Rather than flub this post and act like I'm some kind of expert on these guys, I'll just be Frank (like my dad's first name): I know nothing about the Hudson Brothers other than their work in this film. My parents have said that they were a reasonably funny trio of comedic siblings, also reasonable in their level of fame at that time. I guess, think the Caucasian, lesser-numbered '80s equivalent to the Wayans Brothers, this being their Scary Movie. (Imagine if they'd made an '80s equivalent to White Chicks? It would've been called Black Girls, I'd fear to assume, and would've made C. Thomas Howell's racially-sketchy Soul Man seem like a NAACP-film-production.)
As far as I know, and/or really care, however, they're the shameless dudes behind 1983's pretty-much-forgotten Hysterical, an uneven-at-best horror spoof that'll forever hold a warm place in my heart, even if its universally deemed a $5-footlong shit sandwich.
Oddly enough, I can't even recall how or why I initially watched Hysterical. If I had to guess, my dad must've put me on to it back in my grammar school days, knowing my fanatical love for the rated-R Night of the Living Dead and thinking that the PG (I believe) Hysterical featured a final setpiece full of zombies, yet it had the right hint of comedy so that he could watch it with me. Whether that was the case or not is meaningless here, anyway, because I fell in love with the grated-cheese that is Hysterical and frequently watched the final 20 minutes like an addict getting his zombie horror fix. No wonder I adored Shaun of the Dead from the moment I first set eyes on it alone in a theater on opening night, when none of my friends would expand their minds enough to tag long. Lames.
The story concerns a writer who moves into a spooky lighthouse, hoping the peace and scenic quiet will spark his next great novel. Of course, it doesn't, and instead the spirit of a ghost-lady takes over his body. Two knucklehead drifters, who resemble poor-man's-Indiana-Jones-wannabes, stumble onto the situation and try to exorcise the writer's demon, but all hell breaks loose and soon the townsfolk all turn into poorly-made-up zombies. In the process, tons of horror in-jokes pop up: you get the Friday the 13th-like creepy hobo elder who repeatedly warns the protagonists "You're doomed!" at every chance he gets; a slapstick exorcism straight out of (you guessed it) The Exorcist; a stubborn mayor willing to conceal a potential disaster in order to secure tourist profits, a la Jaws; and a final act that's equal parts The Fog and Night of the Living Dead. Hell, there's even this totally random, pointless Taxi Driver dig seen in the following clip:
Unfortunately, Hysterical is one of the many deserving films that has yet to receive the DVD treatment (right next to Night of the Creeps and Whiteboyz....yes, I said Whiteboyz; any film that features a scene where a corny-ass wigger gets stomped out for being a corny-ass wigger is worth a purchase). Actually, I think it's actually available on DVD, but only buy-able through used vendors who overcharge for it. "Out of print," in other words. Last year, however, I was able to retrieve the old dubbed VHS from my parents' basement. I watched it, instantly. The laughs just weren't as potent, sadly, and a piece of my childhood died on the spot. I've come to realize, though, that Hysterical's charms were purely products of the time I originally enjoyed them....my pre-teen years.
Back then, my sense of humor was hardly even juvenile. Shit, I found Jeff Goldbum's/Ed Begley Jr.'s Transylvania 6-500 to be comedy gold, and that's a horror-spoof even flimsier than Hysterical. Though, one deserving of a post entry similar to this one in the future, undoubtedly. Hysterical didn't have to genuinely be "funny," or even slightly intelligent. It just needed to include some big zombie setpieces (Check), jokes that even young horror heads could appreciate (Double Check), and not exceed 90 minutes in running time, to meet my immature attention span (Check Cubed).
Not even sure what brought Hysterical to mind tonight. Maybe because I just finished watching Quarantine on DVD, and pseudo-zombie vibe brought the undead to mind. Or, maybe I just need some feelgood laughter, something that early-year memories the likes of Hysterical can always register.
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1 comment:
Hey, Matt- i'm wandering the net looking for a cheap VHS copy of Hysterical I can use to make several DVD copies for myself and my kids, all of whom used to laugh their asses off at it back in the '70s, and came across your blog. Thought I'd drop you a few lines: The Hudson Brothers had a Saturday kid's and teen's show on the tube, and specialized in 12-13 year old humor. They were actually pretty funny for that niche - I would usually watch with the kids. One routine they did was some sort of update from the Island of Pigi-Pigi or something like that, a little island just big enough for the three of them to stand on it side by side in grass skirts and paint, and argue with each other about something. Remind you of a scene in Hysterical? Anyway, that's the wellspring of the movie, so it never pretended to be any more sophisticated than that -- which means it did pretty good as a movie, I figure. We were also Charlie Callas fans, although now I can't remember where he appeared most of the time we saw him.
Well, enough -- I enjoyed your comments on Hysterical, and I'm glad to see it still worked for that age-group with you.
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