Hexed

Let me just start this off by saying that Alan Spencer is a comedy genius. You may not know the name, but he has been a go to script doctor in Hollywood for decades. He has worked for Mel Brooks and even created the great, albeit short lived, tv cult series Sledge Hammer in the 80's. Oddly enough, he has only directed one feature film, 1993's Hexed.

Arye Gross stars as Matt Welsh, a desk clerk at a Holiday Inn style hotel. Unhappy with his lot in life, Matt is constantly making up stories about his exploits, kind of like a modern day Walter Mitty, much to the disbelief and annoyance of his coworkers and boss, Norman Fell. Coworker and freind Gloria, Adrienne Shelly, harbors a little crush on him and worries about his grip on reality. His manager Simon, Michael E. Knight, knows he is full of crap and sets out to prove it.

When supermodel Hexina, Claudia Christian, books a room at the hotel, Matt tells everyone that they once dated. Of course nobody believes him, so Matt pretends to be someone she is meeting. Their encounter leads to a very hot date, until she tries to kill him. Matt realizes that Hexina is insane. Dead bodies start popping up with Matt becoming the prime suspect. It's up to him to clear his name with a hardnosed, not by the book, detective, R. Lee Ermy, before Matt becomes Hexina's next victim.

This movie had no love from the studio. They slashed the budget right before production began and took away Spencer's creative control. They changed his darker ending for a more upbeat one and even changed the music to feature more current, top 40 hits. They let the film sit on the shelf for over a year, and once they released it, they marketed as a Fatal Attraction/Basic Instinct spoof. It does have some of those elements, but it isn't really a parody of those.

Even with the studios meddling, I think this is a great comedy. Spencer's wit still shows and Christian is a riot as the bat shit crazy Hexina. She should have done more comedies. Ermy's also funny as the no nonsense detective.

This is one I highly recommend.

It's available on dvd.