Gravy (2015)

I must be falling down on the job here folks. Psych was one of my favorite television shows and its star, James Roday, is one of my favorite actors. Seriously I loved that show! Apparently, he directed a horror comedy about cannibalism, and I didn’t notice. Yeah it is just now getting a wide release, but still how did I miss that?

Brothers Anson and Stef have a family tradition. Every Halloween they trap, torture, and eat a group of people. This year they have targeted a Mexican Restaurant and the staff. Along for the ride is Stef’s new girlfriend Mimi, who they picked up the previous year when instead of a victim she became a participant. The trio weld the doors closed and take everyone hostage before their games start. Much blood is spilled, and flesh eaten before we get to the bloody and sort of funny end.

This movie is everything that I wanted it to be. The dialogue is cleverly written and each of the characters is given a chance to shine. Everyone has their moment where they get to deliver the punchline of a joke. Normally every genre movie like this has characters that are tossed in just to up the body count, but here the cast is used really well. I found myself liking the soon to be victims which meant that each death is sort of sad… and maybe just a little bit funny. The humor in Gravy is twisted and I loved it. I’ll give you an example. The restaurant has a French Chef that is forced to cook his friends for the cannibals and instead of being horrified he does his best to make sure they taste good, so that their deaths mean something! That is the kind of wacky mayhem that you can expect. I could point out more examples, but I don’t want to ruin the fun.

The kills have an old school vibe to them

As excited as I was to see Roday’s take on a horror comedy (he also co-wrote the script) when I saw who did the special effects work, I was hopping out of my seat in anticipation. Literally I did and it annoyed my wife terribly. Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero! Two thirds of KNB did the gore and it shows. First it is all practical work and if you have spent any time at all here at Crappy Movie Reviews you know how I feel about that. Nothing like actual latex to spice things up. And oh boy does it get spicy here. Necks are torn out, a face has a close encounter with an arrow, noggins end up in ceiling fans, bottles are put to good use, and a head splits like a ripe melon on some pavement. Needless to say, the blood flows freely and I haven’t even touched on what happens in the kitchen! If you like gore you won’t be disappointed with Gravy.

Again, I could keep going on about the things I dig about Gravy, but that might spoil it and I really don’t want to do that. I haven’t had this much fun with a movie in a long time. This fits in nicely with all the crazy flicks I used to rent on VHS back in the day. Gore, funny dialogue, pretty girls… it has it all. I’m still kicking myself that it took me four damn years to realize the movie existed. I highly recommend Gravy and suggest you find yourself a copy right away. This is the kind of flick that I’m definitely going to revisit, so a purchase is the right way to go.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer