Cranked Up Films
The concept of the ‘horror comedy’ isn’t a new one — Army of Darkness pioneered the concept in a low-budget alongside Gremlins’ slightly higher budget, even if to me the holy trinity are Tucker and Dale Versus Evil, What We Do In the Shadows, and Cabin in the Woods. But there are some … lesser ones out there, some of which I’ve seen last year, so it’s always a mild worry when I hear about a new one.
Extra Ordinary comes from writer/director pair Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman in their first feature film, and it’s a classic ‘throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks’ tale. Enough sticks that it all basically works though. The movie is intentionally set in vague ‘modern-ish’ period with flip phones but no smart phones, but it adds to the style. We see a series of VHS-inspired flashbacks, often about paranormal business, but basically as though it’s all real.
In this world, it is completely rational to be like that. We follow Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins), a driving instructor in a rural Irish town but also someone with actual supernatural ‘extra ordinary’ talents. Unfortunately, her father died in a mysterious accident related to the paranormal, so Rose isn’t interested in utilizing her talents, even though everybody knows she has the gift and are constantly phoning her for help.
Her path intersects with Martin Martin (Barry Ward), a widower whose house is haunted by his dead wife Bonnie, but she has a real personality, hilariously doing things like knocking unhealthy snacks out of Martin’s hand. His daughter Sarah (Emma Coleman) sees his accidental connection with Rose, and pushes her father to reach out for an exorcism — naturally Martin is resistant.
Cranked Up Films
But at the same time, 80s one hit wonder musician Christian Winter (an inspired performance by Will Forte) is working a mysterious virgin sacrifice to get back his fame. When things go wrong with the ritual, he and his crazy wife Claudia (Claudia O’Doherty) target Sarah instead, so now everyone is heading for the same crazed result.
The movie never fully dips into any real darkness either thematically or visually, keeping a fairly light tone even when people die or explode. It helps that it’s a charming cast, specifically Maeve Higgins as Rose, who feels normal despite being paranormal, a person who fits in the world as our lifeline. Will Forte is as nutty-crazy as he always is, capable of elevating any sorts of dialogue with his pitch-perfect comedic performance.
Claudia O’Doherty doesn’t get much to do, but she’s always an engaging presence (I think she was a more compelling character on that Netflix show Love than either of the leads). Now, this isn’t something instantly transcendent like the three I referenced, but it’s a fun, pretty decent horror comedy, so it’s not a bad option among all of the normal studio fare out now.
I enjoyed the movie, and although there was a bit of a slow burn at first, it really did have a pretty funny ending.
Extra Ordinary has a running time of 1 hour 34 minutes and is rated R for language, sexual content and some horror violence.
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