The Horror Show
Horror Hotel: The Movie
by Ricky Hess
A few years ago, the world was introduced to Horror Hotel: The Webseries. Created by Ricky Hess, the anthology series features 10-20 min episodes, ranging in topic, that all center around the same hotel. Now the world has gotten Horror Hotel: The Movie. Whenever a movie is based on a previously existing series, there are two questions that rule above all others. The first is how the movie is in and of itself, and the other is if it will satisfy pre-existing fans of the source material. Allow me to explain my thoughts on how the movie holds up in regards to answering these questions.
Fans of the web series will feel right at home as the style and setup are the same. In fact, the movie more or less is essentially new episodes back-to-back. There's no frame story and each segment begins with titles and credits similar to how the episodes of the series start. The first story deals with a young man getting thrown out of the titular hotel by his fed-up girlfriend who considers him a go-nowhere loser. Her car is soon flattened by a spaceship and the pair are introduced to two strikingly attractive female aliens. The bulk of the story deals with the aliens and their intended mission of bringing the man back to their planet to be a companion of the female alien race. While he is understandably enthusiastic, his girlfriend is less than pleased, especially in regards to her destroyed car. It's a fun little skit and everybody does a good job committing to their roles, something that I feel carries to the rest of the movie as well.
From there we move onto a segment about two men fighting for the affections of the same comatose woman. If anything, this story serves to cement the concept of the movie/series in general. It has some interesting twists and turns, but never really goes overboard. By this point I was interested in seeing what other concepts the film had to offer, and was met with a handful.
I won't go into each part individually because part of the fun is seeing where each short is going and what the hook will be. I will say that the movie, as a whole, deals with murder, paranormal beings, oppressive authority, body-swapping, and an eccentric hitman. With all the stories, the majority of the emphasis is put on the conflict and interaction between the characters rather than actual memorable moments. This isn't to say that there is no physical action in the film, but these times hardly amount to anything especially noteworthy. At times this can make the film drag but it's also impressive how entertaining I found it considering this bold move. It obviously came out of necessity more than a direct decision, but it still holds up for the most part. It isn't even that the dialogue is especially clever, it's more that the performers are fun to watch and the ideas are interesting. Each story has its own unique turn of events and just holding on for that was worth it for me.
Fans of the series should be satisfied with Horror Hotel: The Movie. It doesn't really take anything to the next level and serves more as a convenient package for more of the series, but it's good for what it is. Horror fans in general will more than likely be divided. The film isn't especially frightening or bloody, nor is it even straight horror for the most part. There's a lot of fun, wacky things going on and I certainly see merit in the project. If anything, it makes me more interested in delving into the series more and that may have very well been the intention.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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