‘Krazy House’ Sundance Review – A Grating Exercise in Empty Violence and Shock Value

The logline for writers/directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil’s Krazy House reads like the perfect gonzo midnighter for the horror crowd. The initial setup is meant to skewer the zaniness of ’90s sitcoms, complete with a live studio audience and aspect ratio to match. But that premise quickly goes off the rails, not in a good way, stretching a short film concept into a grueling slog of empty shock value.

Complete with an opening theme song and credits, Krazy House introduces the Christian family. Bernie (Nick Frost) serves as the oafish but well-meaning dad, the polar opposite of his neurotic workaholic wife, Eva (Alicia Silverstone). Then there’s his gum-swallowing daughter Sarah (Gaite Jansen) and science-obsessed son Adam (Walt Klink), both unamused by Bernie’s clumsiness and steadfast devotion to Jesus Christ. It’s only house pup Angel that seems not to mind Bernie’s sitcom hijinks. But the wholesome nature of their sitcom setup gets interrupted by the arrival of mean-looking Russian Piotr (Jan Bijvoet) and sons Dmitri (Chris Peters) and Igor (Matti Stooker). The trio offers their work services, and, wouldn’t you know it, Bernie just made a catastrophic mess in the kitchen in need of fixing. But the Russians instead set about destroying not just the house but the Christians’ lives.

It’s here where the aspect ratio and style shift from retro VHS era to contemporary, Adult Swim-inspired lunacy, and the sitcom setup is all but seemingly forgotten. Krazy House starts with the insanity meter already dialed up to near-max levels, leaving the comedy-horror without much room to escalate the chaos. From here, it becomes a grating exercise in shock value and empty violence, manically running through a variety of uncomfortable encounters between the Christians and their invaders. Blood and violence ensue aplenty, and the Christians quickly devolve from weirdo sitcom hollowness to, well, drug addicts and horny hostages. Bernie tries to keep everything together through his love of Jesus (Kevin Connolly), but even he reaches a boiling point.

There’s perhaps some commentary to be excavated from the madness on the futility of Christianity or “thoughts and prayers” in the face of extreme violence. If being generous, there’s a mild critique on spectating the horror from a safe distance without bothering to intervene until it crashes through your front door. But the filmmakers don’t seem to have any throughline or voice here aside from throwing every zany or gross-out gag at the wall to see what sticks. Spoiler: not much does.

In the attempt to offend and shock audiences as frequently and as hard as possible, Krazy House instead just desensitizes audiences quickly to its puerile, bombastic tactics. The scathing sitcom takedown promised gets forgotten for sillier fare. Nick Frost does his best to hold the stretched-thin conceit together but only manages to succeed in the final ten minutes or so, far too late to undo the damage. Alicia Silverstone goes for broke with an utterly bonkers portrayal of the sitcom wife, but mostly, it’s just shrill shrieking. 

There’s a very hyper-specific audience in mind for Krazy House, the type that doesn’t mind hollow exercises in shock value and gag-inducing humor without aim. But mostly, Krazy House just feels like a grating marathon of purposeless excess, devoid of effective humor. It somehow makes an 86-minute runtime feel like an absolute slog. The equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

Krazy House premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Release TBD.

 

The post ‘Krazy House’ Sundance Review – A Grating Exercise in Empty Violence and Shock Value appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.