiptoe the line between funny and disturbing as much as it gives the line the finger as it quickly disappear in the rearview mirror.
I remember reading a book on screenwriting that said, in a comedy, no one can ever get hurt. This is probably why we never see Wile E. Coyote carried off on a stretcher or working his way through months of physical therapy.
So it’s hard for me to agree with the label “horror-comedy” that’s often applied to “Motel Hell,” a grotesque and cruel movie that sports the tagline “You might just die … laughing!”
I guess I just don’t get the joke.
In “Motel Hell,” Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) and his sister abduct passersby, slash their vocal chords, and plant them in a secret garden of sorts. They’re harvested and fattened up until Farmer Vincent slaughters them and mixes human and pig carcasses to make his famous smoked meats.
It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters.
I think the most disturbing thing in “Motel Hell” was the disgusting gurgling sound that the Farmer Vincent’s “animals” make once planted in the ground. It’s part zombie, part drowning, part bloody, but no part funny.
This isn’t to say that “Motel Hell” was awful. I’ll never watch it again, I’m sure, but it’s a fascinating response to movies like “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Psycho,” and the bizarre atmosphere kept my attention. The ever-smiling Farmer Vincent and his nonchalant discussions of murder (“Sometimes I wonder about the Karmic implications of these actions,” he says) make for an eerie and unsettling tone, which is often the biggest struggle for contemporary horror movies. The film shows its age – and budget – but it competently stands alongside other 80s horror movies that have perhaps found more success and longevity.
After four days of monsters and aliens and zombies and headless horsemen, we got to our first entry in the marathon that looks at the evils and horrors that people do. Klowns and Wolf-Men don’t keep me up at night. Crazy farmers don’t either, but I could see where they might.
So it’s good that tonight we’ll be back to iconic 80s monsters with “Pumpkinhead,” a more somber (but probably more fun) movie than last night’s. I think we can both use a couple days away from the sadistic side of our own species, and the not-so-funny cruelty we can inflict on ourselves.
Though even if Pumpkinhead harvested people and turned them into beef jerky, I’m still not so sure I would just die laughing.
Andrew Goodridge likes movies so much that he married one. He teaches Audio/Video production, Filmmaking, and Film & Television History in Fort Worth, Texas. He would one day like to have a Pug, or maybe a Bulldog.
Andrew Goodridge can be reached at goodridge@everythingnac.com
