Dark Humor Highlights

Originally posted on 31/10/2011. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

Good evening and welcome to bearwithadeathlist.co.uk, the home of all things dark humor. This website is dedicated to showcasing the very best that dark humor has to offer, so as to show the world that the haters simply have no sense of humor. Dark humor is in fact quite entertaining, if well written. It's not just about shock value, it's genuinely humorous. It's not for everyone, of course, but it's a great form of humor and we will show you the best on a regular basis. Every fortnight we will present a "dark humor highlight" for your reading pleasure. To start things off, we will talk a little bit about dark humor from central Europe. More specifically, about sick Hungarian jokes.

Hungarian jokes have a reputation. Not necessarily a bad reputation, but certainly they are known to have a tendency of being just a little bit extreme. Naturally not every Hungarian joke is like that, but there is almost a "sub-genre" of jokes in Hungary that can only be described by the word "sick". Now, the important thing is, that there's nothing wrong with that. Most of these jokes are in fact very very funny, though some of them can be quite offensive. Truthfully, sick Hungarian jokes are an excellent example of why dark humor is just as great as "classic" humor, and their enjoyment just needs a bit of open-mindedness and a little more sense of humor.

So today we highlight these infamous sick Hungarian jokes by listing the top eight Hungarian jokes of bearwithadeathlist.co.uk. Why top eight? Well, why not?

8) Fairytales involving princes and princesses and the like are, or at least used to be, very popular in Hungary. Here's a joke that makes a mockery of the genre:

A young prince is walking through a forest and encounters an old woman. He strikes up a conversation with her, asking her who she is. The old woman says she is in reality a young princess, and an evil wizard put a curse on her. She is very sad because the curse can only be broken if a young prince has sex with her three times, and she knows she's too ugly now for that to ever happen. `Ugly is right,' the prince thinks to himself, `but what the hell, if I break the curse she'll be young and beautiful and we can get married.' So the prince decides to help out the old woman. He puts a bucket over her head and fucks her, three times in a row. After the third one he takes the bucket off, but the woman is still old and ugly. `You're still an ugly old woman!' he says, pointing out the obvious. `What is the meaning of this, you old hag?!' The old woman responds with a question. `Tell me, prince, how old are you?' `I'm twenty-one.' `And you still believe in fairytales?'

7) This joke is a real classic born in the times before the fall of the Soviet Union, which was a time when fancy cars like a Mercedes were extremely rarely seen in Hungary and were owned only by the richest folk. Imagine how an old peasant from the countryside would react to seeing one of those from the inside:

A man is driving through the countryside in a Mercedes. He sees a hitch-hiker on the road and decides to pick him up. The hitch-hiker, and old peasant, takes just one look at the multitude of displays and buttons in the car and he immediately starts asking the driver about them. The man patiently explains everything from the CD player to the air conditioner, but he quickly gets fed up with all the questions. So when the peasant asks him about the Mercedes logo at the very front of the car, the driver tells him that it's a crosshair which helps him with the aim when he tries to run over a pedestrian or a cyclist. The old man nods in silent understanding. Some time later they run across a bike rider by the road. The driver uses the Mercedes logo to target the cyclist so as to demonstrate its operation, but of course in the end he pulls on the wheel to avoid the collision. He hears a silent thud, but he keeps driving anyway, thinking it must have been the wind or something. Then the old peasant says: `You know something my good man, this fancy rolling machine of yours ain't so perfect. If I hadn't opened the door, we never would have hit that cyclist...'

6) There are two types of jokes in Hungary that are quite common and target a certain portion of the demographic: policeman jokes and blond woman jokes. They tend to be quite offensive towards the people they make fun of, but they are very funny nonetheless. The following joke is one of the most famous and most vicious blond woman jokes of all time (Note: if you don't know what a walkman is, just substitute "ipod" for "walkman" below. Although, if you don't know what a walkman is, you're probably too young for this website...):

Blond woman goes to the hairdresser with a walkman. She's using large headphones to listen to the walkman. As she sits in the chair, the hairdresser tells her that she has to take the headphones off, because he can't work on her hair while she's wearing them. She doesn't take them off, so after a while of useless arguing the hairdresser takes them off her head. Then the woman collapses, starts choking, and not much later she dies. The hairdresser is shocked, but out of curiosity, he puts the headphones on to find out what she was listening to. He hears the following repeated on the tape constantly. `Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out...'

5) Hungary is known among other things for having a catastrophic health care system. A lot of people don't get proper treatment and many of the hospitals are struggling to meet the ever growing demands. For this reason, jokes like the following are considered quite morbid in Hungary:

Intensive care. Busy day, dozens of patients on life support. Midday approaches, and a man in a jumpsuit enters with a box of tools. He's an electrician. He clears his throat, and announces the following to the patients: `Take a deep breath you all! Time to change the fuse!'

4) This one is a true classic, another joke with princes and princesses. Not quite as much of a mockery of fairytales as the previous one though, quite the opposite in fact:

A prince wants to get married. He pays a visit to the king of the neighboring kingdom who offers him his daughters. The prince says he will take the one with the biggest vagina. The oldest princess immediately tells him that hers is the biggest because he could fit his entire fist inside. The prince tries it, and indeed his fist fits into her vagina. Then the second princess says that hers is so big that the prince's entire head would fit inside, along with his crown. The prince gives this a try as well, and it works, his head fits in just fine. Then the youngest princess claims that hers is so huge the entire prince can fit inside. The prince doesn't believe that, but he wants to try it anyway. To his surprise, he fits inside... and gets lost. As he's looking for the exit, he runs into and old peasant. `Good day, old man.' he says to the peasant. `Are you looking for the way out, too?' `No.' says the old man. `I lost my horse.'

3) This joke is also a classic, though it may in fact not be originally Hungarian. It's a very popular joke in Hungary nonetheless:

A man decides to buy himself a pet, however, he wants something exotic so he ends up buying a monkey. He takes the monkey home and lets it out of the cage. The monkey immediately runs out of the house and up the tree in the garden. Hours pass and the monkey doesn't come down, so the man calls the pet shop to complain. The pet shop's owner tells him he'll come around and sort things out. An hour later he shows up in the company of a dog and a shotgun. The man looks at the shotgun suspiciously, but let's the shopkeeper explain his plan. `Here's what we'll do.' the shopkeeper says. `I will climb the tree and sit on the same branch as the monkey. I will start shaking it wildly. When the monkey falls off, my dog will bite it in the balls, and then you can quickly put the monkey back in the cage.' `That's it? Then why did you bring the shotgun?' `Simple. If the monkey manages to shake the branch harder than me, I need you to shoot the dog.'

2) A true classic in Hungary is the Aggressive Little Pig. That's his name. With a capital A. He's one aggressive motherfucker. There are many jokes about him, many of them are quite absurd, but none are so vicious and disgusting as this one:

The Aggressive Little Pig walks through the forest and runs into a fairy. The fairy tells him that she is having such a good day she will grant three wishes to anyone she runs across, so he can have three wishes. The Aggressive Little Pig then says: `I want my ass covered with shit.' The fairy is surprised, but a wish is a wish, she grants it. Upon asking what his second wish is, the Aggressive Little Pig says: `I want my ass covered in even more shit.' Fairy grants his wish, and asks about the third wish. `What's your last wish then?' she asks. And the Aggressive Little Pig replies: `Lick it clean, bitch! SLOWLY!'

1) The number one on this list really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Not if you payed attention to the name of the website:

The bear writes a death list. News of his death list spread across the forest like wildfire. Some of the animals who hear about it decide to go ask the bear about the list, thinking, that living in uncertainty is worse than knowing for certain that a bear is going to eat you. So, the fox goes to the bear and asks him about the list. 'Hey bear, is it true that you have a death list?' asks the fox. `Yeah.' says the bear. `Well... is my name on it?' `I dunno, lemme check...' says the bear, and then he pulls out the death list. When the bear finds the fox's name on the list, he says to the fox: `Yeah, you're on the list.' And then the bear eats the fox. A few days pass and the wolf comes by and asks the bear about the list. `Hey bear, is it true that you wrote a death list?' asks the wolf. `Yeah.' says the bear. `Okay... is my name on it?' `I dunno, lemme check... Yeah, 'fraid so...' And then the bear eats the wolf as well. A couple of days pass and the rabbit comes by and asks the bear about the death list. `Hey bear, is it true that you have a death list?' asks the rabbit. `Yeah.' says the bear. `Tell me... is my name on it?' `I dunno, lemme check... Yeah, 'fraid so, you're on the list' And then the rabbit says: `Hey bear... Couldn't you... like... erase my name or something?' And then the bear says: `Sure, why not?'

Originally posted on 06/11/2011. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

The 1980s. The golden age of pop music and B movies. When the three Johns (John Matrix, John Rambo, and John McClane) redefined what it means to be a badass action hero. When Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi gave us the Evil Dead movies. The 1980s were awesome, and many of its then-overlooked gems have become cult classics since then. Such is the case with one of, if not the, greatest horror comedies of all time, Army of Darkness (even though by time this installment came out it was 1992).

Being the third episode of the Evil Dead trilogy, it's not automatically obvious that this movie is a horror comedy. The first Evil Dead movie was anything but a comedy; it was taken seriously. Dead seriously... Then the second movie shifted gears and became much more comedic, turning Ash into a cowardly goofball and making fun of his futile efforts to defeat the deadites. Then at the end of Evil Dead 2 he was sent back in time into the middle ages along with his car, his chainsaw, and his shotgun, and you just knew that if there would ever be an Evil Dead 3, they would throw all remaining seriousness right out the window. That's exactly what they did, and boy are we grateful!

The movie's title was already quite humorous, as instead of "Bruce Campbell IN Army of Darkness" the movie was called "Bruce Campbell VERSUS Army of Darkness". The premise is really simple. Ash meets a bunch of knights and peasants, as well as a wiseman who tells him that the only way he can be sent back to his time is with the help of the Necronomicon, which is hidden in a graveyard that the knights are too scared to approach. So Ash goes to get the book for them but things don't quite go according to plan, mostly because Ash is a fucking idiot who can't memorize three simple words. Then the Army of Darkness is unleashed and Ash and the knights must fight them all in order to survive. Pretty simple plot, but the execution makes it into an awesome movie experience.

First thing's first: Bruce Campbell is awesome in this movie. Quite possibly his best performance ever. The facial expressions he makes and the way he delivers his lines is nothing short of priceless. Also, as an added bonus we get to see him play the bad guy as one of the deadites takes his shape, which leads to a hilarious showdown between "goody-two-shoes Ash" and "bad Ash". Needless to say, he shines in both roles. I'm not sure this movie would have worked out so well without him.

However, this movie works not because of Bruce Campbell alone, but because of Bruce Campbell and all the insanely funny moments in the movie. The humor is hilarious throughout the entire movie. Right from the opening scenes, during which the knights try to execute Ash after they mistakenly think he's working with their enemies. The brief conversation between Ash and Henry the Red is priceless, as is the knights' reaction to all the twentieth century shit that Ash brought with him to their time. The deadites are quite entertaining as well. There's a scene in this movie where a skeleton is playing a bone flute, which is priceless. Bad Ash gives the deadites a speech near the end which can only be described as "the best motivational speech ever" (seriously, Aragorn and President Thomas J. Whitmore should have taken lessons from this guy). Early in the movie Ash has a Luke Skywalker moment which is absurd enough to make you fall out of the chair laughing (you'll know it when you see it; and if you don't understand the Luke Skywalker reference of the scene, or worse, you don't even know who Luke Skywalker is, well, then you're probably too young for this website). And then there's the siege at the end. A well choreographed climactic battle between the deadites and the knights, who are now armed with Ash's twentieth century science. It gives the movie a bit of a steampunk feeling actually, and yet it works beautifully, it doesn't ruin the medieval atmosphere one bit.

One thing to note is that the movie has two different endings. The original ending was deemed too depressing by the studio and/or the producers so they had Sam Raimi do a different ending which kind of turns Ash into a goofy Duke Nukem. This is not such a bad thing (especially considering how much Duke Nukem 3D "borrowed" from this movie), I like this "badass ending" quite bit. In fact, I think I prefer this one. The original ending, which is heavily preferred by Bruce Campbell himself, is quite different and goes with the well established idiocy of Ash and takes it to a whole new level, giving us a hilarious ending that could have set up a potential fourth Evil Dead movie in a very unique setting. The DVD release of this movie features the full original movie with this original ending. This version comes with a number of scenes that were cut from the theatrical release due to the length, and to be honest the movie is much better with these scenes included. Most of them involve the siege at the end, mainly serving to make the battle more epic, and it works very well, it really feels like a worthwhile climax to the entire trilogy. The badass ending is also available on the DVD as an extra, it's worth to check it out, even if you prefer the original ending. Also, it's worth listening to the commentary, conducted by Bruce Campbell himself, joined by Sam and Ivan Raimi.

So in conclusion, Army of Darkness is one of the greatest horror comedies of all time, full of hilarious dark humor. It's a tremendously entertaining film, go see it if you haven't done so already. Until next time, good evening!

Originally posted on 17/11/2011. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

Animated television series used to be made for kids. Then came Beavis and Butthead who appealed to a much broader audience with their sharp comments and often ridiculously violent humor. Back in the day there was a lot of controversy surrounding the series specifically due to the violence of the humor (not to mention the "Fire! Fire!" controversy). All that was NOTHING compared to the absurd levels of violence and controversial humor seen in the ingenious series called South Park, and that's precisely why we love it so much!

South Park launched in 1997 with its debut episode "Cartman gets an anal probe", and if you think the title refers to large bowel endoscopy, you have obviously never seen a single episode of South Park. The episode starts out innocently enough with four kids (Cartman, Kenny, Stan, and Kyle, the lead characters) talking in the bus stop while waiting for the schoolbus, but soon it becomes clear that this is no kids' programme as the four protagonists (and the rest of the characters) constantly swear if they feel like it, the aforementioned anal probe turns out to be a gigantic device implanted by aliens (naturally), the bus driver screams at the kids while they call her a "fat bitch" behind her back, their teacher uses a hand puppet in class and tells Cartman to "go to Hell and die", the school cook always has his mind on women, the aliens conclude that cows are the most intelligent lifeforms on earth, and Kenny dies a violent death half way through the episode which is depicted in great detail extremely graphically (including getting eaten by rats after his death). The climax of the episode features Cartman with an 80-foot satellite dish sticking out of his ass.

