Popcorn Frights Film Festival Coverage
Mysterious Ways review
A comedy that keeps a high energy despite threatening to overstay its welcome.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers
Mysterious Ways
Directed by Tyler Eaton
Written by Tyler Eaton
Starring Alyssa Sabo, Brandon Raman, Eddie Pepitone, Shannon Dee, Dennis Hurley, Kendal Evans, and Peyton Grufik
Mysterious Ways Review
Comedy and horror are tied together by more than just the high number of horror comedies we see released each year. Both genres operate on the same basic structure. A set-up and punchline are required whether wanting to elicit a scream or a laugh. The best of either type ramp up the humor or horror as the stories unfold. Practical gore effects are even referred to as “gags” by the artists that create them. Mysterious Ways has its fair share of laughs. It could have used a few more gags.
After their parents (including their pastor father) are killed by a drunk driver…Denise (Alyssa Sabo) and Charlie (Brandon Raman) remain active in the church. The new pastor’s daughter Bethany (Miranda Rae Hart) is less interested in faith than she is in dance. When a ritual goes wrong on Halloween night…Bethany becomes possessed by a dancing demon. She sets out to collect 666 souls and bring forth the antichrist.
Mysterious Ways sets a fun tone early. It opens with a celebration of life ceremony for Denise and Charlie’s parents. Charlie thinks they should have gone with a traditional funeral. Denise would rather honor them with dancing and song…even if that includes some comically bad rapping. The tone that Mysterious Ways carries throughout the movie is perfectly encapsulated by Denise’s choice of ceremony. We may have accidentally unleashed Hell on Earth…but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun.
The movie has the right mix to pull it off. Two likable leads bicker their way through a burgeoning apocalypse of their own doing. The demon infects people…turning them into dancing demons of their own. If you need another example…comedian Eddie Pepitone plays the new town pastor (and father to the possessed Bethany).
Mysterious Ways deals with religion with a similar shrug. It makes jokes…but not belittling ones. The story is more interested in respecting people’s choices to be, or not be, religious. Some characters have to grow a bit to understand that…but that’s part of the journey. The movie isn’t here to tear down faith either. One of the themes is that everyone should believe what they want and just leave each other alone about it. Besides…an early rapture prank is downright hilarious.
Mysterious Ways spends most of its time with Denise and Charlie. They have to track down Bethany. The demon is targeting members of the church…leaving a parade of dancing demons in its wake. The movie isn’t without a couple of issues. First, the gags are no good. Gag here meaning those gore effects. The visual effects are poor and distracting. They’re also, for the most part, minimally used. That’s a good choice. The second issue is pacing. The movie starts hot, packing a lot into the first act of the story. Then it meanders along for a while. Sabo and Raman do what they can to carry the slower parts…and they have enough chemistry to almost pull it off. The movie does begin to drag, however.
To be honest, it’s strange that this happens. Mysterious Ways packs in a lot of characters and enough subplots to fill a movie twice as long. There’s an entire storyline about a side character’s belief in Bigfoot. It eventually fits into the main plot…kind of…but it’s mostly just emblematic of what holds Mysterious Ways back from what it could be. A tighter edit. The movie clocks in at only 91 minutes. There’s no shame in a superior 75-minute cut.
Even with those caveats, Mysterious Ways is a high energy movie with enough laughs to recommend. Denise and Charlie are strong lead characters. They have good sibling energy, and we learn a lot about them as the story unfolds. It uses religion as a jumping off point for comedy without mocking or belittling any particular aspect of it.
Even an early joke that could have been a straight shot at the financial grift that comes along with organized religion is played for a better joke. A parishioner is killed in the parking lot the night of the celebration of life ceremony. Her death is a mystery that isn’t solved until the end of Mysterious Ways. We meet the new pastor talking about the financial trouble the church is experiencing. Just when you think it’s going to make a biting observation…he explains that people don’t want to attend the church after the “parking lot situation”. A better joke…and one that doesn’t take the low hanging fruit.
Mysterious Ways replays this theme repeatedly. We watch Denise performing comedic faith healing that appears to be a joke about the ridiculousness of faith…but, like demons and the antichrist, it turns out to be very real in the end. Even Gordon (the Sasquatch loving character) finds a renewed faith in his quest to prove Bigfoot is real. If all the crazy stuff Denise and Charlie believe in is actually true…there’s no way his isn’t, right? That’s Mysterious Ways in a nutshell.
Scare Value
Mysterious Ways offers likable leads on a fun quest to find a dancing demon and prevent the rise of the antichrist. It stumbles in a few areas but maintains a light, fun tone throughout its ups and downs. The performances of Alyssa Sabo and Brandon Raman covers for enough faults to provide a quality viewing experience. There’s more than enough fun in this Halloween night gone wrong.
