Schlock

• Written, Directed By and Starring John Landis (Directorial Debut)
• December 12, 1973 (US) / September 17, 1982 (West Germany)

An apeman in Southern California goes into the suburbs where he develops an unrequited love for a young woman. It lives up to the name.

Schlock is a homage to bad films as much as it is a mockery of what is seen as appealing to the public. The humor often owes more to the comedy of The Three Stooges and general dumb comedy than it does to anything sophisticated. Unfunny jokes go on to the point that they become funny. The stupidity of the public is played up with the creature in the title able to interact until the people realize something is up. The story is a play on the monster falling in love with a beautiful woman.

I must give credit to the legendary Rick Baker. His monkey suit is amazing. You’d be hard-pressed to believe that John Landis is in that outfit let alone any human being. It looks far better than it deserves. Given the humor and seriously limited budget they could have easily gone with a store-bought costume for humorous purposes though a more sophisticated suit allows for a unique range of jokes.

As a movie there is not much to talk about. It’s a series of interactions and skits so to speak. The jokes are inserted rather casually as it mocks the B-movie genre. We even have a nice homage to the woman who feels something for the monster that kidnapped her and presumably was going to rape her in some way. Nobody ever considers that.

The dialogue is what it is. It’s certainly a comedy and when delivered by a more polished performer it lands. Other times a little on the flat side. I think this maybe needed some better actors here or there. Or a rehearsal. Carson may have been entertained by this but the actors needed a little practice.

If anything I think Schlock needed some background music or at least some foley artist to give it ambient sound. The movie struck me as very quiet. Outside or inside sounded the same. I don’t know if that was to do with the limited budget or in some way is an homage to the cheaper films this is inspired by.

The most notable aspect is the clear hand of John Landis. It’s a little rough in comparison to some of his later work but there is a very John Landis feel to this when you compare it to things like an American Werewolf in London. It is a little quirky yet relatable.

The mistake that Schlock makes and it’s one that many movies of the like do is that it forces things. It tries to force the moment of bad film. To go off in a bit of a tangent there’s a movie called Samurai Cop. It’s unintentionally funny. It was meant as a low budget direct-to-video action movie but was done so poorly and so cheaply that it has moments of comedy gold.  Not that long ago it was followed by Samurai Cop 2 which tried to force many of the same things that occurred naturally in the original and it just didn’t work as well. That’s not to say you can’t make a movie making fun of a genre but it needs to be handled a special way. While there are plenty of jokes that land well there are plenty of others that missed the mark.

While I mostly enjoyed myself, Schlock will not appeal to everyone. Worthy viewing if you want to see an early John Landis effort but not too much beyond that for the general moviegoer.