That was just a brief summary of the highlights of the first episode. Later on, we got to see much more extreme things, such as:

- a talking piece of turd appearing in several christmas specials

- Cartman tasting, and eventually, mixing into milk and drinking Kenny's ashes after he was cremated, all the while thinking that it's chocolate powder

- a group of cute forest animals that worship the devil and rape people

- one of the characters getting a sex-change operation only to have it reversed several Seasons later

- an episode with an on-screen counter that keeps track of the number of times the word "shit" is uttered during the 20-minute episode, and eventually goes into 3-digit territory

- one of the kids becoming a pimp

- Santa Claus getting tortured by electrocution to the balls

- Stan's father breaking the Guinness World Record of biggest turd ever crapped out of a human's back passage

- the entire planet collectively agreeing to blow up Finland in order to keep a planetary lie from being discovered by the intergalactic police

- Cartman making chilli out of a kid's parents (whose accidental death at the hands of a shotgun toting farmer Cartman orchestrated himself) and tricking the kid into eating it, then revealing the whole thing to him and licking the tears off his face...

...and many many more. In other words, fans of dark humor are more then certain to find something tremendously entertaining in every episode.

One of the best things about South Park is that nobody's safe from them. Absolutely nobody. The show has ridiculed just about everybody from Barbra Streisand to Tom Cruise, from George Lucas to Mel Gibson, from Inception to Avatar (and the latter REALLY deserved it), from World of Warcraft to Guitar Hero, from zombie flicks to Watchmen, from elections to KFC, from Christian Bale's Batman voice to Mickey Mouse, and the list goes on and on. The show plays no favorites and pokes fun of just about anything, which guarantees that anyone with a decent sense of humor will enjoy this show. Even when the show insults something dear to the viewers' hearts, they find solace in the certainty that the show also ridicules everything they hate. South Park is so notorious for picking on anybody and anything that it's no exaggeration to assume that if Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park's creators) knew about this website, they'd make fun of it. In fact, if they knew your deepest, darkest secret, they'd make fun of that, too.

One of the recurring themes of South Park for the first several seasons was the death of Kenny He got killed in every episode in an inventive, gruesome, and hilarious fashion. The response of Stan and Kyle to this has become one of the most iconic quotes from South Park. Furthermore, Kenny returned in the following episode as if nothing had happened, only to die another gruesome death. The creators did get bored with it after a while, although maybe they just ran out of ideas on how to kill Kenny in new ways, so eventually the entirety of Season 6 was spent on establishing the fact that Kenny is dead and not coming back to life. Until the final episode of the Season that is, at which point Kenny showed up again as if nothing had happened. Starting with Season 7 Kenny survived the vast majority of the South Park episodes, but every once in a while he got wasted when you least expected it. This old running gag is one of the most surreal features of the show, and the creators exploited that in Season 14 when they established a link between Kenny's constant resurrection and Cthulhu. Yes, THE Cthulhu. (If you don't know who Chtuhlu is, you're probably too young for this website...)

The show also features a wide ensemble of memorable characters, from the kids' cynical teacher Mr. Garrison through the Brando-lookalike Dr. Moreau-esque scientist Dr. Mephisto to the Canadian fart-joke comedians Terrance and Phillip. There's really far too many of them to list here. Special mention needs to go to one of the lead characters, Cartman, who is quite frankly one of the most entertaining characters on the show. Given that he's a mean-spirited, immature, racist, lazy spoiled brat, he often serves as the antagonist of the show. He has been called the 2nd scariest TV character by MSNBC. However, he's really more of a rebellious anti-hero than a villain, which earned him his status as the most popular television personality of kids in the UK in 1999. As far as we're concerned, Cartman is pure awesomeness, and our favorite episodes are the ones where he comes out on top. Such as the one with the aforementioned chilli eating scene.

South Park has been on the air for over 14 years and though some would argue that the show has lost some of its touch over the years, recent brilliant episodes such as the debut episode of Season 15 prove that even after all these years South Park is going strong and here to stay as one of the most popular animated shows in the world. It's also great that in many countries the show is available for free online at the website of South Park Studios, so if you need to catch up, that's the place to do it. Until next time, good evening!

Originally posted on 26/11/2011. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

If you think that the Lord of the Rings adaptation of Peter Jackson is said director's best movie, you're probably too young for this website. Why? Because back in 1992 Peter Jackson directed a movie so awesome that he has never managed to surpass its greatness. It is called Braindead (a.k.a. Dead Alive), and it is one of the goriest horror comedies of all time. It's also one of the funniest of all time, falling only second to Army of Darkness on our list.

The movie kicks off with a relatively tame scene of an explorer attempting to take a rare animal, a Sumatran Rat Monkey away from an island. He runs into natives that try to stop him but he eventually makes it to his jeep with the cage. However, he gets bitten by the Rat Monkey and, when his hired help see the bite on his hand, they stop the jeep and promptly cut off his hand. Then they see another bite on his shoulder, so off goes the arm. Then they see a bite on his forehead, and we get the opening credits after a scream.

So yes, the movie does start out with a bang and the ending of the scene gives us a pretty good preview of what to expect. This is most useful since the following half hour or so is dedicated to building up the main characters of the movie, which is quite admirable for a horror movie. We meet our hero Lionel who lives in a large fancy house with his, to borrow a line from Freddy Krueger, "bitch of a mother" (think Norman Bates' mother, except this one is still alive... for the time being). Lionel gets romantically involved with a woman named Paquita and when they go on a date to the zoo (can you guess where this is going?), Lionel's mother follows them to spy on them and she eventually gets bitten by the Rat Monkey from the opening scene (precisely...). The next day she basically turns into a zombie, and Lionel has to somehow try to keep this problem under lock and key. As you might imagine, things don't quite go according to plan and soon Lionel has several zombies to keep an eye on in the cellar. All this slowly builds up towards the inevitable epic finale during which all the zombies are let loose and a climactic battle ensues between Lionel and the walking dead.

The finale of the movie is arguably the goriest 15 minutes in cinema history. It's difficult to describe the scene without giving too much away, so let's just talk about what's involved in it. The scene involves Lionel, a lawnmower blade, about one hundred zombies, and one giant zombie. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where this combination leads, especially given that we just called the scene "the goriest 15 minutes in cinema history". This sequence features ridiculously over the top violence with scenes such as a zombie getting torn in half, a guy getting the skin literally pulled off his head like a mask, a bunch of torn out intestines coming to life, and many many more. The sequence is so over the top it's not only awesomely disgusting, but also quite hilarious. If you like dark humor, you're going to love the last 15 minutes of Braindead.

Now that's not the only thing that's epically awesome in the movie. We also get to see an elderly priest fighting a group of zombies with kung fu moves that would impress any fan of Bruce Lee movies (and we also get the priest's priceless battlecry, "I kick ass for the lord!", which deserves being quoted just as much as Ash's famous oneliners from Army of Darkness). Then there's the scene in the zoo in which the Rat Monkey is first revealed to the audience. Until that point we only got to see the cage, but not the monkey itself. It's a regular gorefest on its own as the Rat Monkey goes postal on its neighbors in the cell, and then has a confrontation with Lionel's mother which quite clearly shows us that not only is the Rat Monkey a dangerous critter, but Lionel's mother is also not somebody to fuck with. At one point in the movie we get to see Lionel trying to feed four zombies with cereals. The scene is so hilarious that it's impossible to describe, and it is during this scene that two of the zombies sitting by the table engage in an activity that eventually results in the introduction of one of the most absurd characters in the movie (any more detail about this would spoil the experience). We also get some subtle references to classics such as the use of a blender to chop up a zombie's head and a severed hand attacking Lionel.

And let's not forget the biggest asshole in the movie, Lionel's Uncle Les, who shows up about half way through the movie and eventually starts blackmailing Lionel when he discovers the zombies in the cellar. During the climax of the movie, we get to see this character going completely batshit insane when he takes his time to torture a zombie by yanking out its teeth when he should be more concerned with getting away before the rest of the zombies overwhelm him.

But the true highlight of the movie is without a shadow of a doubt the gorefest at the end. Its crude over the top humor and the extreme amounts of gore make it one of the most memorable scenes in the history of horror comedies. The movie is worth checking out for this scene alone, but for the full experience you should watch from start to finish. Especially don't miss out on the priest's fight scene, it's the most awesome part of the movie! Until next time, good evening!

Originally posted on 07/12/2011. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

In 1997 game developer Running With Scissors created a game simply called Postal. The game had a very simple premise: the player's character, simply called The Postal Dude, is evicted from his home and he goes postal about it. The aim of the game is to kill a certain percentage of the population on every level. That's it. With virtually no plot and a gameplay centering around slaughtering unarmed civilians and armed policemen who come to their aid it was no surprise that the game generated quite a lot of controversy. Banned by several countries and in general despised by people who had no sense of humor, Postal became one of the most controversial games in history. Then, in 2003, Running With Scissors gave us the sequel, Postal 2.

Postal 2 was more than a sequel to a controversial game, it was also an answer to all the criticism received for the original game. A quite humorous answer in fact, which takes a jab at just about everyone who had a complaint about the first game being too violent and controversial. For starters, Postal 2 does not require you to go on a killing spree. You can literally finish the game without killing anyone (although the expansion pack changed that a bit). Then there's one of the opening missions in the game, in which your task is to go to work. That's right. In the sequel to Postal, one of the most violent and controversial games ever made, you need to go to your workplace and just do your job. Surreal, isn't it?

But that's just the beginning of an insanely dark joke at the expense of all the protesters who hate violent computer games. When you arrive at work it turns out you are working at Running With Scissors, the company that developed the actual game. As you arrive, you see a large group of people with signs protesting against violent computer games in front of the building. Vince Desi, the actual boss of RWS fires you on the spot, and if you don't like that, you can blow his brains out with a shotgun. But you don't have to. That's the nice thing about Postal 2. It's only as violent as you want it to be.

However, the game does tend to put you into situations where you are tempted to resort to violence. Right after Vince Desi fires you, a cutscene reveals that the protesters outside the building pulled out some guns and assault rifles and proceeded to break into the building to slaughter the RWS staff. That's right. The people who protest against violent computer games try to kill the game developers in Postal 2. With guns. Just how awesome is that? The ultimate joke at the expense of the real life protesters.

Now, if you were nice and didn't kill your former boss for firing you, the RWS employees remain friendly to you and fight alongside you against the protesters, making it easier for you to survive. But again, you can just sneak/run away from the whole conflict without killing anyone if you don't want to take anyone's life. But later when you try to cash in your paycheck at the bank and a bunch of bank robbers show up guns blazing, or when you get kidnapped by a bunch of rednecks that want to anally violate you, or when you get locked in a burning library by environmentalists who think that they can save the trees by burning books, or when you get caught in a firefight between the ATF and your Uncle Dave and his fanatic disciples, you'll want to think twice about whether you want to be a pacifist in this game...

In any case, Postal 2 offers a dark humor experience like few other games do out there. The things you have to put up with during the main missions of the game (which are given to you by your wife in the form of a list of chores to complete each day) range from absurd to insane, including putting up with long queues when going to a confession or buying milk, getting attacked by a guy dressed in a Krotchy costume, being sent a letterbomb and subsequently getting attacked by the angry workers of the local post office, or getting caught in a napalm factory just as an accident blows up the whole building (and in case you're wondering what you were doing there in the first place, get this: your wife wants you to get some weedkiller, and what better to use for this purpose than napalm), or the general bad attitude the townspeople show towards signing your petition to "make whiney congressmen play violent video games".

You also have the option to do some really ironic things, like kicking, pissing on, or outright slaughtering the people in the queue before you at the confession just so you can get in to the priest quicker, or purposely getting yourself arrested and then sneaking out in a stolen police uniform, or worse, walk into the police station armed to the teeth and pretty much re-enact the infamous police precinct shootout scene of the first Terminator movie (if you don't know which scene we're referring to, you're probably too young for this website).

So if you like crude, dark humor and are fairly open minded you can have a lot of fun with Postal 2. Now before we finish we should also say a few words about the Postal movie. In 2007 a movie adaptation of Postal 2 was filmed with the title Postal. The movie was directed by Uwe Boll.

Sit back down! Trust us, it's worth it...

As we were saying, the movie was directed by Uwe Boll, and quite frankly, it's his best movie ever made. Which isn't saying much considering how much his movies suck. But this one really is quite entertaining, and while a more skilled director could have certainly done a much better job, the movie manages to capture Postal 2's "it's only as violent as you want it to be" feeling as well as its crude humor.

Boll himself appears in the movie, playing himself in fact, and he gives us the beautiful pleasure of seeing him get nearly strangled by Vince Desi (played by the real Vince Desi) and later get killed by a gunshot to the balls. The movie ends in a truly surreal way by referencing a scene from a famous classic movie in a way that some would call disrespectful, others insane, yet others brilliant. We think it's brilliant, obviously.

To summarize, Postal 2 and its movie adaptation are both worth to check out for anyone who loves dark humor. Postal 2 is available for purchase on Good Old Games for a real bargain price and their version is made compatible with modern operating systems, so if the game picked your interest you can play that version on a present day computer. Until next time, good evening!

Originally posted on 17/12/2011.

Fairytales were the predecessors of what we know today as fantasy literature. While lacking the depth and complexity of fantasy literature, fairytales make for a genre that hasn't lost its popularity even in the 20th century. Just look at the popularity of the most epic fairytale ever written, Lord of the Rings. Now, fairytales are a classic genre aimed at a much younger audience than the readers of this website, so why would we possibly want to talk about them? The answer is simple: because of Neil Gaiman. More specifically, because of his version of Snow White.

Snow, Glass, Apples is a short story recounting the tale of Snow White from a different perspective. Generally the story is told as the troubled life of Snow White (spoilers ahead... although if you haven't heard the original story of Snow White, you're probably too young for this website), as she is constantly tormented by her evil stepmother until eventually she is assassinated and then later resurrected by the kiss of a young prince and they get to live happily ever after. In Neil Gaiman's version we see the story told by the stepmother.

Now you might think that it's heresy to tell the tale of Snow White from the antagonist's point of view, but you'd be wrong to think that. Snow, Glass, Apples does not disrespect the original story one bit. All it does, is ask questions. Questions, like what kind of woman has black hair, white skin, likes laying in a glass coffin, and can come back from the dead? Questions, like what kind of prince kisses a dead chick?

Do you see where this is going?

So in this retelling of the classic story we get to see what really happened, according to the stepmother, until we of course come to the usual ending which is illuminated in a completely different light. The absurdity of the idea that Snow White might have been a vampire coupled with the concept that the stepmother was the hero all along is simply surreal, and incredibly amusing. If you like dark humor, it's next to impossible to read this story without breaking out in laughter. Of course it's not really written as a comedy, but due to how surreal it all is, it comes off as a piece of dark humor rather than something that's meant to be taken seriously, even if the questions raised by the story make a lot of sense.

