Saturday, December 19, 2009

Otis (2008)


Otis is the story of a loner psychopath who kidnaps young blondes and watches them on a camera rigged into a bedroom.  He talks to them via calls on a princess phone, refers to them all as "Kim" and has some sort of weird obsession with the prom.

After he accidentally dunks one of his captives into the bathtub with a lamp, Otis is in a hurry to find another prom date.  He scoops up unsuspecting Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson) from under the nose of her clueless parents (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas)  Preoccupied with their delinquent son, they're thrown off guard when Otis calls them up asking permission to take their daughter to the prom.

So this freak is playing out some weird high school fantasy where he dresses up as a football player and blathers on about receptions and yardage.  Poor Riley gets dressed up in 80s cheerleader gear and is forced to do weird cheers and jumps.  They drive around in a fake car and watch movies in the company of garden gnomes.  Meanwhile, Otis keeps delivering pizzas and living life with no one being the wiser.  He prepares for the the infamous "prom night" by building a pretend dance in his garage and getting dressed up in a dorky blue suit.

Meanwhile, the Lawson family is stuck with a bunch of idiot FBI dudes including a "pedophile specialist" that has a sick fascination with restraints and child molestation.  Fearing that justice may not be served, the Lawsons decide to take matters into their own hands and track down Otis themselves, vigilante-style.

This flick has an awesome soundtrack of all 80s music and a badass lead in Ashley Johnson.    However, it's really not a horror movie, but more of a black comedy.  The last half hour sorta drags a bit but all in all, an amusing movie.

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