Even though the overall quality level of "Pandemonium" is just average, I don't believe I ever laughed as hard in my life as I did with one of the dumb jokes here. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, there's a scene where an elderly Romanian and superstitious woman bumps into a couple of teenagers running around the house at night. She asks: "Are you frightened of the night?", to which the boy replies: "Baloney!" and then the old lady looks very confused and mumbles in herself: "You're frightened of baloney??". Okay, admittedly this is a really dumb gag, but it was actually so hilarious that I nearly choked in my drink and laughed for five minutes straight. There are a handful more of jokes like this, genuinely hilarious I mean, but also a whole lot of embarrassing moments. Still, in comparison with the other contemporary horror spoofs/parodies – like "Wacko" and "Saturday the 14th" – this one is fairly successful. The opening sequences are in good old-fashioned Hammer Studios style, with Gothic music and (completely irrelevant) images of a traditional castle. Back in the early 60's there was a serial killer targeting the young and obnoxious cheerleaders at a summer camp. He/she killed so many of them that they eventually had to shut down the camp, but now a former employee intends to reopen it. Naturally, the grand reopening coincides with the return of the killer. There are several inventive characters in "Pandemonium", including the Canadian Mountie and his inseparable horse (and I do mean inseparable) and a Carrie who fires off laser beams with her eyes. The film is well- directed, oddly enough by the same guy who made the hugely suspenseful "Alice, Sweet Alice".
Review of Pandemonium
