After
early considerations for Christopher Lee were scrapped, Vane and Troma found
the perfect role for Mayne with horror movie star Conrad Razkoff in the offbeat
horror-comedy The Horror Star (aka Frightmare or Body Snatchers, depending on the territory). Akin to Popcorn,
Scream and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, The Horror Star is meta horror-comedy concerning a recently deceased
horror film star whose body is exhumed by a group of college kids (Jeffrey
Combs among them in his big screen debut) as part of a horror film society honorary
prank. Needless to say the deceased
Razkoff doesn’t take too kindly to his body being used as a prop for these kids’
amusement and after a medium attempts to make contact with him, Razkoff donned
in classic Count Dracula garb with a black and red cape rises from the dead to
take bloody revenge on the students for disrupting his peaceful rest.
Microbudget,
somewhat disjointed and not particularly interested in developing the college
kids beyond setting them up for a gory demise including a decapitation scene
that could easily rival the infamous sheet glass head slicing in The Omen, The Horror Star derives its ghoulish charm largely from letting
Mayne skulk about picking the kids off one by one in between delivering morbid
one-liners. A film with its tongue
clearly firmly planted in cheek, The
Horror Star isn’t particularly frightening or engaging and doesn’t make a
whole lot of sense on paper, but as the bodies pile up in increasingly creative
fashion including a memorable tongue ripping scene, horror fans are unlikely to
care.
Against
a miniscule budget with some peculiar sound design which finds room for the
sound effects of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber being drawn (I kid you not), The Horror Star manages to be handsomely
photographed by Joel King of Just Before
Dawn, establishing a decently enveloping horror atmosphere despite the
obvious limitations. Mostly however, The Horror Star celebrates the
infectious charm of Ferdy Mayne who was clearly having a blast with this little
horror-comedy hybrid that mixes together Hammer Horror charm with elements of
the modern slasher movie. No the premise
of college film students stealing the body of a beloved horror film star for
fun doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but once Mayne is reanimated and wreaks
supernatural havoc on the kids, there’s much bloody gory fun to be had here!
- Andrew Kotwicki