Hold on – Steve Guttenberg in a low-low budget Horror flick? Hell, yes. I’m in! Guttenberg has been the butt of jokes for decades and the movie Heckle seemed like a chance for a mature, former Hollywood semi-star to have fun with his own image. Why not, right? He’s a good sport.
Alas, the producers of this mess have gone the route of the last several (and several upcoming) Bruce Willis indies: put the guy whose name you know on the posters, bring him in for a few minutes at the beginning, bring him back briefly a time or two, but mostly let no name actors carry the weight. And sell it with the name.
As the film opens, Guttenberg is a profane and disagreeable stand-up comedian. A meanie who treats his wife poorly. You can tell he’s a bad man because he has a bad Brooklyn accent and chomps on a cigar- we have literally reached the bottom of the barrel and the film has just begun. Something bad happens to him pretty quickly.
Set in England, the main character is Joe Johnson (Guy Combes), also a comedian who has just been cast to play Ray Kelly (Guttenberg) in a biographical movie. One night onstage, Joe is heckled by an unseen, um, heckler. There’s something extra creepy about this heckler, though.
As it is Halloween, Joe and friends later decide to hang out and watch scary movies on video. Video! Phone calls from the same heckler start coming in and before much longer (it’s already been long enough) the slashing part of the slasher-ish film gets going. As with any group of mixed company in one isolated location – it’s a matter of people getting picked off, one-by-one.
A scooby-doo reveal of the killer (I mean, he literally has his clown mask pulled off) leads to a better final go of things than we had expected after the terrible effects, bad make-up, even a lack of musical score for all that came before it. Too little, too late.
Gosh, I wish this had been a real Guttenberg horror flick. That might have been fun. I can’t even muster a jeer for this one.
Heckle | 1 our of 4 Stars | Available on Digital and On-Demand
