When watching All About Evil, one thing’s for certain: Natasha Lyonne has star quality. In fact, she channels many classic movie stars throughout this horror comedy. Which is appropriate, as writer/director Joshua Grannell’s underground classic functions as many things. It’s a love letter to exploitation horror films, a satire of our culture, and in a weird way, a plea to find your people and enjoy being part of that community. Except, please don’t turn it into a real cult and kill people. Thanks.
Grannell, also known as drag icon Peaches Christ, based All About Evil on an earlier short film he made called “Grindhouse.” The basic ideas are the same, but time and a slightly bigger budget between the projects resulted in a more assured feature debut that never quite got the audience it deserved in 2010. But from the looks of the behind-the-scenes extras in the Severin Films blu-ray release, the audience that found it had a hell of a good time.
Somehow simultaneously over-the-top and subtle, the film wears its influences on its sleeve, but that sleeve rests under fabulously tailored crushed velvet and crinoline. Somehow Grannell mixes The Wizard of Oz and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? into an original cocktail for the prologue, and it’s just giddy fun from there. Baby Debbie (Mikayla Rosario) grows up into mousy librarian Debbie (Lyonne), whose father tried desperately to keep a single-screen repertory movie house open.
When he died, Debbie inherited the theater along with her (wicked) stepmother (Julie Caitlin Brown). Struggling to keep it open, Debbie snaps when her stepmother tries to force her to sell, and… a bloody murder gets captured on the security camera, and then somehow projected on the screen where late night horror fans think it’s just a clever homemade production.
Theater manager Mr. Twigs (Jack Donner) takes great delight in this turn of events, supporting Debbie in her psychotic break. Only now Debbie imagines herself the actress her father always wanted her to be. Not only does she have a taste for killing — because of the renewed life at the theater — but she’s more than a star. She’s a filmmaker! Debbie was a nobody; Deborah Tennis (that’s De-BOHR-uh Ten-NEESE) is somebody.
The killings become arty theater warnings — no cell phones, no talking, etc. — and only grow in popularity. Everything has to get bigger and grander as she gathers a small repertory company to help her and Twigs. Local high school students Steven (Thomas Dekker) wants to join the company, but he doesn’t realize the price he’d pay. Ironically, the school administration think he’s a ticking time bomb and his mother (Cassandra Peterson) just doesn’t know how to communicate.
Granted, it was 2010, but the teens feel authentic in a way few horror movies accomplish. Their concerns have only gotten more relevant in recent years. And Grannell directs those with a realistic touch. Who would have guessed that one of the most touching, real performances would come from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark sans drag?
Just because the horror and the splatter are over the top doesn’t mean they aren’t carefully controlled. You see Lyonne giving an amazing performance here, alternating movie goddesses dependent on Deborah’s whim and sometimes letting the grieving little girl peek through. Some of the characters are meant to be cartoony and grotesque, but not hers. Even Grannell appearing as Peaches Christ can’t steal Lyonne’s thunder — nor did he want to.
It’s not just great performances; it’s great directing. Grannell had made short films, and definitely mastered live shows through his Midnight Mass stagings in San Francisco. That skill translates well to controlling the screen — knowing when it’s okay to let the leash go and let the howling begin, but also when to pull everyone back. Yes, it’s gory, but you know that coming in. It’s well DONE gore.
While it’s clear that everyone was having a good time, they shared it with the audience without winking. We can be part of the fun, but that fun is in watching what some of us really love: a great horror film, not a silly one. It may not really be all about evil, but it is all about being a classic.
All About Evil is currently streaming on Shudder and [amazon text=available on Blu-ray&asin=B0B2HV5HQF].
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