What difference does it make

HYSTERICAL (1983)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

In the vein of stupid humor and slapstick pratfalls from the Zucker Brothers (who helmed "Airplane" and the short-lived "Police Squad" TV series during the 80's prior to their success with "The Naked Gun") comes "Hysterical," the sole Hudson Brothers 1983 theatrical film that got lost at the box-office and was largely forgotten for many years. A shame because it is a lot better than some of the similarly themed parodies of this time. No reminders necessary for the inert ineptitude of "Transylvania 6-5000."

A writer of romantic soft-core porn with titles like "Mouth to Mouth" (played by Bill Hudson) leaves the big city for the Oregon countryside in a town called Hellview to write the great American novel (how often have we heard that one!) Calling himself Casper (a ghost writer, ha! I actually like that silly name and, yes, I believe in the magic of sophisticated humor from the lucid pen of Ernst Lubitsch), he resides in a lighthouse that turns out be haunted by some vengeful female ghost named Venetia (Julie Newmar). The backstory of this Hellview spirit is that she was spurned by her lover, a married lighthouse captain named Captain Howdy (Richard Kiel), and killed herself as a result. Exactly 100 years later, Captain Howdy returns from the dead as a zombie. For some reason, whenever Kiel's character whacks people on the head with an ax, the Hellview residents turn into zombies who only utter one phrase: "What difference does it make." Say what?

For myself, despite how stupid and shallowly conceived some of "Hysterical" gags are, it had enough funny moments to induce a few smiles and some guffaws. Sure, some scenes are shapeless, including a few lulls involving the turtleneck-wearing zombies. The cinematography is occasionally poorly lit (there is a daylight sequence featuring two Hudson Brothers driving and you can't see their faces - wish they went the rear-projection mode as a throwback) but I did not care because I was still tickled pink by it. The childish humor and the outlandish shenanigans just made me laugh because of its overall tongue-in-cheek attitude, especially to homages of current films at the time and horror classics of the past. For example, two scientists, Dr. Paul and Fritz (played by Mark and Brett Hudson), both dressed up like Indiana Jones, are hired to find out the mystery of the lighthouse. Earlier, they encounter Dracula and eventually they perform an exorcism on the possessed Casper, obvious "The Exorcist" parody. No doubt the several typed pages of the same phrase repeated over and over is straight out of "The Shining." A nod to "Taxi Driver" was out of place, but so what?

There is one sequence that has some real zest to it - the Zomboogie dance (possibly the only time Murray Hamilton, repeating his role as mayor from "Jaws," has ever sung a song) which basically anticipates everyone's favorite sequence from Michael Jackson's "Thriller." In more amateurish ways, I can't help but think that Newmar's ghost is not terribly unlike Gozer from "Ghostbusters" but that is maybe just me. More than anything else, I love the clumsy blooming romance shenanigans of Bill Hudson and Cindy Pickett. There is an overall charm and a silly frame of mind to it all, even if not all of it works.

"Hysterical" is chock full of stupid humor but it is still not nearly as chaotically stupid as the Zucker Brothers' brand of comedy, but then again not everyone measures up to the latter's standards. Stupid humor makes you wince and also laugh at its own obviousness. One character on a bicycle (Robert Donner) warns every town denizen that they are doomed and he keeps getting into accidents - who is really doomed? If you don't like this kind of juvenile humor and prefer the zanily similar though unfunny "Transylvania 6-5000," then you are doomed.

For more information on the Hudson Bros., check out my wife's fully researched article: http://whatthehelldammit.blogspot.com/2017/11/strike-up-boys-in-band-time-to.html