This dark, twisted story is without a doubt the best version of Snow White. Vampire chicks are awesome! (If you've played Baldur's Gate 2 and had the impossible desire to have Bodhi in your party the moment you first met her, you know exactly what we mean.) Although honorable mention needs to go to the 1997 horror movie adaptation Snow White: A Tale of Terror starring Sigourney Weaver as the stepmother and Sam Neill as Snow White's father. That movie tells a dark version of the classic story as well, and it is also awesome (though we prefer the vampire Snow White).

To summarize, if you like the story of Snow White but always felt that the original story was missing something or didn't make sense, go read this short story. If you like vampire chicks, then you should especially read it. Best Snow White ever!

Originally posted on 04/01/2012.

The 1990s introduced us to a new and interesting variant of the classic myth of the vampire: Mexican vampires. While Mexican vampire flicks have existed since the 1950s the myth of the Mexican vampire got mainstream recognition only with the 1996 movie From Dusk Till Dawn.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, From Dusk Till Dawn is basically Desperado meets Dracula meets Psycho, and it's one awesome movie. The story starts with a family being taken hostage by a pair of bank robbers as they attempt to cross the border into Mexico. At this point the movie is a lot like Hitchcock's Psycho (if you haven't seen that classic, you're probably too young for this website) in that for much of the movie the plot is centered around an everyday crime, and then half way through we're suddenly introduced to the real plot. In this case, vampires. The bank robbers and their hostages stop to spend the night at the Titty Twister, a Mexican night club that looks like it's straight out of the 80s. There they are suddenly beset upon by a flock of Mexican vampires, and the robbers and hostages must put aside their differences and fight side by side if they want to live to see the morning. At this point the movie turns into a Desperado style mad action flick as the protagonists try to fight off the vampire menace with everything they've got, whether it's sharpened wooden stakes, a crossbow, condoms filled with holy water, or a cross consisting of a baseball bat and a shotgun.

The movie entertains with over the top scenes like Salma Hayek dancing with a snake, Quentin Tarantino being a complete psycho, Harvey Keitel blessing the water in a water filled condom, Fred Williamson ripping out the heart of a vampire, Tom Savini fighting half a dozen strippers at the same time, Juliette Lewis blowing up vampires with a crossbow, George Clooney killing a vampire with a chandelier, and many many more.

The top notch action and the over the top story is well rounded out into a complete package by the cast of memorable characters. For starters we have the two bank robbers, the no nonsense ruthless badass Seth played by George Clooney, and his batshit crazy brother Richard portrayed by Quentin Tarantino (who also wrote the screenplay, as you can obviously tell by watching the movie). Then we have Harvey Keitel playing an aged priest who comes in handy for the bank robbers when the vampires come and try to kill them all, and Juliette Lewis plays his feisty daughter who proves to be a real badass with a crossbow. Top this list up with a number of memorable support characters who join with our heroes in the night club such as the man with the gun at his crotch called Sex Machine played by the always excellent Tom Savini and the big badass Vietnam veteran Frost portrayed by Fred Williamson. Cheech Marin plays three different roles in the movie and shines in every last one of them. We also see Danny Trejo in the role of the bartender.

From Dusk Till Dawn is a masterful modern day vampire flick with great over the top action, memorable characters, and an interesting enough story to keep you interested from start to finish. If you liked Desperado and have a thing for vampires, this movie will not disappoint you in the least.

Originally posted on 18/01/2012.

Lesbian Vampire Killers. With a title like that, you'd expect an exploitation flick from the 1970s or 1980s, possibly without any lesbians or vampires in the movie. This one however is a much more recent flick and it does in fact feature everything the title suggests. It was released in 2009 and it's British. Yes, it's a comedy.

The movie has a very simple premise. Two big city youths (correction, two big city losers) go on a hiking trip to get some time off after one of them gets himself fired while the other one gets dumped by his snobbish girlfriend. Arriving in a small village they soon find out that the village was cursed centuries ago and every woman born in the village turns into a lesbian vampire on the night of her 18th birthday. Not much later they find themselves standing side by side with the old priest of the village as they try to lift the curse and save the world from the ancient lesbian vampire queen.

Sounds like bullshit, doesn't it? Well, yeah, it's campy, it's cheesy, it's just like a good old fashioned B movie from the old days, but that's exactly why it's good. Granted, the humor of Lesbian Vampire Killers will not be appreciated by everyone (the critics hated it and even the imdb score is barely higher than that of the Postal movie, and while we love Postal we understand why it's not so popular), but if you give this movie a chance you might find it surprisingly entertaining. The absurd humor and the over the top low budget violence is sure to make you laugh.

While nothing truly stands out in Lesbian Vampire Killers, the movie is worth watching, mainly for the experience. You'll rarely find such a fine example of an absurd horror comedy in a B movie setting filmed in the 21st century. It's no Army of Darkness by any means, but if you have some time to kill and catch this movie somewhere, give it a chance. You're sure to have a good time.

Originally posted on 01/02/2012.

If you've seen our review of the demo of The Darkness II then you probably expected this dark humor highlight. That's right, we're reviewing Top Cow's flagship comic book franchise, The Darkness. If you've never heard of The Darkness, this is one of the most gruesome comic book series in existence, but at the same time it's a humorous comic which relies heavily on dark humor to ease the tension of the dark storyline. Featuring an antihero who can create, among other things, armies of little gremlin-like demons from the very darkness around him and works as a hitman for a crime boss called Frankie "Kill the children, too!" Franchetti, it is a fine example of how to do dark humor right in the graphic novel genre. The Darkness is our number one favorite comic book franchise for a reason.

Created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, the story of The Darkness follows a young man called Jackie Estacado. Orphaned at a young age, Jackie was adopted by a mobster called Frankie Franchetti and raised to become a loyal member of the "family". At the age of twenty he was the number one hitman of the Franchetti crime family, and pretty much Frankie's right hand man. Then on the night of his twenty-first birthday his life changed when his birthright, the ancient power of the Darkness manifested in him and basically turned him into a superhero. Well, superantihero is probably more accurate here.

As for what the Darkness is, it's easiest to explain by quoting Sonatine, the leader of the Brotherhood of the Darkness who said the following: "the Darkness is the Force on Crack". That sums it up pretty well (and if you don't know what he means by the Force, you're probably too young for this website), as the Darkness is one fucked up power and it pretty much gives its wielder the ability to do whatever he wants as long as he can control the Darkness well enough. For starters it allows Jackie to cover himself in a badass looking armor that protects him from damage and grow sharp claws and tentacles, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Jackie quite quickly learns that he can create living creatures from the Darkness in the form of little demons called Darklings that are basically an homage to the Gremlins (except it doesn't matter when you feed these little guys). Late in the series he also learns how to create a gun out of the Darkness. Essentially Jackie is only limited by his imagination and the ability of his mind to pay attention to details (at one point he tries to create a human woman from the Darkness with disastrous results).

Overall it sounds like a cool power to possess, doesn't it? Well, there are some downsides to it. From a practical point of view, the Darkness is only useful in the dark. In broad daylight it doesn't function at all. To make matters worse, several people are trying to kill the wielder of the Darkness just because he possesses this power, such as the so-called Angelus and even the aforementioned Sonatine who, in principle, should be on Jackie's side. Yet the biggest problem for Jackie Estacado is that in order for him to stay alive, he must not have sex with women because the very moment he impregnates a woman the power of the Darkness will be transferred into the fetus at the moment of conception and the original host of the Darkness will die on the spot, just like Jackie's father did when Jackie was conceived in his mother's womb. Up until his twenty-first birthday Jackie was a ladies' man, sleeping with a different girl every night. In other words, for him this particular property of the Darkness power is pretty much a catastrophe. For the reader however, it is good news because Jackie's enforced celibacy is a constant source of humor throughout the series.

Speaking of humor, the series is profoundly entertaining from the first issue. While we get plenty of hilarious scenes related to either the Darklings or Jackie's celibacy, much of the humor comes in the form of the over the top violence perpetrated by our "hero". Even the opening kill of the series - which takes place before the Darkness manifests in Jackie - is over the top and hilarious, but then at the end of the first issue he kills a guy on the toilet with tendrils of the Darkness which enter the restroom through the sewers below while Jackie is standing outside the house and not even doing anything other than controlling the tendrils with his mind. This kind of dark humor and over the top gruesome violence is the core essence of the series and certainly keeps the comic very entertaining.

That is not to say that we don't have our fair share of drama in The Darkness. Jackie's life is pretty much being torn apart by the Darkness as time passes by. In particular, his childhood friend Jenny, who has a crush on him, functions as the only bright spot in his life but she gets further and further away from him as the series progresses, and you can tell that there's not likely to be a happy ending. We will not spoil the ending of the first volume, but we will say this: it goes out with a kind of bang that you would not expect, especially not after how much the series focused on its dark humorous aspects most of the time.

While the comic is centered around Jackie we get to see a large number of colorful characters such as his foster Uncle Frankie, the sadistic crime boss who Jackie works for during much of the first volume, or the enigmatic Sonatine, the leader of the Brotherhood of the Darkness, a cult dedicated to preserving the power of the Darkness throughout the ages. Sonatine initially acts as a mentor to Jackie, but once Sonatine realizes that Jackie is not willing to follow his plans, he proceeds to try and take the Darkness away from Jackie, basically becoming one of Jackie's primary antagonists. Then there's the Angelus, an aptly named creature whose power is the very opposite of the Darkness and as such she seeks to destroy Jackie at every turn. There are other antagonists that show up from time to time, but let's talk about some other support characters, such as Wenders. He's a surprisingly memorable figure, basically the eternal loser who starts out in Sonatine's service but ends up on Jackie's side by the middle of the first volume. Then let's not forget Butcher Joyce, the man who is often tasked with getting rid of the mess Jackie leaves behind, and will dissolve the winged angel-esque warriors of the Angelus in acid for Jackie, no questions asked. So even the support cast is quite memorable in the series. We should also mention that The Darkness often does crossovers with Top Cow's other flagship series, the Witchblade, so Sara Pezzini shows up among the pages of The Darkness from time to time.

Since this is a comic book series, we should talk about the graphics. The artwork throughout the series is simply amazing. The drawings are a true pleasure to look at, and this goes especially for the covers. The cover arts more often than not depict Jackie in his Darkness armor in some kind of badass pose, often accompanied by Darklings. Truly desktop wallpaper material, every last one of them.

The series spawned a video game adaptation in 2007 which sadly never saw a PC release. However, the sequel, The Darkness II will in fact see a PC release at the same time as the console releases in mid February 2012, as mentioned in our review of the demo version. There have been talks of a movie based on The Darkness though it remains to be seen whether it will actually happen. If there will be a movie, we will want to see it for sure.

In summary, The Darkness is an outstanding comic book series with a rather original story, interesting characters, a unique antihero, excellent dark humor, gruesome over the top violence, and wonderful graphics. A must read for all comic book fans and dark humor fans out there.

Originally posted on 15/02/2012.

You can't run a dark humor website without reviewing Dr. Strangelove. We knew that when we started bearwithadeathlist.co.uk and now the time has come for us to highlight one of the most beloved dark comedies ever made, Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Yes, it's a dark comedy about nuclear war. From the 60s. And it's awesome!

Dr. Strangelove is one of the most well known and respected dark comedies in cinema history. Released in 1964 this movie presents itself in glorious black and white which fits pretty well to the dark story. Dr. Strangelove has been described as a movie about the "idiocy of nuclear war" and "the idiots that would erupt it", and that's a pretty accurate assessment. The film starts off with a psychotic US general called General Ripper (whose full name is Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, a clear reference to Jack the Ripper) as he exploits a bureaucratic loophole in the chain of command to not only send an entire fleet of bombers equipped with nuclear payloads to attack the Soviet Union but also prevent the President of the United States from recalling the bombers without Ripper's own approval. Subsequently the Pentagon learns of this and they desperately try preventing the disaster which would inevitably lead to a nuclear holocaust.

It's difficult to go into details about this movie without giving away too much, so we will try to focus on the characters rather than the details of the story. For starters we have the clueless President of the United States, played by Peter Sellers, who does not recall the time when he signed the particular order which allowed General Ripper to launch the bombers without presidential approval. Then there's General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott, who is hands down the most entertaining character in the movie. Turgidson chews gum in the War Room at the Pentagon and continuously suggests to the President that the Pentagon should back up Ripper's insane plan rather than risk that the Soviet retaliation destroys the United States; he also seems to think of the developed situation as a minor mishap. George C. Scott was supposedly tricked into playing this character in such an over the top way. Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter: he stole the show either way. Of course Peter Sellers was also pretty awesome, as always (and if you don't know who Peter Sellers is, you're probably too young for this website). Sellers plays two other roles in the movie besides the President, that of a British officer who is at Ripper's airbase as part of an exchange program and tries to stop the insane General Ripper, and the title character Dr. Strangelove, a former Nazi scientist who functions as the President's scientific advisor and has some pretty awkward ideas about how to repopulate the Earth in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

Then we have General Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, who seems to be obsessed with keeping his bodily fluids pure and hell bent on destroying the Soviet Union at any cost. This is one crazy S.O.B. and Sterling Hayden delivers the role very well. And let's not forget Major Kong, or Major T. J "King" Kong (played by Slim Pickens) to be precise, the pilot of one of the bomber planes whose final seconds in the film constitute perhaps the single most memorable and surreal moment in the entire movie.

As for how the story progresses, we'll leave you to guess what sort of over the top situations could develop from the opening scenario with such characters involved. Needless to say, things just keep getting more and more ridiculous as the movie approaches its climax, a surreal finale of epic proportions.

In summary, we think that Dr. Strangelove is deservedly considered one of the best dark comedies of all time. Its over the top characters, its shameless satirization of an inherently dark and terrifying subject, and its surreal imagery (especially at the end of the film) make this a very enjoyable dark comedy indeed. We highly recommend it to all fans of dark humor films.

Originally posted on 29/02/2012.

Before working on the upcoming awesomeness called Iron Sky (which promises to be the best movie of 2012), director Timo Vuorensola and his friends created another piece of awesomeness called Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning. The last and most well known entry in a series of Finnish Star Trek parodies, Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning is a tongue-in-cheek dark comedy parodying both the Star Trek and the Babylon 5 franchises. If you ever wondered what it would be like if Captain Kirk tried to conquer the Universe as a ruthless dictator while only Babylon 5's John Sheridan's long speeches stood in his way, this movie is a must see.

