FUNNY MAN

Music producer Max Taylor wins a huge mansion in the English countryside in a poker game. Max soon moves in with his family to the won house, but inadvertently awakens an evil elf dressed as Santa Claus who lives in a dream world whose door is located in the basement of the mansion. Johnny, Max's brother, accompanied by four hitchhikers, is on his way to reach his brother's new home and deliver an electric guitar. The group of unfortunate humans will be the object of the cruel pranks of Santa Claus. Three adjectives are enough to describe this film: stupid, useless, irritating. "Funnyman" is an English film from 1993, probably born on the wave of the moderate success of a similar film (but slightly more pleasant) released just one year before: "Leprechaun". With "Funnyman" an attempt is made to replicate the mix of horror and grotesque comedy characteristic of the series of films with the Leprechaun, but stepping on the accelerator in the grotesque scenes, which are nothing more than annoying demagogic sketches. The character of Santa Claus is perhaps one of the worst pseudo-boogeymen ever to appear in a horror film, due to a ridiculous look (little red dress with lots of bells, hump and fake phallus well in view!) and an irritating behavior (many are the scenes in which Santa Claus talks to the viewer looking at the camera or performs obscene disguises). Perhaps a positive note is to consider the good dose of splatter scenes, among which we can mention a man whose head explodes with a bomb and a woman literally pierced through and through by the evil elf. It is disarmingly sad to see involved in this film an exceptional actor like Christopher Lee, who was not having a good time professionally at the time, and who will be relaunched later by Tim Burton and thanks to his participation in two episodes of the new "Star Wars" trilogy and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. A tip: if you happen to come across "Funnyman" in some old video store, leave it where it is; it doesn't even deserve a viewing.