I dunno, I credit Scream with getting me into horror, and it’s hardly a genre known for being not-silly. Guess it’s a little more thinky though.

Braindead is brilliant, as is Army of Darkness and What we Do in the Shadows, which is not horror, but is silly.

filled in depth discussion:

I think my main issues with TdD Vs. E is that I didn’t feel any chemistry between Dale and the girl, which seems like it is meant to be a core part of the film. And then, after a good set up the second half of the film feels very paint by numbers, what happens and where they go dictated by genre tropes rather than what their trope inversion story needs.

It’s probably just a comment on the way that slasher film protagonists don’t get PTSD and keeping the film light, but the girl really doesn’t seem to care much about her friends dying. And never has her relationship with Dale challenged by anything.

Then the antagonist being revealled to be the son of a hill billy and that that’s probably why he’s really a slasher villain undermines what was more him being a prejudice burk leading to his maybe friends dying.

There was a lot of potential with it, but I feel the film decided to inverse a tropey premise and then rather than fully investing in that scenario - hillbillies surrounded by fatal accident prone horny teens - and taking letting its results grow organically, the rest of the script just reached for as many slasher tropes as possible to cram in to make sure the “satirical take” part wasn’t subtle, so even a bat with a blindfold and earmuffs on would be sure to “get the joke”.

Tudyk and the other guy had great chemistry and their relationship worked, I just found it the only thing to make me finish watching the rest of the film, and in the last 1/3 they get precious little screen time together.

Once the core conceit of the film is obvious, it doesn’t do anything new, exciting, or interesting with it - just gore for its own sake. (Edit: this is probably exactly what you meant in your post by “too spoofy”, so yes. You’re right, it is and I am. Sorry it took me too long to clock your meaning. As Soccy himself told us “written words are hard”.)

Now maybe I’m missing that the flat romance subplot or nature of the killer, along with gore without substance are high brow meta critiques on the state of horror at the height of the slasher era… And sure, I can dig that. But if you make a film that’s deliberately weak in areas as a joke or comment on other films’ weaknesses, you’ve still made a film that’s not going to hold folks attention.

That said, clearly it’s a very popular film amongst a lot of folks so it’s probably me in the minority here. Thanks for giving me an excuse to organise my thoughts and present them. It feels better to get them out of my head in an organised way, and I’m glad you enjoy it as Alan Tudyk getting work that is a success is only a good thing.

So enjoy it, and don’t care what I say. But for those of you who felt it was missing a little something… Well know you’re not alone.