The film starts off with our "hero" (and we use that term very loosely here), Emperor Pirk (that would be Kirk's parodied alterego, and no, the "Emperor" part is not a typo) preparing to enter a wormhole (referred to as a maggot hole in the movie) while he reminisces about how he got there. Stranded in the 21st century in a messed up timeline with no ship and almost no crew, he realized that he had to do something to make sure the future wouldn't get completely overwritten by the lack of twist drive (warp drive) capability. So he decided to invent the engine himself, which is fine, but his megalomaniac nature quickly got out of control as he realized that he could pretty much conquer Earth with a single starship. So once he built the CPP Kickstart (that would be Star Wreck's USS Enterprise) he basically used it to take over the world and declare himself Emperor. Sporting a Bison outfit he ruled the planet as a ruthless dictator and it wasn't long before he found himself looking towards the stars to expand his rule.

This is when he ends up near the maggot hole and flies through with his entire fleet in hopes of a quick conquest. Much to his surprise he finds himself in an alternate universe based on the Babylon 5 franchise where he encounters Captain Sherrypie (Star Wreck's Sheridan), the man in charge of space station Babel 13. Upon realizing that there is another Earth in this parallel universe Emperor Pirk decides to just go ahead and conquer it. Unfortunately for him, Captain Sherrypie is not about to let that happen without a fight.

That's the basic premise of the movie in a nutshell. As this brief summary suggests, this parody takes quite some liberties as compared to the base material. Yes, Captain Kirk was a ladies' man but spoofing him as a witless, gutless, brainless, megalomaniac buffoon like Pirk is so over the top it's cheesy, but that's exactly what makes the good Emperor so much fun, not to mention a much more unique and interesting character. We see several other parodied characters such as Dwarf and Info (Worf and Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) or Fukov (a reference to Chekov from the original Star Trek) the incompetent engineer who used to work at Chernobyl (yikes!) and ends up on Pirk's crew only to cause disaster. On the other side of the maggot hole we have Captain Sherrypie whose main characteristic is that he tends to give dead boring long winded speeches, Commander Ivanovitsa (Star Wreck's version of Ivanova) who has little choice but to endure Sherrypie's speeches, Chief of Security Garybrandy who is a mockery of the well documented drinking problems of Garibaldi from Babylon 5 and who ends up hatching a desperate plan while he's dead drunk, and let's not forget Festerbester (Star Wreck's Alfred Bester, played by the same actor who plays Fukov, showing that the filmmakers know their source material well; and if you don't know why it's the same actor, you're probably too young for this website) the seemingly psychotic telepath in command of the Excavator, a powerful flagship on Sherrypie's side with a gun so powerful and requiring so much juice to operate that the ship's power core needs to restart each time the weapon is fired.

The humor of the film partially stems from the interaction of these over the top parody characters, and partially from the absurd events that take place. We really don't want to spoil much of the movie so we won't go into details, but suffice to say that the insane events that happen throughout the movie are well represented by the concept of a maniacal buffoon version of Captain Kirk entering a fistfight with a long winded speech loving version of Captain Sheridan, a truly epic fistfight with a hilarious finale. To put it simply, the movie is over the top, hilarious, and epically awesome.

Bear in mind that this movie is an independent production filmed on a low budget so don't expect the best production quality from it, but even so the movie is surprisingly well made and, what's even more important, very entertaining. More, this film is a fine example of why independent productions are often better than the majority of the utter shit spewed out by Hollywood in the past ten years: production value may be low but the creativity value is outstanding and you can tell by watching it that Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning was made with love and care, that the people involved were having fun and gave it everything they had when they filmed it. It truly warms the heart to see such wonderful movies come out of the independent scene.

In summary, we highly recommend this movie for just about everyone who loves a good sci-fi comedy. Fans of Babylon 5 and Star Trek will of course appreciate the movie much more but any fan of sci-fi parodies should find great enjoyment in watching it. The original movie was released free on the internet under a Creative Commons license so you can find it on the web as a freely and legally downloadable film (e.g. on Google Videos) but a newer version is available for purchase on DVD with improved ship designs and some worthwhile extras. The DVD also comes with a sneak preview of Iron Sky, which is just another reason to buy it while we wait for that movie's release. Also, for all you Star Trek fanatics out there: yes, Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning is available with Klingon subtitles.

Originally posted on 28/03/2012.

John Dies At The End. No, that's not a spoiler. That's the title. Of a book. Yes, we're completely serious. It's a horror comedy novel featuring things such as a living drug called the Soy Sauce, a priest that can kill a demon over the telephone, a pair of protagonists who make D-Generation X look like serious people, and a hot chick with a missing hand. It's awesome!

The plot revolves around a mysterious drug called the Soy Sauce, a black substance that seems to be alive and confers upon people who ingest it heightened senses (sort of like in Limitless) and an awareness of demonic creatures that are invisible to normal people and are apparently trying to take over the world. A pair of complete losers, the protagonist Dave and his lewd, infantile, irresponsible best friend John, come across this drug after a concert given by John's band. John immediately jumps on the new drug without a second thought while Dave ends up taking the Soy Sauce by accident. From there the pair move from one surreal and hilarious encounter with the mysterious demons to another, ranging from the two getting kidnapped by a demon that calls himself Shitload to Dave's car getting stolen by a cockroach man, gradually getting closer to the main antagonist Korrok, who at first appears to be some kind of demon king but in the end is revealed to be something far more horroristic.

Speaking of horroristic, the novel relies heavily on its mood, often taking a lot of time to create atmosphere through the nigh-incoherent ramblings of Dave who seems to be suffering from ADD and is such an unreliable narrator that the reader might easily begin to suspect the validity of the title (no, we won't tell you whether or not it's a lie). The presentation of the death scenes and the monsters is moderately graphic so the book is certainly not for the squeamish, but the graphic presentation doesn't get even close to the absurd levels found in Peter Jackson's Braindead. John's antics are the primary counterbalance to the horror of the overall situation that the duo find themselves in. Add to this the crazy events that ensue, ranging from a demon being defeated with the aid of an impromptu rock concert to a pair of Scooby Doo toy glasses actually letting one of the characters see the demons, and you find a solid comedy here which blends extremely well with the horroristic setting. Overall it's a great experience for fans of horror and dark comedy alike.

John Dies At The End was originally written as a web series by author David Wong (a.k.a. Jason Pargin, Senior Editor of Cracked.com. Due to overwhelmingly positive fan reaction the story was eventually published as a novel. The story starts in medias res with a short excerpt from the protagonist's journal detailing an encounter with a supernatural being all the way to the unceremonious battle between the aforementioned creature and the would be heroes, the eternal loser Dave and the infantile John. This starting sequence provides a good introduction to the overall plot as well as a very much needed starting bang. After the prologue we get a very lengthy and very slow opening which introduces us to the main characters and tells their back story. While it's well and amusingly written, it gets stale after a while as not much really happens for a very long time. We're not bringing this up to criticize the book however, rather we're mentioning it for the sake of those of you find the opening too long winded and boring; some of you might be tempted to stop reading after the first 50 pages.

Don't.

Just keep reading, it's gonna get really good after a while. Once Dave learns about the Soy Sauce from John the story takes off like a rollercoaster from Hell and doesn't stop until the very end. Trust us, the opening may be slow but the payoff is well worth the wait. Furthermore, it's a good idea to pay attention to the details during the opening, as some of the most unexpected elements of the opening pop up later in a different context (but we will not spoil which).

It is worth mentioning that John Dies At The End has recently been adapted into a movie. It has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and features the always excellent Paul Giamatti in the supporting role of Arnie Blondstone, the journalist who interviews Dave during the main narrative of the story. The film is directed by Don Coscarelli, director of Bubba Ho-Tep. All in all it seems like the only thing that's missing is Bruce Campbell. But we do have the Kurgan (and if you don't know who that is, you're probably too young for this website) in the role of retired priest Dr. Albert Marconi, so even without Bruce Campbell the film promises to be great and the trailer suggests that the film is absolutely awesome. We are looking forward to its worldwide release.

In summary, John Dies At The End is an excellent horror comedy novel well worth your time if you're fond of the genre. Just remember, after reading this book you might never look at a bratwurst the same way again.

Originally posted on 27/04/2012.

Horror is perhaps one of the toughest genres to mix with comedy. It can be done, as it was proven by magnificent gems like Army of Darkness and Braindead. While there are countless horror comedies out there, the slasher horror sub-genre is less often parodied for some reason (at least intentionally). Exceptions exist though, such as the movie Severance. Released in 2006, Severance focuses on the sales division of a weapon manufacturing company called Palisade who travel to the mountains of Eastern Europe for a team-building exercise. In other words, we get to see a bunch of guys in suits get slaughtered in typical slasher horror fashion. The perfect basis for a horror comedy.

It's not immediately obvious that this movie is a comedy though. While the opening scene certainly features enough comedic elements to make you laugh, it takes a while for the truly humorous elements to kick in. After the opening scene sets the mood with a classic disembowelment, we get to meet the main characters, Palisade's sales division, traveling on a bus in the mountains. It's your standard mix of slasher movie characters, except they're office clerks wearing suits. After a few minutes of bickering the bus comes to a sudden halt as they find a tree blocking the road. Then we witness the awkwardly hilarious scene of the bus driver screaming and swearing at the boss of the group, refusing to take the alternate path. The argument between the driver and the boss is quite entertaining just to watch, but if you speak Hungarian and actually understand what he's saying it makes the scene that much more enjoyable. The bus driver eventually kicks the whole group off the bus and they are forced to carry on walking. After a bit of walking they find their supposed destination, a broken down old lodge where they were supposed to spend the weekend. That's where the troubles begin.

Before long the group starts getting killed off one by one by a sadistic killer stalking them from the woods. Death scenes range from over the top to batshit insane including things like an extremely awkward decapitation or being burnt alive. The film features a mixture of characters including a drug addict who ends up accidentally getting high on mushrooms and the clueless boss who thinks he's the one with the biggest IQ and whose idea of a team-building exercise involves paintballing (and he cheats, of course).

Severance partially draws its humor from the fact that the characters being butchered are office clerks in suits, but the humor is not limited to this gimmick. The movie also takes jabs at film clichés (particularly in a scene near the end involving the wounded killer, one of the surviving clerks, and a shotgun) as well as providing the viewers with quite possibly the most hilarious rocket launcher scene ever shown in a comedy complete with a most inappropriate background music.

If you like horror comedies, check this one out, it is sure to entertain you. Especially if you work in an office and your boss is a dick.

Originally posted on 23/05/2012.

Today we're doing something special. We've covered a controversial game on this website before but this time we're not only highlighting a similarly scandalous game but we're also urging everyone who likes dark humor games to support a good cause. But we'll get to that later. First let's talk about one of the greatest games ever made. A game in which you not only have the option of running over pedestrians with a car, you are pretty much encouraged to do so. Banned in several countries and heavily censored in the UK (a game made by British developers, mind you), today's dark humor highlight is a satirical, over the top mockery of racing games which may or may not have been inspired by Death Race 2000. This is Carmageddon.

Developed by Stainless Games in 1997, Carmageddon was an instant hit due to its scandalous gameplay and over the top dark humor. Later on the game spawned two sequels, the first of which was pretty good, but nothing compares to the greatness of the original Carmageddon. Upon first glance this game looks like a racing game. It's not. Sure, there's a timer and there are checkpoints that you can drive through in sequence and if you complete every lap you win the race, but why would you do such a thing when you can ram your car into your opponents until you total their vehicle? Not to mention that the map is littered with pedestrians who explode upon the slightest touch (realism is for the weak!) into a pile of blood and gore, each of whom gives you a precious time bonus that allows you to finish the level before the timer reaches zero.

In Carmageddon you play as one of two psychotic racers, Max Damage or Die Anna. Each racer comes with a custom built car complete with spikes and blades that function well in the races. Each race features six participants. The player's opponents drive similarly awkward looking death machines as Max Damage and Die Anna. Examples include Stella Stunna who drives the Electric Blue, a swift car with a built in Electro-Bastard Ray (more on that later), or Screwie Lewie, driver of The Twister, a monster truck with a giant drill at the front, or Heinz Faust who races like he's at war, riding into the carnage with the King Merc, an armored silver Mercedes on tank tracks, or Don Dumpster who drives a plow called The Plow which has the word "Gotcha!" painted on the front with blood. These vehicles make the cars in Dick Dastardly's Wacky Races look legitimate (if you don't know who Dick Dastardly is, you're probably too young for this website and should probably not be playing Carmageddon).

The game takes place in different environments including cities, beaches, the countryside, the desert, and even a ski resort, providing good variety. The races also feature cop cars that try to destroy you if they see you run over a pedestrian. Except they don't particularly care about collateral damage and will go to any length necessary to destroy your car, running over any and every pedestrian in their way. Talk about hypocrites...

During the races you can run into various upgrades that give you an added bonus for a limited amount of time. This can include useless but hilarious bonuses like Vesuvian Corpses (which turns corpses into volcanoes of blood) or Pedestrian Harvest (which sticks the pedestrians to your car), but also very useful things like the Acme Damage Magnifier (a must if you want to waste Heinz Faust before you fully upgrade our car) or the Pedestrian Electro-Bastard Ray, a weapon that automatically zaps any pedestrian in range and which is very useful for racking up some insane combo bonuses.

Speaking of bonuses, the game rewards you for running over pedestrians in a creative way. Running over them backwards for example almost always gives you the "Extra Style Bonus" and running into an object and ramming it into a pedestrian gives you the "Nice Shot Sir!" bonus. Likewise, the more insane the stunts you perform in the game the more likely you'll get a "Cunning Stunt Bonus", so don't be afraid to drive off the top of a roof. Don't worry, in the single player mode you are invincible. Ran into a concrete wall at 200 miles per hour? No problem! Just keep pressing the backspace button.

The game also features a multiplayer component though it's questionable whether you can make it work these days, albeit the single player component works just fine in DOS emulators.

Now, some people may have concerns over the effect this game might have on players. While we seriously doubt that such people would ever bother reading our website, let's make something abundantly clear. Carmageddon is a game. It's only purpose is to entertain people with a penchant for dark humor. It's so over the top it's impossible to take it seriously, and anyone who thinks that playing this game will make people want to run over pedestrians or ram their cars into the traffic at maximum velocity in real life is a complete idiot. We have proof. We've played Carmageddon since its release and to date we have never run over a single pedestrian in real life. Nor would we even if actually had a car and a driving license.

So to summarize, Carmageddon is quite simply one of the best dark humor games ever made. Simply the fact that it was censored in the very country where it was developed and altogether banned in several others makes it a must play for any dark humor enthusiast, and the gameplay is very entertaining and never gets old. So go get a copy and play the game in a DOS emulator! But before that, hear the good news!

