Director: Richard Bates Jr.
MPAA Rating: R
Suburban Gothic is the sophomore feature for writer-director Richard Bates Jr., and although the tone is decidedly different than his first film, Excision, the unique visual style is much the same. Favoring comedic antics and funny dialogue over gore, this is a lighter horror film, but still manages to be a fun and entertaining ride and yet another solid entry into Bates’ filmography.
The film revolves around a recent college graduate, Raymond (Mathew Gray Gubler), who can’t seem to find a job and is forced to move back in with his folks, played by Barbara Niven and the incomparable Ray Wise. Strange things begin to happen and Raymond discovers that an unruly spirit has begun haunting his parents’ home. Now only Raymond and his new love interest, played by Kat Dennings, can help send this spirit back to its resting place.
Like the fantasy sequences in Excision, Bates employs a visual style that blasts each scene with color, saturating everything in sight. This look gives Suburban Gothic something of a ’50s Americana vibe, and although this may not seem ideal for a horror movie, it adds a lot of character to an otherwise lackluster plot. I probably could have done without the three room-to-room dolly montages though, which felt a little uninspired.
The ghost and subsequent mystery surrounding the haunting is fairly uninteresting and uneventful. The stakes feel too low, and much of the backstory is bland and generic. Some of the actual haunting bits are interesting, however the bulk of it is just a black blob that floats around the room. The plot does leave space for the further adventures of Raymond, which is a good thing, as the human characters prove to be far more compelling than the spirits.
The main cast plays into the dry, off-kilter humor of the script perfectly, but it’s the bevy of supporting roles that prove to be the icing on the cake. Sally Kirkland, Jeffrey Combs, John Waters, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Mackenzie Phillips, the Soska twins, and Jack Plotnick all have small but rather fantastic minor parts. You can tell Bates wanted to have some of his influences in the film, and we all get to have a little fun as a result.
Suburban Gothic may not be the best horror/comedy to come out this year, but it is a smartly written ghost story with some likeable characters and several genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. For those disappointed with Odd Thomas, which carries a similar story, my bet is (for the ten of you that saw it), you’ll have a lot more fun with this one.
