Canal
1992 Color
91 Mins.
Horror/Comedy
Bill Paxton and Michael Ironside star.
Written by Richard Jeffries
Directed by Chris Walas
Rated R for language, violence gore and sexuality.
I just discovered this camptastic little horror flick that was a little ahead of it's time. The film centers around a new yuppie home owner who moves into a quaint little house and discovers he has a mega creepy vagrant who lives to visit his newly purchased humble abode. His paranoia increases as things begin to move, people go missing and body parts begin to show up. This film is one of those oddball, very dark clever horror comedies that would be better accepted nowadays. In accordance with the nasty horror and dark humor the film offers a light social commentary on classes as well as an exploration on the anxiety of buying your first place. Surprisingly the film moves along briskly and in truly unpredictable ways. It would have been easy to present the situation as something more accessible. But instead the film makers take a more challenging approach playing on audience expectations as well as their own fears taking the story far past where you think it would go. The culmination of events is shocking and innovative. Although with that build up it does leave a bit to be desired. And even though The Vagrant has a bit too much crammed into it's 91 minute run time which starts to make the proceedings feel a bit stretched out. It's a surprisingly solid hidden gem. A film that's flown under the radar for me at least for most of my whole genre loving life. Definitely worth a visit if you haven't seen it! ***.5/5
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