Here's your chance to help the game developers of one of the greatest games ever made bring their game franchise back from the dead. Stainless Games have recently reacquired the rights to the Carmageddon franchise and they are now developing a revival called Carmageddon: Reincarnation. This new game intends to return to the roots of the franchise bringing back the old days for our pleasure. All the good things of the original Carmageddon spiced up with modern graphics, a truly great game in the making. However, Stainless Games needs funds to finish the game, and with the recent advent of crowd funding we all can now participate in funding a great game. The fundraiser is taking place on Kickstarter and the aim is USD 400000. As we post this 14 days remain of the fundraiser and there is still nearly a 100 grand missing from the target amount. So if you would like to see a new Carmageddon title, go to the Kickstarter website and support the creators with as much as you are able to spare. This can be as little as 1 dollar, though the 15 dollar donation makes more sense since you get the game on Steam as a reward if you donate this much, meaning that you probably get the game with a significant discount. Of course, if you're rich, you can donate a lot more and possibly even meet the developers. (For those of you who have never heard of Kickstarter, you get various rewards for your donations, the least of which is being credited for your support.) So ask yourself the question... Do you want to run over a hundred pedestrians and splatter them all over the concrete? Do you want to ram your unsuspecting victims into a lamppost or perhaps through a plate glass window? Do you want to total the cars of your fellow competitors who are all equally as psychotic as you are and whose cars are every bit as outrageous as your own? Do you want to perform surreal stunts only to fall onto a pedestrian from the top of a roof? Then what are you waiting for? Go to Kickstarter and help Stainless Games bring Carmageddon back from the dead, right now! And be careful when you cross the street. You never know when Max Damage takes the Red Eagle for a spin.

Note added 03/04/2021: Carmageddon: Reincarnation's aforementioned Kickstarter campaign was a success and the game was released in 2015, followed by a remaster called Carmageddon: Max Damage a year later. We highly recommend it.

Originally posted on 18/07/2012.

Can you say "space Nazis from the dark side of the Moon" without bursting out in laughter? No? Are you sure? Congratulations, you have a sense of humor and should thoroughly enjoy Iron Sky!

We need to get this out of the way quickly. The year is only half over but it already looks like Iron Sky is the best movie of 2012, although there are a few more competitors pending release, one of which is another independent film which will be covered here later on. Either way Iron Sky is certainly the most awesome movie we've seen this year so far, one which we highly recommend to everyone who likes dark humor. Should you need a little more convincing, read on.

Iron Sky, in case you don't know, is an independent film made by the creators of Star Wreck. Director Timo Vuorensola and his friends are back with space Nazis and they're blowing our minds away with panzerfausts. That's German for bazooka, in case you are wondering. The story is that in 1945 some of the Nazis escaped to the Moon and there they built a base and space fleet with which they plan to invade the Earth. Then all of a sudden, an American Moon exploration mission discovers the base and forces the space Nazis to launch the invasion ahead of time, leading to space Zeppelins and Nazi flying saucers launching an attack on the Earth. Is that awesome or what? There's a lot more to the story than that over-the-top premise but we'd prefer not to spoil too much. Suffice to say that the story has plenty of twists to keep you interested. Let's talk about the humor instead.

Iron Sky is relentless. Its uncompromising dark humor is absolutely brilliant. Nothing is sacred to the filmmakers and we wouldn't have it any other way. For starters, the idea of having Nazis on the Moon, while not as new as some might think, is so absurd it's absolutely awesome. The experimental Nazi spaceship Götterdämmerung makes the Death Star look like a toy. The jokes the film makes with the astronaut James Washington go well beyond anything Hollywood would ever dare to do these days, and they probably would have gone even further if a certain singer hadn't sadly passed away a few years ago (you'll know what we mean when you watch the film). The president of the United States is a woman with a striking resemblance to Sarah Palin and her right hand Vivian Wagner is basically a horny bitch who is introduced to us with the meme of memes (and let's face it, it fits perfectly into Iron Sky). The invasion mercilessly pokes fun of Independence Day and the subsequent space battle involving the quite aptly named American spaceship brings back beautiful memories of Star Wreck. The squabble between the delegates in the U.N. is ruthlessly satirical and profoundly entertaining. References to classics like Planet of the Apes and the father of dark comedies Dr. Strangelove are all over the place. The ending of the movie dots the i flawlessly, though it's perhaps a bit too dark for some people. We liked it.

The characters are a ton of fun, especially the space Nazis. Our lead is Renate Richter, a teacher and Earth specialist among the space Nazis who is naive to the true nature of her people and actually believes the Nazi propaganda, but when she realizes what the new Fuhrer is up to she tries to stop him. Speaking of the new Fuhrer, our lead villain is Klaus Adler, an ambitious officer in the Nazi war machine who wants to be the new Fuhrer, while the Moon Fuhrer himself, Wolfgang Kortzfleisch is an elderly, "classic" Nazi, played by the ingenious Udo Kier, who sees through Klaus's schemes and has no intention of stepping aside. Rounding out this cast of Fourth Reich key players is Renate's father, the eccentric scientist Dr. Richter who pretty much makes Dr. Mengele look like a hack. Of course we have our "heroes" as well such as James Washington, a black model who was sent to the Moon only to get the President of the U.S. reelected, the President and her clueless attitude towards the space Nazi conflict, her right hand Vivian who gives a whole new meaning to the classic saying about the woman scorned, and let's not forget the Secretary of Defense who seems to keep his calm in almost every situation and seems to have a little too much influence over the President. All of these characters provide the viewers with countless entertaining moments, but perhaps the best one is the aforementioned introduction of Vivian Wagner. If you watch just one clip from Iron Sky, watch that one, it's pretty much assuredly on youtube by now, for obvious reasons. Probably subtitled.

Now the spaceship scenes make for the most spectacular part of the movie and it is there where Iron Sky goes where no indie production has gone before. For the spaceship animations are absolutely magnificent, truly impressive for a low budget film. It is important to note that the film was co-funded by the community and it's wonderful to see the film completed and being able to achieve the goal it set out for itself. If there is anything we have to complain about it's that the space battle is far too short for this epic dark comedy. It's a shame that there weren't enough resources to make it bigger, we would have loved to watch space Zeppelins and Nazi flying saucers fight the secret space fleet of the Earth for a lot longer than what we got to see. Still, we were thoroughly entertained by this film and we hope it will be successful enough such that the planned sequel and prequel get made.

We do have to mention that we have a bone to pick with the British distributor of Iron Sky. The film was given a very limited theatrical release here in the UK with an even more limited run planned originally which resulted in us not seeing Iron Sky at the theaters, which is a damn shame as the movie was clearly meant to be watched on the big screen. Yet British distributor Revolver Entertainment decided to screen it for less than a week in a small number of cinemas and subsequently release the DVD immediately after the last day of screenings. Obviously we do not know the reason behind this decision, we can only speculate that they had no faith in the movie and did not want to invest in a wide spread theatrical release, but whatever the reason we are very unhappy that they robbed us and many other fans of the pleasure of watching Iron Sky on the big screen. The filmmakers were none too pleased with this either mind you and it took them plenty of effort to have Revolver at least extend the short theatrical run just a little bit, and we feel with them. Iron Sky would have deserved a full theatrical release. This is a movie that exemplifies how much potential lies in the independent scene, and it should have been showcased at the cinemas throughout the country.

In summary, Iron Sky, the movie about the "motherfucking space Nazis" from the dark side of the Moon is absolutely awesome. It's among the very best indie productions out there. If you liked Star Wreck, you'll love this movie. If you like dark comedy in general, you should certainly give it a try, you will not be disappointed. Finally, a word of advice: sit through the credits, it's worth it!

Originally posted on 11/08/2012.

First person shooters became popular when id Software created Wolfenstein and later on Doom. These games were mostly memorable for their gameplay, but then came developer 3DRealms and made this genre even more awesome by creating a game in which the protagonist was not just a mute with an arsenal of guns but one with a larger than life personality and a neverending barrage of entertaining one liners. That would be Duke Nukem 3D of course, but we're not here to talk about Duke. We're here to talk about Caleb. Caleb from Monolith's Blood 2, the game which was once called the goriest first person shooter ever made.

To give Blood 2 a proper introduction we first need to talk about Blood, or as it was officially called, One Unit Whole Blood. In Blood, you play as Caleb, a member of the Cabal, a religious sect hell bent on world domination. Caleb is one of the Chosen, who are basically the very top of the food chain in the Cabal. So basically you start the game as a character who is typically the villain (that alone is reason enough to play this game). At the start of the game, the dark god Tchernobog kills Caleb and the other chosen which naturally pisses off our antihero, who eventually climbs out of his grave and hunts down the entirety of the Cabal, slaughtering every last one of them including the very god he used to worship. Mind you, he's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart, no, he's just hell bent on revenge and more than eager to spill blood. Gallons of it.

Blood 2 takes place a century later. Caleb who has become pretty much immortal (but not unkillable) becomes the target of the remnants of the Cabal once more. Led by a diabolical mastermind called Gideon the Cabal will stop at nothing to destroy Caleb and restore their dark god, and it's up to the player to guide Caleb through the hordes of Cabal soldiers and various monstrous enemies.

The gameplay is pretty much the same as in any first person shooter. You run around each level killing enemies looking for a way out. Sometimes you run into locked doors that you need to open before you can advance, but other than that it's standard run and gun gameplay. There are some secret areas with good loot, so it never hurts to explore. Unlike most modern day shooters, the levels in Blood 2 are not 100 percent linear, and sometimes you come back to some of the earlier levels to access previously unreachable areas. You can play Blood 2 either as Caleb or as one of the other three Chosen who each have different skills and default weapons, adding replay value to the game. The enemies in the game are not as varied as in let's say Doom, but there is a big enough variety among them to keep you from getting bored during the game. Your arsenal on the other hand is extremely varied. In fact, there are more weapons in the game than you can carry (and you can carry 10 different weapons) so at some point you need to decide which weapon you want to drop to pick up things like the singularity generator. Other than the usual pistol, submachinegun, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher, you also get things like a napalm cannon which you can use as an excellent torch in some of the levels, a high tech Tesla gun that Simon Phoenix would be proud of (if you don't know who that is, you're probably too young for this website), and the aforementioned singularity generator which lets you create a small black hole to obliterate your enemies. You can also find a flare gun early in the game which is worth hanging on to as it's extremely helpful against teleporting enemies.

Now when you start using those weapons on your enemies you'll quickly realize why this game is covered on our website. Once dubbed the goriest first person shooter of all time, Blood 2 does not disappoint when it comes to over the top violence. This is a game in which you can shoot a guy in the head with a pistol and his body will explode. It is just so over the top insane it's impossible not to laugh, and it never gets old. It's also quite funny when the blood of an enemy is splattered onto an invisible level barrier and you can clearly see the bloodstain in mid air. Yes, it's a bug, or at least a game engine limitation, but it's still very entertaining.

Yet the over the top gory violence is only half of the true entertainment value of this game. The other half comes from the personality of our antihero. Caleb constantly entertains the player with one liners, and in this respect he carries on the legacy of Duke Nukem. Likewise, just as Duke Nukem 3D ripped off one liners from Army of Darkness, so do the Blood games and arguably these one liners fit this particular franchise extremely well. For example in the original Blood Caleb rises from the grave at the start of the game ominously exclaiming "I... live... again!" and even in Blood 2 he just loves to remind everyone that he's "the guy with the gun". Caleb also quotes other classics such as Dirty Harry and Reservoir Dogs, not to mention he makes it pretty clear that he's no goody two shoes nice guy as he merely laughs when innocent civilians get caught between him and the Cabal and, upon learning that the entire world is in danger of being devoured, he merely says "let it burn, I never liked this place anyway".

In other words, Blood 2 is a game with plenty of personality and dark humor stemming both from Caleb's crazy sadistic antihero personality and the over the top unrealistic violence in the game. If you love first person shooters and dig the Army of Darkness kind of humor, this game is a must play (it is available e.g. on GOG.com at a low price). Go check it out.

Originally posted on 13/09/2012.

In 1997 Stainless Games gave the world Carmageddon, one of the most controversial games ever made. The objective in the game was to run over pedestrians and score points, as well as waste your opponents. But you already know that if you read the Dark Humor Highlight on Carmageddon. What you may not know is that there was a movie with an eerily similar premise made two decades earlier in the 1970s. It's called Death Race 2000 and it stars the late David Carradine and everybody's favorite action hero of Italian descent, Sylvester Stallone. Except in this movie, Stallone's the bad guy.

Produced by Roger Corman, Death Race 2000 paints a pretty dark picture of the future, a dystopia in which the biggest media attraction in the world is the Death Race, a transcontinental race in the North American continent the aim of which is to reach the finish line with the highest score possible. The spin is that in order to score the contestants must run over people. Different age groups are worth different amounts of points. Old people in particular are quite valuable hence hospitals hold "Euthanasia Day" during the race, which consists of the hospital staff rolling their helpless patients out onto the road in wheelchairs for the contestants.

David Carradine plays the lead role of Frankenstein, the fan favorite driver who everyone expects to win the race. He dresses in black and wears a black cape and mask as part of his image. He is a melancholic figure who seems to care about nothing else but winning the race, though his reasons are more complex than they seem. His greatest rival in the race is Machine Gun Joe, played by Sylvester Stallone. Joe is a bad and bitter man. You can tell when, within seconds of debuting on the screen, he fires into the crowd with a Tommy Gun just because they dared to cheer Frankenstein. Beyond Frankenstein and his nemesis, there are three additional contestants in the race, each with their own crazy gimmick that easily rivals those of the drivers of Carmageddon. The cars are all purpose built for this sort of race complete with blades, spikes, and giant horns to maximize damage to the pedestrians. Meanwhile a group of rebels try to sabotage the race in order to put an end to the Death Race once and for all. So how does Frankenstein end up being the hero in all of this? Just watch the movie, and you'll see.

Now you may be inclined to think that Death Race 2000 is nothing more than a gratuitous horror movie that builds on shock value, but you'd be wrong to think that. True, Death Race 2000 features lots of outrageous acts of violence including the culmination of the aforementioned Euthanasia Day, Machine Gun Joe running over a fisherman in the river, or a crazy rebel teasing one of the contestants in a matador outfit only to end up impaled on the car... however the film doesn't take itself particularly seriously as evidenced for example by the constant sports commentary during the race. With this humorous presentation the movie comes across as a satirical horror comedy rather than an actual horror flick and it certainly succeeds at entertaining any fan of dark humor. Bottom line, if you liked Carmageddon, you'll love this movie.

So, was Death Race 2000 the inspiration for Carmageddon? Who knows? But we certainly wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was.

Originally posted on 16/10/2012. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

2012 has truly been a good year for independent cinema. Earlier this year we had space Nazis from the Moon, and now we have a movie about an exploitation filmmaker who pretends to be a movie snob and infiltrates a snobby film commission in order to obtain some film permits. And then the bodies start piling high. This is The Cinema Snob Movie.

