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There's a killing spree terrorizing the neighbourhood that leaves
Detective Sgt. Wino (Saul Kahan) baffled as the killer, who often kills in
large numbers, always leaves banana peels with his victims. Enter
professor Shlibovitz (Emile Hamaty) who's convinced that the culprit isn't
human at all but the missing link, vulgarly called Schlock (John Landis),
who has been frozen in ice for centuries but now has come back with a
vengeance. But Schlock isn't just the bad guy, he also has a gentle side
... as Mindy (Eliza Roberts), the klutziest blind girl in existence, soon
experiences - that said though, she just takes him for a weird dog to play
fetch with while Schlock's really drawn to her. Problem is, Mindy
eventually has her eyesight restored, and once she sees again, she's
totally freaked out by Schlock. And despite the town living in terror, her
mum (Harriet Medin) insists on the high school dance taking place as
planned - which can only lead to disaster of course ... Schlock,
the first feature by later comedy super-director with a track record in
horror John Landis, is ... well, not a perfect movie - but lots of fun all
the same. Basically, what the film's lacking is proper structure, as many
of the comedy skits seem to be placed rather and random and seem to be
interchangeable without changing the overall plot in the least, and some
skits actually stand in the way of narrative development. But that said,
these skits - like Schlock playing the piano, going to the theatre or
evenplaying fetch with Mindy - are also terribly funny. Plus the film was
a post-modern monster movie hommage/loving parody (with an emphasis on 50s
to 70s genre output) long before postmodernism even came into vogue with
genre movies. And then there's Landis' own performance as Schlock in Rick
Baker's awesome monster suit that gives the creature actual depth - and an
actual sense of humour. So yeah, don't expect a masterpiece maybe - but
also expect to be entertained to the fullest!
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