Vicious Fun (2021) – Campy Joy

Vicious Fun Plot

Vicious Fun follows a writer for a horror magazine, Joel (Evan Marsh) who is in love with his roommate, Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele), who happens to be dating a creepy guy named Bob (Ari Millen). Trying to get some dirt on Bob, Joel follows him to a bar and after getting a little too drunk and passing out in a closet, he wakes up to find that Bob does have a secret… he’s part of a little support group for serial killers and Joel just walked in on their latest meeting. He now needs to blend in with this gaggle of assorted psychopaths or risk becoming one of their many, many victims.

Vicious Fun Review

The basic premise of Vicious Fun is pure gold, lending itself to creating a murderer’s row of… well, murderers who can go buck wild and have some fun. Fortunately, the characters created are just a lot of fun and fit into some classic stereotype. From Bob who is a clear riff on Patrick Bateman (down to occasionally wearing a long waterproof coat so he doesn’t get blood on him) to Mike (Robert Maillet) who tends to murder in campsites while wearing a mask (no prizes if you guess who he’s referencing).

Then there’s Fritz (Julian Richings) who is more of a cross between torture porn villain and John Wayne Gacy, finally there’s Hideo (Sean Baek) who is a ninja and a cannibal. These are some wild characters who all feel like they were just lifted from the video shelves of yesteryear and each of them is just a lot of fun.

What starts off as a small intimate gathering of murderers soon goes a little more nuts as the night wears on, with Joel ending up needing to get help from another attendee of this little meeting. Carrie (Amber Goldfarb) is basically just the toughest woman you’ve ever met and possibly the most fun because she takes absolutely no one’s bullshit at any point and it’s nothing short of delightful watching her deal with the idiots she’s forced to be around. She might be my favourite part of the film just for how hilariously casually she dispatches some of the people in this film.

For a modern slasher, Vicious Fun is definitely not afraid to play around with the practical gore and be as bright and almost cartoonish as possible with it. It’s not going for something gritty, it’s going for fun. Hell, there’s a scene with three of the killers that’s exactly one cream pie away from being a Three Stooges sketch, that’s about how seriously this film takes itself. It aims for silliness and hits it with ease, that’s about as far as it wants to go.

Now, this also means that, beyond the over the top stereotypical cartoonish nods to classic horror villains, there’s no one in Vicious Fun to really root for. Even our main character, Joel, is somewhat of a non-entity who is there because we need a reason to infiltrate this coven of killers. Its broadness is a strength the film plays almost all the time, but it also means you can’t expect it to go further than the broad slapstick even when it might help with the general pacing of the film.

When Vicious Fun is at its best, it’s so over the top that you just can’t take it seriously so you switch off and just enjoy it. It revels in how cheesy and silly it is, almost like it’s daring you to just try and take it seriously… so of course in those few moments when it tries to have a serious moment, it falls over and needs to take a minute to get going again. Fortunately, once some kind of edged weapon is in one of the killer’s hands when it gets back on track pretty quickly and returns to being the simply enjoyable slasher it was always trying to be.

Vicious Fun Overall

Vicious Fun is not trying that hard to be anything more than silly fun and at that, it excels. If you’re a fan of the genre you’re going to enjoy the winks and nods to some of the classics, the almost over the top levels of cartoon gore and the very energetic way the film is shot. Sure, it’ll go right through you and you might not remember it long afterwards but it’s still a decent time, probably would go great with a couple of friends who want a laugh on scary movie night.