First of all, as the synopsis clearly shows, this movie is a dark comedy with plenty of twists and turns. It starts off pretty light hearted as our leads, Craig and Neil try to film their very own exploitation movie in an era when mainstream filmmakers stay clear of this genre. Unsurprisingly they run into quite the resistance from the local film commission, in particular its head Dan Phillips who pretty much sabotages the film production. So Craig decides to go undercover and pretend to be a snobby douche bag like Dan Phillips and join the film club in order to try and get on their good side and eventually obtain some permits. He has to put up with thirteen hour long screenings of Being John Malkovich during which they regularly pause the film to analyze every scene in detail. In other words they put him through Hell but he perseveres in order to get the permits, showing how passionate he is about his own movie.

Then suddenly a serial killer shows up and starts killing off the members of the snobby film club one by one. Each death is more gruesome than the next, and Craig soon finds himself wondering whether going undercover in that film club was a good idea. Things just get more complicated as he begins an affair with the wife of Dan Phillips and a pair of tenacious cops clearly suspect that the killer is one of the surviving club members. In other words, the story takes a dark twist as Craig basically finds himself in a situation resembling an actual exploitation film with a sadistic serial killer driven by unknown motives butchering film snobs in gruesome ways.

The movie is two hours long and never ceases to be entertaining. Light hearted comedy switches relatively seamlessly into a much darker comedy after the first death scene. The twists and turns along the way keep it fresh yet the story remains cohesive. It's a fun watch from start to finish, highly recommended for anyone who likes dark humor.

For those of you who don't know, the film is based on a web show called The Cinema Snob, a mock review show in which a snobby douche bag reviews exploitation films. The movie is basically the origin story of the character. As such it certainly caters to fans of the show, however, you don't even need to have seen a single episode to enjoy this flick. It's perfectly enjoyable as a stand-alone film even if you've never heard of The Cinema Snob before.

The Cinema Snob movie comes from the creators of Cheap and it's easily their best made movie to date (though our personal favorite remains Hooker With A Heart Of Gold). It's very well written with a strong plot, interesting characters, and lots of good humor. One of the best scenes in the movie is the reaction of the snobby film club to the movie Craig brings them to watch. A lot of thought went into the cinematography as explained during the commentaries on the DVD, and even the special effects are pretty damn good, especially for an indie production. Sure, there are a few moments when you can clearly tell that this is a low budget independent film but that doesn't take anything away from the movie, it is thoroughly enjoyable. The performances of the actors are all very good. Writer Brad Jones pulls off the lead character extremely well although this is expected considering he's been playing the Cinema Snob character on his show for years. What's really a pleasure to see is how well the support cast performs.

A few examples. Jake Norvell excels in the role of Craig's buddy Neil as a guy who hardly seems to take the murders seriously; his scenes during the second half of the movie are absolutely hilarious. Director Ryan Mitchelle portrays the snobby Dan Phillips perfectly, by his own admission based on people he met in real life (which is a scary thought). Noah Antwiler (a.k.a. Spoony) plays Gene, the producer of Craig's film, and does a good job portraying the eccentric, clueless millionaire. But everyone else does a fine job as well, really there's no point listing them one by one, just go watch the movie and see for yourselves, you will not be disappointed.

If there's one thing in which the film is lacking it is an epic 80s soundtrack that would certainly fit to its story. Obviously such a soundtrack could not be added on an independent film budget, which is a shame. However, the excellent original score we do get from Michael Schiciano is a perfect fit to the movie so this is really just a minor complaint. The DVD is also packed with extras, including a hilarious blooper reel and two highly informative audio commentaries by the cast. We also get a third commentary track from Doug and Rob Walker of thatguywiththeglasses.com. This is a mock commentary with made-up "facts" involving crazy shit like tennis balls on a vibrator and Muppet porn. It's hilarious and at times absurdly offensive, well worth to check it out, especially if you're a fan of their work.

To summarize, The Cinema Snob Movie is independent cinema at its finest. It is profoundly entertaining from start to finish and it would deserve a theatrical release, or at the very least it should be showcased at film festivals around the world. The movie is available on DVD, do check it out.

Originally posted on 19/11/2012.

Note added 03/04/2021: Since posting the original article, several of the videos recommended here have been removed from youtube. Links to the expired videos have been removed from the article below.

This time we take a look at an internet meme. 2004 saw the premiere of a German drama film about the last days of Hitler called Downfall. Half way through the movie there's a scene in which Hitler learns that the war is lost and unleashes an angry tirade on his generals. It didn't take long for the internet to take the scene and turn it into comedy by adding fake, inappropriate subtitles. These are called Downfall Parodies and there are literally thousands of them on youtube, many of them are absolutely hilarious. A touch offensive, perhaps, but hilarious nonetheless.

Now considering that the original film has a quite serious tone it may seem like comedic subtitles wouldn't work with it, not to mention that spoofing a scene from a film with such serious subject matter may seem a bit inappropriate. Yet these parodies work exactly because of the absurdity that Hitler would say what the subtitles claim that he said in the scene, compounded with the over-the-top rant delivered by the Fuhrer in that scene. Fact is, the scene just lends itself to parody so naturally it's little wonder it not only ended up parodied, it became a meme with countless variants and quite literally thousands of them can be found online. There are so many of these parody videos in fact that the parodies themselves were brilliantly parodied in the awesome indie film called Iron Sky (yes, the movie about the space Nazis from the Moon).

Some people find these parody videos offensive (hence this entry on our website), others find them infantile. Yet others however appreciate them. Most notably, Oliver Hirschbiegel, the director of Downfall himself loves these videos. We fully agree with him and find these parodies absolutely hilarious. After all, if Charlie Chaplin was allowed to make fun of the biggest dictator of the 20th century, why shouldn't the internet generation?

So without further ado, here are our picks for the top 5 Hitler rant videos spoofing the infamous scene from Downfall.

Number 5. Hitler finds out that Santa Claus is not real, and has a message for parents who lie to their children.

Now we know what a PSA was like in the Third Reich.

Number 4. Two entries earn a joint spot at number 4 (which is our excuse for not being able to count to six) in the form of a pair of videos that show how difficult it is for the Fuhrer to accommodate to the digital age. First, he gets his Xbox live account banned, evidencing that he should have had the brains to play PC games instead. Note: this video is no longer available on youtube.

Then he gets his facebook account deleted. Maybe someone complained that he was using a name that was not allowed on facebook? Note: this video is no longer available on youtube.

Number 3. We apologize for this one. Not because it's offensive, we would never apologize for that, obviously. No, we apologize because it's toilet humor. However, for toilet humor, it's pretty damn epic, as Hitler makes a scene when someone on his staff farts at their meeting in the underground bunker.

Leave it to the Nazis to forget to install an air conditioner.

Number 2. This one is an absolute epic. In 2010, Downfall's German distributor Constantin Film initiated a removal of Downfall parodies from youtube. This was completely nonsensical as these parody videos are protected by fair use, yet youtube did remove several of them. Naturally this led to the creation of even more Downfall parodies, such as this gem which spoofs the very fact that several videos were unjustly removed.

Fortunately youtube has since realized that removing the parodies was a mistake and new ones keep popping up online to this day, much to our viewing pleasure.

Number 1. What could possibly top the ingenious comedy of the previous entry on this list? Why, Hitler finding out that Chuck Norris is coming to get him, of course! 'Nuff said!

If you've still not had enough, we also have two honorable mentions which are a fair amount more offensive than the average Downfall parody. These are for hardcore fans of offensive humor only, so beware.

The first is one in which Hitler is furious upon learning that the Nazis have been killing jews all along (yes, it's going where you think it's going). Note: this video is no longer available on youtube.

The second one is Hitler's reaction to the death of Michael Jackson just days before the King of Pop was supposed to perform at the Fuhrer's birthday party (this is also going where you think it's going).

And if you still can't get enough, just do a search on youtube and browse the thousands of Downfall Parodies, and enjoy! This was just the tip of the iceberg.

Originally posted on 14/12/2012.

Some movies have synopses so batshit crazy you just know you have to watch them once you've read them. Others don't even need a synopsis to achieve that. Such is the case with Seven Psychopaths. If the title is not enough to make you want to see this movie for some weird reason, perhaps the cast will which includes Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, the always awesome Christopher Walken, and the man who knows all about psychopaths, Mickey Knox himself, Woody Harrelson.

The story kicks off with Marty (Colin Farrell), a struggling writer who wants to make a movie about psychopaths called Seven Psychopaths but is struggling with inspiration, especially because he doesn't want to make it violent. Meanwhile his friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) and his buddy Hans (Christopher Walken) are making money by kidnapping dogs from people, then waiting until the owners offer a reward for the safe return of their dogs, then returning the dogs and cashing in on the reward. Problems begin when they kidnap the Shih Tzu of Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson), a psychotic mob boss who will stop at nothing until he gets his dog back and slaughters everyone who had something to do with the kidnapping.

As if one psychopath wasn't enough of a problem, several others turn up including a guy who walks around with a white rabbit to heat things up even more. The result is 110 minutes of outrageous entertainment littered with dark humor, witty dialogue, and memorable characters.

Seven Psychopaths comes from the creators of In Bruges. The movie is a fine balance between deep dialogue, twisted humor, and outrageous action. Some moments in the movie are quite suspenseful, such as Charlie's visit to the hospital, which adds additional layers and complexity to the movie. The characters are quite complex, even the over the top villain Charlie who, for the most part, is your stereotypical psychopath but he has a soft side and genuinely cares about his dog. The most complex character of them all is undoubtedly Billy, but we won't go into details for reasons you'll understand when you see the film. One thing we will say is that Sam Rockwell steals the show in Seven Psychopaths. Take nothing away from the others though, especially not Christopher Walken who not only does a fantastic job portraying the man of peace with a past of violence but also delivers yet another awesome monologue for our viewing pleasure.

If the movie has any flaws it's that a few of the key moments in the story are absurdly predictable. In particular there is a key plot element near the end of the movie which is very subtly foreshadowed but anyone who doesn't miss that two second shot will see the aforementioned plot element coming a mile away. Worse, another key moment near the end is very blatantly spoiled within the first ten minutes. Still, a couple of things will certainly take even the most experienced movie goers by surprise, so all is balanced out in the end, just as Marty himself intended in his own movie.

Seven Psychopaths is a profoundly entertaining flick, easily a contender for movie of the year. It certainly is one of our favorites of 2012. Anyone who likes dark humor should find great pleasure in this flick. Fans of Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, or the Crank films will especially not be disappointed.

Originally posted on 17/01/2013.

What better way to celebrate the snowy New Year than with a movie about a psychotic killer snowman?

Jack Frost, not to be confused with the Micheal Keaton movie of the same title, is an over-the-top horror comedy the likes of which you've probably never seen before. After all, how could anyone possibly take a killer snowman seriously? Killer clowns, sure, but a snowman? That, right there, is the genius of this movie. Because its premise is so over the top the movie knows there's no point even trying to pretend otherwise. The end result is 90 minutes of cheesy guilty pleasure that will truly please any fan of dark humor.

The story is like that of any typical B movie: simple and makes very little sense. Psychotic serial killer Jack Frost is being transported to his upcoming execution when, due to a snowstorm, the transport van collides with a tanker truck transporting genetic materials. Jack tries to escape in the confusion but ends up meeting his demise as the contents of the tanker pour over him. Instead of dying however, he is reborn as a mutant killer snowman. The explanation in the story is that the human soul is a molecule and the acidic genetic material in the tanker extracted this from the serial killer and fused it with the snow, creating the living snowman. Of course, bad things start to happen as the serial killer turned mutant snowman decides that revenge is a dish best served cold and goes after the small town sheriff who arrested him, butchering anyone who gets in the way in cold blood. Pun intended, on both accounts.

So begins the carnage as the living talking killer snowman plows his way through a small town spewing one liners, killing people left and right in surreal ways. Eventually a pair of so-called FBI agents also show up to add their own classic one liners (chiefly, the classic "need to know basis" one liner by the aptly named Agent Manners) and quirky attitudes. All this leads up to an epic battle between the townsfolk and the killer snowman involving, among other things, blow dryers, a furnace, and antifreeze.

If you've read this far and you've not yet cracked out in laughter there's something wrong with you (not to mention we're surprised you even read our website). Yet if you need more convincing that Jack Frost is a must see, we'll just mention the most famous scene from the movie: at one point the killer snowman encounters a horny teenage girl in a bathtub and literally humps her to death while totally inappropriate jolly music is playing, and of course Jack cracks a one liner at the end. As stated above, a must see.

Jack Frost was filmed in 1996, released in 1997, and panned by critics who utterly and completely failed to appreciate its B movie charm. They criticized the story, the acting, as well as the special effects, mainly the unrealistic and hardly scary depiction of a living snowman. Over the years however Jack Frost has garnered a cult following and rightfully so. If you have a firm understanding of what to expect and you're entertained by this sort of thing, Jack Frost is an absolute blast to watch. Yes it's a B movie, yes the plot is nonsensical, yes the one liners are as cheesy as they come, yes the characters are as clichéd as they come, but all that is exactly what makes Jack Frost entertaining. Most importantly, this film is not to be taken seriously. Indeed, how could it? It's a movie about a killer snowman. It takes a special kind of stupid to expect deep drama from this film. As far as we're concerned it's an excellent horror comedy, well worth your time if you love dark humor. It's no Army of Darkness production-wise, but its entertainment value puts it in the same league. Go watch the trailer, if you like what you see there, you'll certainly enjoy this flick.

Originally posted on 27/02/2013.

Before Colin Farrell was famous - well, before he did Alexander but after Daredevil, Phone Booth, and Minority Report to be precise - and well before he headlined one of our favorite films of 2012, Seven Psychopaths, and before Cillian Murphy played the Scarecrow in Batman Begins, and even before Kelly MacDonald voiced Merida in Brave, the aforementioned actors played together in an Irish film called Intermission. This flick is hardly known by the mainstream audience which is a shame as it's a masterpiece of dark comedy. Seriously, how can you not love a movie that features Chief O'Brien pissing on the shoes of Alexander the Great?

Intermission is kind of an ensemble piece with a variety of colorful characters whose lives intertwine due to various acts of stupidity. We have John, played by Cillian Murphy, who dumps the woman of his dreams Deidre (Kelly MacDonald) in order to test her loyalty, and then finds himself immensely pissed when she starts dating another man. Like we said, acts of stupidity. Then there's Ben, a reporter who wants to put something edgy on television and finds strange kinship with Detective Jerry Lynch (played by Colm Meaney in a fantastic performance), a borderline sadistic police officer who makes Dirty Harry look like a gentle person, and together they take to the streets to fight crime with an outcome neither of them expected. Then there's Lehiff (Colin Farrell), a petty thief looking to make some quick cash by blackmailing Deidre's new boyfriend who happens to be a bank manager.

