Wacko

Yesterday, we lost one of the great, old school, character actors George Kennedy. The guy could do it all, from tough in Cool Hand Luke, to silly in the Naked Gun films. But over the next couple of posts, I thought I'd look back at a couple of his less remembered roles. First up, the 1982 horror spoof Wacko.

The early 80's was a big time for horror parody, even though there wouldn't be a real hit in this genre until 2000 with Scary Movie. One of those flops was Wacko. Mary Graves, Newhart's Julia Duffy, lost her sister to the lawnmower killer 13 years ago on Halloween. Ever since, she see's lawnmower's everywhere and thinks that the killer is going to strike again. Her parents, Kennedy and Stella Stevens, think that she is crazy. But a play by his own rules detective Dick Harbinger, Joe Don Baker, believes her and plans to put an end to the lawnmower killer.

Probably the weakest of the horror comedies to come out at the time. The film tries to hard and most of the jokes fall flat. The cast seems to be in on a joke that the audience doesn't and everyone totally hams it up. Andrew Dice Clay also pops up in a supporting role.

This is one that is definately more miss than hit.

It's available on dvd.