Rik Mayall goes fucking nuts!
No unfortunately Rik Mayall doesn’t feature in The Last Horror Movie, although lead actor Kevin Howarth does look a bit like him.
The set-up is a relatively novel but dated one. The film begins with a scene from a fake slasher film which then switches to the face of Max (Kevin Howarth). An incredibly smug and well spoken man who tells us he has taped over the remainder of the film (oh VHS tapes how retro) and teases us with glimpses of him committing actual murders. His point being; why watch fake murder when he can give you the real thing. So begins a “documentary” of Max, along with his camera man and accomplice played by Mark Stevenson, murdering various people in different ways all the while daring us to turn off . Mixed in with this we see moments of Max’s domestic life and job.
The Last Horror Movie, released in 2003 was already becoming dated by the time of it’s release what with it’s reliance of video as the chief story device. Reviewers have been somewhat kind to it over the years describing it as genuinely frightening and hailing Max as a great horror creation. Sadly I found neither of this to be true. The film feels like a rehash of Man Bites Dog with it’s use of killer as documentary subject. We also get an expansion of the scene in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer where they film themselves murdering a family. It’s just that we get to see it over and over again. Then there’s Funny Game’s whole ethos of making the audience complicit in the violence because it is being created for our consumption, but this film feels the need to actually lecture us about this. Max tells the viewer many times to turn off if we didn’t like what we watching. So I did.
But then I thought that I would have no business writing about the film if I didn’t finish it so I sat being lectured by this complete anus for a further twenty five minutes. The real galling thing I found about the film was none of the visuals and situations but the fact that he seemed so sure and proud of it’s revolutionary idea whereas in fact it’s all been covered before by better film makers who didn’t feel the need to literally spell out the films ethos. Max too makes for an irritating guide through the journey of murder. Like a British version of Patrick Bateman – I imagine was the concept – but coming across as a entirely massive prick instead. Apologies to the wealth of “horror” fans who think The Last Horror Movie deserves re-evaluation. But it doesn’t. It’s dated. Annoying. Patronising. Dull and doesn’t feature one original idea. With that I take my leave.
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