"Vicious Fun" self-aware fun for genre fanatics
Vicious Fun (2021) The premise of “Vicious Fun” could doubly function as a horror critic’s biggest dream and worst nightmare. Writer James Villeneuve and director Cody Callahan (2021’s “The Oak Room”) clearly have a reverence for ‘80s horror, their premise—a horror journalist practically enters his own horror movie—so niche that it couldn’t possibly be imagined by anyone less than a true-blue fan. Though it's vicious when it needs to be, "fun" is the name of the game for "Vicious Fun," which is as amiable as a horror-comedy can get with serial-killing 12-steppers and intestine strangulation. A half-grating, half-endearing Evan Marsh, sporting a Marty McFly vest, plays Joel, a deputy assistant editor for horror magazine “Vicious Fanatics” in 1983. He has arrived home from a cut-short interview with a director about his latest slasher when he expects to hang out with his housemate and crush Sarah (Alexa Rose Steele). She’s just gotten home from a date with Bob ...