Add to this mix a vengeance driven unemployed bus driver, John's sex-depraved best friend who doesn't know what excites him any more, Deidre's mustache sporting sister, John's stereotypical asshole boss, the Irish equivalent of Bart Simpson, and the bank manager's pissed off wife, and you can pretty much expect chaos to ensue by the final act. That's pretty much what happens, and it's hilarious.

While certainly not as dark as the movies we usually highlight on the site, lacking both a mutant killer snowman and the body count of Seven Psychopaths, twisted humor is very much in abundance here. Whether it's the twisted culmination of Oscar's desperate search for a date, Detective Jerry Lynch's Dirty Harry methods, the bus driver's quest to take revenge on the kid that smashed the window of his bus, or the acts of violence perpetrated by Colin Farrell's character, Intermission spoils us with darkly comedic moments from start to finish. This film has everything you need to be entertained for 90 minutes: a good story, interesting characters, fantastic performances, and an epically twisted finale. And then there's Celtic Mysticism.

The music, man. Artistes, like Fainne Lasta, Raithneach, Amhann na Ngealach, Clannad. You like them artistes? Their music? Of course you do.

But we digress.

The important thing is, Intermission is a fine example of indie dark comedy, certainly the best Irish film we've ever seen and the best Colm Meaney film we've ever seen. Do check it out!

Originally posted on 27/03/2013. Minor edits made on 03/04/2021.

Move over Space Nazis, here come the Surf Nazis! Why? Because Surf Nazis must die! Does that answer make no sense to you? That's because Surf Nazis must die! What is your favorite color? Surf Nazis must die!

In case you're not able to make any sense out of the previous paragraph, watch the trailer of the movie called Surf Nazis Must Die and you will understand everything. Yes, this is the title of a movie. Surf Nazis Must Die is an exploitation film by Troma Entertainment, an independent filmmaking company famous for such classics like Killer Condom, Redneck Zombies, Tromeo And Juliet, and the Toxic Avenger series. As such it's an over-the-top film that does not take itself too seriously.

The story is that the beaches of Los Angeles are overrun by surf gangs and after a nasty earthquake that leaves the area in ruin and keeps the police too busy to patrol the beach, one particular gang called the Surf Nazis try to take over the entire beach by any means necessary. Things go from bad to worse when they kill a black man whose elderly mother swears revenge and starts hunting them down, hence the title.

So the story is rather simple but it's the characters that make it memorable. Chiefly, the Surf Nazis. These guys are about what you'd expect from a surfer gang, though don't expect the sophisticated adrenaline junkies of Point Break. These guys are so blunt they name themselves after the Nazis of history, with names like Adolf, Eva, and Mengele. True, one of them is called Hook, but that's just because he's missing a hand. Original, isn't it? To make matters even more absurd Mengele and Adolf constantly bicker and Eva even calls Mengele an asshole in her very first scene in the movie. And then there's Eleanor Washington, the elderly black lady who takes it upon herself to exterminate the Surf Nazis in a hilarious parody of blaxploitation cinema.

Interestingly, for an exploitation film this isn't as violent as one would expect. Yes the violence does kick in eventually, there's even a decapitation by motorboat scene in there, but the first half of the movie is relatively low on violence. Perhaps that's why famous movie snob Roger Ebert walked out of the cinema after the first 30 minutes of Surf Nazis Must Die. What can we say, he shouldn't have. While the first half of the movie can be a bit boring to watch the crazy characters keep you interested just long enough until the good stuff finally kicks in, except of course if you're a snob like Ebert. Seriously, he missed the best parts by walking out!

Speaking of which, the very best part of the movie is not its over-the-top premise or its darkly hilarious characters, or even the ridiculous violence in the last act. It is the music. Composer Jon McCallum created a fantastic masterpiece of a score that stands out from start to finish. If for no other reason, watch this movie for the music. If you like the tunes in the trailer, you'll love the score of the movie.

While no where near as great as Iron Sky, Surf Nazis Must Die is still a fun flick to watch. If you enjoy films that take a ridiculous concept and run with it, and if hearing the title makes you smile, this is definitely a movie you shouldn't miss. Why? Because Surf Nazis... you know the rest.

Originally posted on 24/04/2013.

Do you know all those video games where you play the role of the hero and save the world from Evil? Do you ever get tired of that old cliché? Have you ever wanted to take that overused premise and shove it up a unicorn's ass, right after breaking said unicorn's horn off to use it as a toothpick? Well there's a game where you can! No, today's Dark Humor Highlight is NOT Dungeon Keeper because THAT would be TOO easy. No, it's Overlord. And no, it's not about Normandy. It's about being Evil! With a capital E!

Overlord is a cross between a strategy game and an action RPG in which you control a single powerful unit and guide a swarm of small critters that act as your army. The game begins when you climb out of your grave, though not by your lonesome self. Led by Gnarl, a sneaky little freak who seems to know more than he lets on, your minions drag you out of your grave and give you the opportunity to take revenge and conquer the world. You must conquer numerous provinces and defeat the so-called heroes who rule them. During the game you will often face a choice. In each case you can either be Evil, or REALLY Evil. But seriously, if you sit down and play a game like Overlord, why on Earth would you ever choose anything but REALLY Evil? These choices do have consequences during the gameplay but nothing you can't handle, so you might as well go and be as big of an asshole as the game lets you.

As you progress you level up and even gain magical powers, becoming a quite formidable force on the battlefield, especially if you keep improving your gear. But don't forget that you are not just some Evil black knight that always wins, no... you are the Overlord, in command of an army of minions who are ready to die for you... or die trying. In order to summon them you must gather life essence first, though this is usually only an issue at the start of each area. You have four types of minions each with their own speciality ranging from melee attackers through fire throwing ranged units to backstabbing little critters and waterproof minions. They are the true stars of the game. They win you battles and keep you entertained throughout the game. You must maneuver them wisely in battle, especially when you face one of the aforementioned former heroes who are so corrupted you sometimes have to wonder what it's going to take for you to be hated more than they were. (See our previous point about being REALLY Evil.)

You also get a nice upgradeable stronghold and eventually a choice of two mistresses who can upgrade some of your minions and a court jester minion who you are free to kick around as much as you wish. (Again, see our previous point about being REALLY Evil.) This is also the place where you create new weapons and armor, imbuing them with magical power by sacrificing a certain number of your minions who happily jump to their deaths. (See our previous point... eh, you know the drill.)

At the end of the game you have big nasty final boss to take down though we will not spoil who the final obstacle is between you and world domination. Once you are victorious the realm is yours and you get a brilliant cutscene which depends on the choices you made throughout the game. If you're still not bored of being Evil and want more, there is an expansion pack called Raising Hell in which you literally end up conquering Hell... because conquering the realm just doesn't do it any more...

To summarize Overlord is a fun hybrid RPG strategy game which lets you be the bad guy for a change and enjoy every moment of it. Highly recommended if you want to step into the boots of an evil warlord. Overlord (including Raising Hell) was recently added to the game library of GOG.com so if you want to give it a go you can pick up there at a bargain price. Now go and enjoy being Evil. REALLY Evil, that is.

Originally posted on 03/07/2013.

Well before the days of the zombie craze, before the World War Z movie and before the Dawn Of The Dead remake, back in the golden age of cinema there was a buddy cop movie about zombies. Except it's not the way you think. Instead of having two cops fight zombies, we have two cops *becoming* zombies and *then* fighting other zombies. It is called Dead Heat, and if you think it takes itself seriously you're dead wrong.

Treat Williams stars as detective Roger Mortis, a police officer who dies in the line of duty while investigating a strange murder case. He is reanimated by a device that looks like a Devil-possessed MRI machine, and he and his partner Doug (played by Joe Piscopo) try solving the case before his body decomposes. Hilarity ensues as the pair face off with zombie gunmen and zombie secretaries on their way to the epic finale that easily blows every 21st century zombie flick out of the water. This may not be the most large scale and most spectacular zombie film ever made, but it certainly is one of the most entertaining ones.

Not for those of you who prefer their zombie flicks serious and dramatic, Dead Heat entertains with outrageous dark humor from start to finish. It's as campy as Crystal Lake and as cheesy as a pizza, and just oozes the 80s vibe in its characters. Roger is easy to root for and the plot of the villains to build a business around their so-called resurrection machine is despicable enough to warrant having Roger turn into an undead Dirty Harry to take them down. Vincent Price's appearance as the man who funded the creation of the zombie making machine increases the entertainment value even further. The movie's action scenes are fun, especially a rather famous one near the end which features two zombies emptying an entire clip of a machine gun into each other with both left standing as if nothing had happened.

Dead Heat was ahead of its time in a sense as it did not do well at the box office and the critics hated it also, while audiences had a mixed reaction to it. Yet it is a profoundly entertaining film if you go into it with the right mindset. This is not a film with a complex plot, nor was it meant to be. It's a turn off your brain type of movie, littered with cliches and bad puns, but enough humor to warrant forgiving all its flaws. It's a cheesy dark comedy for those of us who like that sort of thing. Fans of Brain Dead and Army of Darkness should appreciate it nicely.

As for the legacy of Dead Heat, here's something noteworthy. Later this year a film called R.I.P.D. is due to hit cinemas, a film about a police officer who dies and joins the Rest In Peace Department after his death. By the trailer it feels like a cross between Dead Heat and Men In Black, which means it has the chance to be very good. A shame it's PG-13, but it still looks like a fun movie. If Dead Heat scares you with its levels of violence (although in that case you probably stopped reading long ago), this might be the movie for you. Likewise, if you want to warm up for R.I.P.D, watch Dead Heat first. It's always good to see the original before the remake.

Originally posted on 05/02/2014.

With a title like "Very Bad Things" the last thing you expect to see happen are good things. So when a movie going by this title opens up with the premise of a wedding and the inevitable bachelor party that precedes it, and its poster features Christian Slater standing beside the bride with a chainsaw in his hand, you just know that someone is going to die a horrible, horrible death. Dear prospective viewer: you don't know half of it.

Very Bad Things is the story of a couple who want to get married in the wake of a bachelor party that went horribly wrong. Kyle Fisher, played by Jon Favreau, and his friends go to Las Vegas for a stereotypical bachelor party which leads to an accidental death. Things quickly get out of hand when one of Kyle's friends Robert Boyd, played by Christian Slater, nominates himself to be the problem solver of the situation and proceeds to plan their cover-up of the accident with stone cold efficiency. A chain of absurd scenes follows and bodies start piling high, while Boyd remains the calmest of them all, firmly believing that such things happen all the time and there is nothing to worry about. In the mean time, Kyle's bride-to-be Laura, played by Cameron Diaz, proves to be every bit as stone cold as Boyd himself as she thoroughly insists on going through with the wedding as planned despite the grim events casting a shadow over the upcoming union.

Don't let the description scare you off. This is not a slasher horror film. Very Bad Things is a sick and twisted movie to be sure, but it is still a comedy. It is a tale of irresponsible people, some of them larger-than-life jerks, getting themselves into bad situations that are quite simply their own fault, making it easy for the audience to laugh as fate catches up to them in darkly comedic ways. Much of the comedy stems from the group having to cope with what they did in Vegas. It is rather ironic that they would easily get away with it if it wasn't for their conscience stirring things up between them and leading to an increase in the number of corpses they leave in their wake. Appropriately, the deaths in the movie are a good mix of gruesome and darkly hilarious, especially one near the end involving a set of stairs.

The cast features comedic veterans such as Daniel Stern and Jeremy Piven, all of whom get plenty of good moments in the film, though it is Christian Slater who gets to shine the most in the role of the borderline psychotic Boyd. He alone keeps his cool after the first death scene and his stone cold explanation of his plan to bury the body in the desert puts him in stark contrast with the rest of the gang which includes a workaholic family man, his annoying brother, and a soft spoken mechanic, all of whom are rightly terrified of the situation along with Kyle himself. Not Boyd though. To him a dead body is merely an inanimate object to be transported from point A to point B. His utter lack of morals is a constant source of dark comedy throughout the film, as is the reaction of his friends to his ideas of problem solving. Not to mention his interactions with the bride, which are better off not spoiled here.

Upon release the movie received a mixed response which is reasonable given that a story like this will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea. If you're a fan of dark comedy and like the idea of a stone cold borderline psychopath trying to save his friends from jail after a horribly botched bachelor party only to find his efforts leading to piles of dead bodies while an insensitive and materialistic bride wants to get married so damn much that she wouldn't even mind contributing to the aforementioned mountain of corpses in order to get the wedding under way, then this movie is for you. Go check it out!

Originally posted on 20/06/2014.

Do you know that classic trait of Hollywood cinema that says you can't kill a dog in the movie? Well here's a film that makes fun of it, along with everything else that's wrong with Hollywood these days. You know, kind of like our short film Rick Jackson's Hollywood did. Except this one had a budget, and it stars Robert De Niro.

What Just Happened is an independently produced darkly comedic satire of Hollywood cinema based on the novel "What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line" by disillusioned film producer Art Linson. The plot follows the efforts of veteran Hollywood producer Ben, played by Robert De Niro, to handle an assortment of personal and professional problems ranging from discovering that his 17-year-old daughter was dating a Hollywood agent who has just recently killed himself, through trying to convince Bruce Willis to shave his beard, to trying to find out who his ex-wife sleeps with. However, his biggest problem is preparing the final cut of a movie for the Cannes film festival in which the director insists that a dog needs to be shot in the head for artistic reasons.

By now you can probably see that a movie like this had to be made as an independent production, co-produced by Art Linson as well as Robert De Niro himself, as no Hollywood studio would have anything to do with it under any circumstances. Fortunately we do have plenty of talented big name actors delivering stellar performances to give a truly authentic Hollywood feel to the movie. De Niro shines in the role of the aging producer who seems to be losing his touch, and Bruce Willis's portrayal of a caricature of himself is both brilliant and hilarious, if at parts disturbing. One of the true shining stars of the movie though is undoubtedly Michael Wincott playing Jeremy Brunell, the British arthouse director who absolutely insists that his movie needs to end with a dead dog no matter what the Hollywood studio executives think.

What Just Happened presents the struggle of Brunell as he fights for his artistic vision against the worst scum of Hollywood, hoping that his supposed friend Ben will have his back only to find that he is on his own in what seems to be a hopeless endeavor. Yet you'd be wrong to think that his efforts will prove to be completely in vain, so brace yourself for the finale where Brunell does bring an expertly foreshadowed surprise to the screening of his film in Cannes. Trust us, it is absolutely hilarious! Oh, and while you watch that scene, try to remember that What Just Happened was in fact screened at the Cannes film festival, albeit outside of competition.

