Amityville Karen

While virtually every film today is shot in a hi-def format that approximates the look of celluloid prints, there was a time when shot-on-video was a category unto itself, reflecting a DIY aesthetic working under no-budget conditions, using amateur actors with little to no hope of distribution beyond tape sharing and fan festivals.  Like a second-tier Troma Studios, these regional auteurs made movies for the sheer fun of it.  With Amityville Karen (2022) director Shawn C. Phillips is attempting to work in the same wheelhouse.

In between trolling social media, harassing her neighbors and closing down a local winery, Karen (Lauren Francesca) finds time to get possessed by a demon contortionist and goes on a rampage of politically-correct death and destruction.  A cast of quirky characters meet their fate after suffering through trendy quips and cliches.

 

At one hour and 45 minutes, Amityville Karen is longer that most comedies need to be.  And certainly  longer than this mostly improvised, unfunny horror spoof should be.  The best shot-on-video horror epics of the ‘80s were a creative labor of love, full of ridiculously elaborate make-up effects and hammy acting that aspired to be more than the sum of their parts.  Phillips film is so self-loathing that it never lets its audience in on the one-note joke.  Shot with no style, no pace and no joie de vivre, the best part about Amityville Karen is the artwork on the box and the tagline “She’d like to speak to the manager…of hell!”

 

MVD’s DVD comes with a half-hour of behind-the-scenes outtakes, commentary track and trailer.

 

 

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