Otis (2008)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A lot of fun.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Obese loser pedophile psycho and pizza delivery guy Otis (superbly played to creepy and intense perfection by Bostin Christopher) abducts lovely young teenager Riley (a winningly sparky portrayal by the foxy Ashley Johnson). However, Ashley manages to escape from Otis' clutches and alerts her family about where Otis lives. Things go extremely awry when the family decides to take matters into their own hands. Director Tony Krantz and writers Erik Jendresen and Thomas Schnauz ably concoct a wickedly warped, quirky, and often hilarious horror black comedy gut-buster that viciously satirizes the incompetence and insensitivity of the FBI and media alike, the dangerous foibles of gung-ho vigilantism, the varying degrees of psychosis existent in American culture (in an especially neat, inspired, and downright subversive touch, Riley's family prove to be every bit as crazy and deadly as Otis), and how basically everyone has a latent capacity for extreme violence and brutality. The fine acting by the top-notch cast keeps the movie humming: Daniel Stern as meek dad Will, Illeana Douglas as brassy take-charge mom Kate, Kevin Pollack as Otis' angry and abusive older brother Elmo, Jere Burns as the sleazy and inept Agent Hotchkiss, Jared Kusnitz as Riley's delinquent brother Reed, and Tracey Scoggins as tactless news anchorwoman Rita Vitale. The first-rate dynamic soundtrack of choice rock songs gives the picture an extra kinetic buzz. Thomas Yatsko's glossy cinematography provides a stunningly bright and attractive look. An absolute riot.

whoa. every time i see this wicked little bit of horror it gets funnier and more disturbing. it is satire. no doubt. it satirizes our fear, our relation to it and how our emotional responses deal with it. it is a satire about society and how it deals with anger, revenge and our suppression of our blood lust. beyond satire, 'Otis' is also a really vicious and grisly horror B flick. worthy of comparison to some of the best of Romero and Craven.lets start with the character of the piece, Otis. Otis is one of the best horror film monsters in recent years. Otis is off putting not only because he is a 6 foot tall, 400 pound, creepy gorilla who is demented in a particularly foul way, but also because he is disturbingly human. the viewer can't help but respond to both sides of the coin when Otis's much shorter, but older brother lays into Otis and berates him. nobody likes to see someone lectured or berated by another, but you also can't help but feel the brother has insight and is pointing out some truths when he calls Otis a "moron and a idiot". Otis IS a moron and a idiot, and worse, he's a mean, cruel, and evil young man. but it isn't hard to understand how a society that seems designed to confuse and frustrate, can create such a desperate monster. after all, Otis's brother's only solution is for Otis to keep his job as a pizza delivery guy.after being exposed to Otis's disturbed and sadistic nature to start, we are then introduced to the family of Otis's next victim. they are actually nice enough, reasonable people with the usual amount of dysfunction. the husband and wife carry on in a repressed frustrated manner while their son degenerates into a sociopathic delinquent and their only daughter seems more interested in learning about her sexuality and boys more than math, history or science. a real brain the daughter ain't. doesn't mean she deserves to fall prey to the likes of a disgusting monster pig like Otis.what results eventually is a hilarious send up of revenge and capital punishment, but also our obsession with violence and blood. we all have that crocodile brained carnivore waiting to be unleashed. lets just hope we don't all inner channel it to the extreme the victim's family does.the acting, direction, photography and idea concepts here are excellent. the whole thing is executed (hah a pun) almost flawlessly. i can think of better horror films than 'Otis', but i can think of few that are brought off so well and with so few rough edges.with so much talk of bullying in our society today it is good to remember that within every victim is a bully waiting to get out. it's not that i don't support victim's rights, but the "bully" cry that is being made at the moment is very outward in it's projection and accusation with very little insight on the victim's passivity and subjectivity about the incident. what do they say? don't take it too personally. i sometimes believe that every person is capable of being bullied and of being a bully. something this film points out in a very strange manner.

This movie has a lot of references to Last House on the Left that I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt of paying homage rather than ripping it off.A girl is kidnap, beaten and tortured and then the parents get revenge. Last House on the Left 2 girls get kidnapped and killed and one set of parents get revenge. Even the 'no bra' comment by the dad is in both.In Last House on the Left, the parents get dressed up in medical gear before they're about to torture one of the killers (turns out to be a dream of the killers) in Otis, they actually dress up in medical clothes. The dad is a doctor in LHotL, and the mom's a nurse in Otis.Law enforcement in both movies are portrayed as bumbling idiots. And the song selections play a big role too.So with all of this, it has to be homage since it's not too subtle. And I'm sure the director probably has mentioned it. But I'm not going to take a bunch of points off for this.Otis does a good job of making the main villain seem creepy but lovable at the same time, which I'm sure was the point. The acting was pretty decent, mostly well known actors. My biggest complaint is a the brother. He annoyed the crap out of me. I wondered if he had any clue what he was referencing when he kept choosing a different weapon or when he says the line "the horror. the horror". The acting had a good mix comedic moments sprinkled in the mix.The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the song choices for certain scenes. The opening scene with the Shocking Blue's Venus and the dance scene with BoC's Don't Fear the Reaper were great, made it memorable.This was a horror-comedy, I wasn't expecting it to be some masterpiece. So with that mind frame, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.

"Otis" is a huge surprise. Ileana Douglas, Daniel Stern, and Kevin Pollak, eat up the screen. The script is fresh, and the slob-loser kidnapping his date for role playing his senior prom is absolutely brilliant. Although most exploitation films of this type feature ample quantities of female nudity, there is zero t.&a. in "Otis". This might disappoint some in the crowd, but the fine script and acting keeps things interesting. If you think twisted perverts like Otis combined with biting black comedy can't be entertaining, seek this one out, and be amazed. Wildly imaginative, and highly recommended...................MERK