With that in mind though, the biggest strength of What Just Happened is that it takes no sides, poking fun of multiple aspects of Hollywood filmmaking. Everyone gets it from pretentious arthouse directors who think that things like shooting an animal in the head is artistic to greedy short-sighted studio executives who refuse to take the risk of presenting a dead dog on screen because they're afraid of the public backlash, or from overpaid whiny primadonna actors throwing profanity-laden hissy fits and refusing to follow the instructions in the script to the producers of said movie who are terrified of trying out anything new. The one who perhaps gets ridiculed the worst is Ben himself who tries his best to lie and manipulate his way through his troubles only to find his efforts thwarted at every turn. Although a sympathetic character who is easy to root for, in a sense he is digging his own grave and it's hard to feel sorry for him. Let's just say that he fits in with the rest of the characters in this satirical portrayal of Hollywood just fine.

We highly recommend this movie for everyone who enjoys dark humor, but especially those of you who find that Hollywood needs a serious kick in the butt. What Just Happened delivers a hilarious buttkicking for everyone's viewing pleasure, as well as leave you something to think about the next time you watch the tunnel explosion scene in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day.

Originally posted on 16/01/2015.

Note added 03/04/2021: Since posting the original article, the archives of the Ask That Guy video series have been removed from Doug Walker's website, we assume due to the demise of blip.tv, which is a damn shame. The only episode that is still available is the final episode, which is on youtube. Links to the expired videos have been removed below. There does, however, appear to be an unofficial archive on youtube, which we have linked at the bottom.

In 2008 independent video producer and internet critic Doug Walker created the Ask That Guy With The Glasses, or in short, the Ask That Guy. This was a dark comedy show about a psychopath who answered stupid questions in the most inappropriate way possible. The show ended in late 2014 and it seems to be dead for good. Fortunately the old episodes are available in the archive on the Channel Awesome website so you can go back and watch all of them any time you wish. In case you've never heard of Ask That Guy, allow us to offer a retrospective summary of the character and his show.

Ask That Guy knew how to make an entrance, saying hello in a different language every episode; this may have included Klingon and Wookie by the sound of it. He made a habit of inventing words like murdercide and was obsessed with hamsterjelly and a hummel figurine (which he pulled out of his ass on episode 25), also onions (which was elevated to epic heights in episode 59) and Roger Rabbit. He hated Twilight and people who wanted to borrow sugar. He promoted cannibalism and human sacrifice, insulted everyone from Ted Turner to child actors and especially the audience, constantly made sexist jokes, and he made out with or abused himself (often using his signature pipe on either his dick or his ass) on multiple occasions. He also committed mass murder in an orphanage.

As he himself would have said, we "know what you're thinking". You're thinking: how could such a terrible person have a fanbase?

No, actually, if you read this website, you're clearly not thinking that. If you read our site that means you love dark humor, and therefore you find Ask That Guy to be a likable, heroic role model. We know there's a lot of you out there, because when Ask That Guy offered five questions to the audience to answer in his stead in episode 30, you produced ten minutes worth of responses that are all just as fucked up as anything Ask That Guy himself could have come up with. And it was glorious!

The show peaked between episodes 40 and 46 (more on that later) around the 4-episode December special edition of all things. To be fair, if you ask questions related to the holiday season from a devil-worshiping mass-murdering sexist psychopath, you're liable to get some really messed up and thereby hilarious answers, and that's exactly what happened.

The show never managed to reach the same heights after that, but it never really went downhill, either. It remained fun and fresh, even when it started recycling old questions, and even produced our second favorite episode of all time (more on that later). Even after episode 60 the show produced memorable moments like the time when Ask That Guy admitted to being a brony, or the live session in which he invented the Voltrongina, or when he headbanged to Bohemian Rhapsody in a way that put Wayne's World to shame. Sadly, the show went on indefinite hiatus in 2012 following episode 69 (which, miraculously, did not contain any 69 jokes), until in late 2014 Ask That Guy came back only to be immediately killed off in the series finale:

It was a sad day for fans all over the world, and Ask That Guy will be sorely missed. He will also be frowned upon as a liar, because in Episode 47 he promised that Mr. T would take over in the event of his untimely demise, and that didn't happen. Disappointing...

In closing, let us reflect upon the years of inappropriate and insanely funny dark jokes with the following list of our top 8 favorite episodes. This was a very hard list to compile. After all, Ask That Guy gave us so many memorable moments that would deserve a spot in the Dark Humor Hall Of Fame, like when he gave Wile E. Coyote advice with the Roadrunner, or when he posted a job advert for a scrotum washer, or when he blew up his old set, or when he gave himself a heart attack, and many many more. If you're a fan and find your favorite episode missing from the list, well, that's too bad. This is our list, deal with it.

So without further ado, our top 8 episodes of Ask That Guy With The Glasses. Rest in peace you mass-murdering sexist psychopath. We will miss you.

8. Episode 6: in which Ask That Guy discusses the ass-scratching fairy. Also, cabbage soup.

7. Episode 51: in which Ask That Guy borrows from South Park and reveals that Mickey Mouse is evil incarnate. Also, he visits an orphanage with spectacular results.

6. Episode 37: in which Ask That Guy discusses how bullets are made of ice cream.

5. Episode 42: in which Ask That Guy discusses whether the Jedi Force Choke can be used to commit suicide. Also, chess.

4. Episode 43: in which Ask That Guy dons a Santa hat and explains how Santa is a rapist. Also, suicide advice for the holidays.

3. Episode 2: in which Ask That Guy recommends the T1000 from Terminator 2 to be the President of the United States, and reveals the real fuel used by Optimus Prime.

2. Episode 58: in which the Devil himself guest narrates, feeling that the episode was so fucked up it warranted his intervention. Also, quotes from Commando, and a robotic machine gun dick.

1. Episode 44: in which Bennett the Sage guest hosts and turns out to be infinitely more fucked up than Ask That Guy himself.

The absolute best episode as far as we're concerned. In fact, remember when we complained that Mr. T did not show up to replace Ask That Guy and continue the show? Fuck that, bring in Sage to run the show! Please? Pretty please? We'll pay you in orphan blood.

Originally posted on 13/03/2015.

Arthouse cinema is probably one of the last things you'd expect to see recommended on this website. Reason being, that art films rarely offer the sort of entertainment we enjoy. But sometimes, gems like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers comes along and we get to praise arthouse cinema. And now, there is Birdman.

Birdman stars Michael Keaton as a former Hollywood star made famous by his superhero movies (no shit) who is trying to break into theater on Broadway. He has to put up with pretentious method actors, snobby theater critics who hate his guts, the rocky relationship with his daughter, and the voice in his head (we'll get to that in a moment). Everything is trying to prevent him from succeeding yet he keeps moving towards his goal, or if you will, his doom. The black comedy that permeates the film makes it a rather enjoyable watch despite the grim outlook of the characters.

While this is a layered art movie with heavy symbolism and deep messages, it is not pretentious in the least and does not require a degree in film studies to enjoy. The cinematography is very impressive to look at no matter what kind of films you're into. In particular, most of the movie is presented in what looks like a single continuous shot following the events in real time. It's a thing of beauty to look at, especially thanks to how well the actors nail their performances. A blooper reel of Birdman would probably be fun to watch.

What we enjoy the most about Birdman, unsurprisingly, is its black humor. Much of this stems from the interaction between our protagonist and the evil voice in his head, the voice of the Birdman character, who constantly whines about his fall from grace and gives our hero bad advice. Their banter is a constant source of entertainment, as is our hero's perceived use of telekinetic powers to, among other things, destroy his dressing room in a brilliant sequence that once again is presented as a single, unbroken shot.

Bear in mind that this is a dialog-heavy movie, but don't let it scare you off. The dialog is fluid and enjoyable, things speed up when you least expect it, and the movie keeps you guessing where it's going. Even at the climax where you think you know what's going to happen, chances are, you probably won't, and that's always a good thing.

We could go into more details, but we don't want to spoil the experience. Just trust us when we say that Birdman is a fun flick to watch. Go check it out!

Originally posted on 10/04/2015. Minor edits added on 04/03/2021.

The first ever card game entry in the Dark Humor Highlight comes to us in the form of the satirical masterpiece Cards Against Humanity. It is often referred to as a party game for horrible people. Quite frankly, that's bullshit. This is the greatest card game ever made, and everyone should play it, especially if you measure your age in a single digit number of years. Chances are you won't understand all the jokes, but you have to learn them sooner or later, right?

If you're new to Cards Against Humanity, this is basically a questions and answers game. Each player starts with a hand of white cards, each of which has an answer printed on it. Each turn a black question card is revealed, and the players pick a card out of their hand as the response to the question. The winner of the round is whoever provided the best answer.

"Best" in this case means whichever answer is the funniest and most offensive. See, the question and answer cards are designed to be as politically incorrect, offensive, insensitive, and racist, as possible, all for the sake of you and your friends having a good laugh. Naturally, if you're the sort of person that gets offended easily and hates profanity, you will not like this game. Then again, if you are such a person, you're not likely to read our website, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Cards Against Humanity was conceived by a handful of people and funded on Kickstarter. It first saw the light of day in 2011, and has since been followed by a number of expansion packs, including a UK-themed core version that includes some truly delicious and incredibly offensive cards. If you enjoy dark and offensive humor, you owe it to yourself to play this game.

You can try out an online clone of the game at allbad.cards.

Finally, if you want a concrete demonstration to get a feeling for the game, look no further than this video of Wil Wheaton and his friends playing Cards Against Humanity. It's exactly as awesome as it sounds!

Originally posted on 24/05/2015.

The 51st State, also known as Formula 51, tells the story of an L.A. chemist who invents a revolutionary drug and tries to use his formula to get out of his life of crime and start a new life in England. Instead, he ends up in the company of a football fanatic while chased through much of Liverpool by a female assassin, a corrupt policeman, skinheads, and his former psychopathic boss, as he tries to adjust to the local cuisine.

Released in 2001, The 51st State is a Canadian-British co-production starring Samuel L. Jackson as Elmo McElroy, the aforementioned creator of the new wonderdrug. The film opens with a brief introduction of our main character's backstory, and then we immediately move on to the explosive dark humor that characterizes the movie, quite literally. We get introduced to Dakota Parker, played by Emily Mortimer, a professional assassin specializing in long-distance kills who, in her debut scene, performs a hit from the bell tower of a church with a sniper rifle while posing as a bridesmaid from the wedding taking place at the church.

And then along comes The Lizard, a psychopathic drug lord played to perfection by Meat Loaf, who displays all the characteristics of a classic 80s psycho villain. When Elmo gets on his bad side and flees to England, he sends Dakota after him to take him out. The only problem is that Elmo ends up teamed with Felix DeSouza, a Liverpool football hooligan played by Robert Carlyle, who happens to be Dakota's ex and is described as a "rabid dog" by one of the characters. Add to this a group of skinheads, a local eccentric drug dealer called Iki, and corrupt police officer Virgil Kane, all of whom want in on the expected profits of Elmo's formula. Chaos ensues in the streets of Liverpool much to the displeasure of all the characters, but much to the pleasure of the audience.

The movie is a fun joyride from start to finish. It is every bit the sort of dark comedy we cherish on this site. The action shifts between brutal and hilarious, much of the death scenes are played for laughs (especially the one that involves an umbrella), and both sides of the Atlantic get ridiculed just fine. Several characters are over-the-top hilarious in how extreme their personalities are. Examples include Iki who takes his eccentricity to epic levels in pretty much every scene, Detective Kane with his overplayed bullying of his own partner, and of course The Lizard, who has clear anger management problems and shoots one of his henchmen in the knee with his own gun barely 5 minutes into the film.

The 51st State doesn't come with a lot of shootouts but the few we do get are truly memorable, and all of them involve Dakota. She comes across as a strong female character in many ways and is easily one of the best characters in the movie. We also get a brief but phenomenal car chase that leads into a scene in which Samuel L. Jackson drives a Mini Cooper in between two trucks.

At release the movie fared well in the UK with critics and audiences alike. For some reason, the U.S. wasn't too keen on it, with most critics hating it and the movie not faring well at the box office, either. Needless to say we completely disagree with the U.S. reception and highly recommend The 51st State. It's a fun flick made for people who enjoy movies like Pulp Fiction, The Way Of The Gun, or Snatch. Fans of Manchester United will probably have a hard time rooting for the heroes though.

Originally posted on 26/06/2015.

On the 28th of May 2015 the world held its breath with anticipation as an independent filmmaker teamed up with an 80s icon and scores of fans to turn back the clock and bring back the glory of the 1980s. The result? A 30 minute epic short film called Kung Fury. It's exactly as awesome as the title suggests.

Kung Fury tells the story of a war between kung fu master police officer Kung Fury and his nemesis, Adolf Hitler, whom the hero simply calls the worst criminal of all time, while Hitler, a kung fu master himself, prefers to be called Kung Fuhrer. And that's really all you need to know about the film, because if you don't like this premise, you're clearly not the target audience for Kung Fury. But, if like us, you think the above premise sounds like the greatest thing ever, you're in for a treat because this short film is an absolute blast, its only failing being that it's too short. It's full of crazy action, one liners, time travel, brutal comedic violence, giant phones, a kung fu master fighting Nazis in a 2D side-scrolling environment, and countless other 80s homages. The wet dream of any 80s fanatic.

Kung Fury was filmed mostly in front of a green screen and predictably relies on homemade CGI to render the Nazi army, the carnage, and the dinosaurs. Most of the effect work is trivial to tell from the real elements on the screen, and if the movie took itself seriously that would break immersion real fast, but with the over-the-top story and characters the world almost feels real even with the poor-looking effects (unless you're a film snob, that is). Considering that the mastermind behind Kung Fury, David Sandberg, filmed this work of art using crowd sourced funding (via Kickstarter) and this is pretty much his first substantial production, Kung Fury is in fact pretty damn impressive.

Special bonus for all 80s fans is the participation of 80s icon David Hasselhoff, who debuted his 80s-style song True Survivor with a music video based on Kung Fury barely a month before the film's release. The song and the video are both quite good and are an excellent way to get hyped up for the movie.

In the month passed since Kung Fury's release the video has received over 17 million views on youtube and won over much of the internet community. Certainly it has its critics who hate it with a passion, but its target audience (including us) loves it, which is what matters. We hope that David Sandberg will manage to secure funding to make a feature length sequel, because if the ending is any indication, we can expect even more insanity in a potential Kung Fury 2: Wrath of Kung Fury (or some other cheesy subtitle). Until then, watch Kung Fury and enjoy!