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Overall Rating : 7/10
Directed By : Tony Krantz
Bostin Christopher
Ashley Johnson (Growing Pains (TV) )
Daniel Stern (Home Alone)
Illeana Douglas (Ghost World)
Supplied By : Warner Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : May. 27, 2008
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| PLOT OTIS is a story of suburban America gone haywire. In the midst of a serial abductor/killer's rampage a beautiful young teen Riley Lawson goes missing. When her desperate parents Will and Kate are contacted by her kidnapper an insufferable FBI Special Agent takes charge of the case. But from deep within the psychopathic subterranean world created by Otis. Riley turns the tables on her tormentor manages to escape and to contact her parents. Fed up with the tragi- comic inability of the FBI to find their girl Will Kate and Riley's brother Reed, decide to take matters - and justice - into their own hands. But when Otis' brother Elmo shows up unexpectedly the Lawsons find themselves mired in one of the more unusual and macabre consequences of vigilantism. Far from proclaiming "Mission Accomplished". the backed-in-a-corner Lawsons will further complicate their already deadly predicament with a surprising unfortunate and frankly hilarious final choice. |
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| THE REVIEW On the outside, Otis looks like any ordinary overweight guy who moonlights as a pizza man, but what's inside his mind is something a little twisted and evil. You see, Otis lives a very lonely life, all alone, except from the occasional visits from his brother Elmo. So in his own twisted way, he occupies his free time by playing a game, a game in which the girls he kidnaps are the main attraction. When one of Otis' captures accidentally dies during a struggle with him in an attempt to escape. Otis is now on the lookout for his next "girlfriend". Luck would somehow find Otis, when he is assigned to deliver a pizza to the home of the Lawsons. This is where the disparate Otis would meet Riley, as she comes out to pay for the goods. It is at first glance that Otis, is immediately smitten with Riley, the only daughter of Will and Kate Lawson. The next day Otis returns to the Lawson house, but this time he waits for Riley to come out, it is then that he blatantly kidnaps her and heads to his house. Riley is then forced to stay chained up in a room that appears to be a basement. From, a nearby control room of sorts, Otis barks out orders to Riley(whom he demands to call herself "Kim" - the name of his victim that died). Besides this, Otis would use his twisted mind in his head to use Riley in, for instance, having Riley dress in a cheerleader outfit, while Otis is on the phone with her asking her to come watch him at practice.....and then later playing out the practice scene in full costume and all. But perhaps the most elaborate role-playing scenario is that of the prom - Otis really does believe that he is Prom bound. even going as far as calling up Riley's dad and asking for permission to take Riley to the prom. This call however, doesn't get them further along, but what it does do is make Will, Kate, along wiyj brother Reed that much more determined to find their loved one. It's a short time later that Riley eventually escapes and she has enough time to call her parents, to fill them in on all the details of her capture. They close the conversation by telling Riley not to tell anyone this information....not ever the Police force whom are investigation. The reason being that Kate has a crazy idea.....she packs up the family, and together, they head to Otis' house to do what the Police can't seem to do, and that's take down Otis! OTIS makes it's debut for WARNER BROTHERS, and is the fourth release under their RAW FEED banner. Out of the three previous RAW FEED releases i've reviewed, only one was truly memorable, which was REST STOP. But with this one, the fourth installment, they have managed to bring themselves back up to par - OTIS is weird, off the wall, sometimes gory, and yes, even a little funny. Tony Krantz, who directed the second RAW FEED release. SUBLIME(which I didn't really like). returns to us with this black comedy that is on the edge of brilliance. The set up for OTIS is awesome and has a 1070s-1980s feel to it, which is appropriate, because it fits the character of Otis ideally as he is a man that is trapped in that area - from the old fashion game he spits to his captures while role playing with them, to his weirdly obsession with the Senior prom with the old school tux (he obviously didn't go to his, so he is recrating it) One Quote calls OTIS, "JUNO for Horror"(or something like that), when thinking of OTIS, and i'd have to somewhat agree on that. OTIS truly is a small Horror story about terror in suburbia, one that just go happens to have a killer on the lose. The first half of the film is basically a straight forward dark Horror film as we witness many antics as Otis trades time between his fantasies and work, and soon it's clear to see which he prefers, as he goes out to claim a new victim Riley, Then this is when we meet the Lawsons, Riley's family, and they seem to add more depth and more comedy to this story. Because later in the film, Tony Krantz flipped the story, by including the Lawsons more. which eventually leads to one of the films funnier scenes. Now I don't want to give it away, but it involves the Lawson's going to Otis' house with revenge on there mind(because a misinformed cop tells them that Riley was raped by her abductor), well they do end up going there. and they do beat and torture someone.....but it's not Otis. In Otis we do have some great acting, not only do we get equally funny performances here from both Daniel Stern, we also get great performances from a couple few of the younger stars. Newcomer Bostin Christopher, I thought, was great in his role as the title character, feeling real and believable I have to also say that I also enjoyed the performance of Ashley Johnson. Boy has she grown up fast...it seems as if just yesterday, she was the cute little redhead on TV's GROWING PAINS and in the Jean Claude Van Damme film, LION HEART. It's safe to say that she's all grown up now, and has developed into a pretty good actress. WARNER BROTHERS held back the DVD release of OTIS, for a short festival run and it turned out really well for them - and I can see why, because the film is great! No it's not a zombie movie, ghost story or a torture film, it's something different. It's a little mix of everything, yet I still don't know what kind of movie OTIS is, sure Horror could be one title to give it, but if you look at it, there are so many categories it could fall under. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 2/10 Sawing of one's leg, a stabbing, and an electrocution, is all I can remember |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5.5/10 A nice blend of 70s and 80s rock tunes, along with some traditional scoring, it all worked really well |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I really enjoyed OTIS, I thought it was something new, weird, and different, all of which are good things in my opinion. I recommend this one when watching with a group of friends! This DVD will be released on June 10, 2008 |
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