Director: Bryce Olson | Rated: R | Review date: 6-Feb-2010

A group of hormone driven highschoolers devise a plan to scare their dates on their Homecoming dance. It just so happens that the dance falls on Halloween, so the boys thought it would be a brilliant idea to scare the girls in hopes that it would somehow end up fulfilling their sexual desires. Snail (James Immekus), Topher (Andrew St. John), and Ricky (Diego Torres) plan on sidetracking from the dance to an old orchard that hosts a legend of a demented killer.

The legend holds that a caretaker became so obsessed and protective of his wife, he chained her within the confines of the house. The boys convince their limo driver to swing by the old house to comply with their plans. Sonya (Jennifer Freeman), Chloe (Victoria Vande Vegte), and Ella (Kira Verrastro) are the three hotties lucky enough to snatch up these brilliant lads who reluctantly go along with the side trip. Before they arrive, we see the build up of what’s in store for the group.

While I was expecting a film more along the lines of a slasher, The Caretaker tended to focus more on its comedic aspects. The acting all around is average and the dialog is funny and stereotypical. One thing that did disappoint me a bit though as far as the cast is concerned was the minimal screen time for both Jennifer Tilly and Judd Nelson. I felt the film could have strongly benefited from having more of these more experienced actors. Nonetheless Ms. Tilly was very funny in her scenes. Judd Nelson was barely given enough time to show what he was capable of but he did leave me wanting more.

As far as the story is concerned, it had all the characteristics of a classic slasher flick with a very interesting villain. The caretaker’s weapon of choice was quite unique. The main problem I did have though was that this film had a lot of potential to build on the caretaker angle of the story. Given an R rating, I’m puzzled as to why this film remained quite tame aside from a few gratuitous shots of some female breasts. The caretaker’s techniques had a lot of room for originality and nice gore, but we actually get to see next to no detail in those regards. For me personally, when it comes to comedy horror, kill scenes full of exaggerated gore is a must and I felt that this film missed a great opportunity there.

For fans of teen comedy horror, The Caretaker is a good watch. However if you’re like me and need that extravagant bit of detail in the blood and guts department to compliment the horror humor, you won’t get much here. The film also teases us a bit with the two mentioned actors who strongly deserved more screen time. Either way the film has some pretty funny parts and a unique villain that ends things with a pretty nice twist.
IMDb/trailer

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