5 Ways to Prep: Boo 2
By George Rose
October 19, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With that you have the release of the mock-horror comedy Boo 2! A Madea Halloween. It’s grounded in the world of comedy but delivered with a touch of horror. That’s assuming you consider a grown, “heterosexual” man dressing up as a fat woman to be comedic. There are some that consider a man dressing as a woman to be horrific but those are the same idiots that voted Trump into office. A man dressing as a woman to make a movie isn’t horrific or funny; it’s kind of sad, really. I mean, Tyler Perry is crying into mountains of Madea money but I’m sure he wishes some of those millions came from Oscar worthy roles. It’s really not even his fault. If the masses want a fat lady, Perry is smart enough to make her sing all the way to the bank.
Do I think you should see Boo 2? Eh, it’s probably something I’ll find on TV next Halloween. For now, I’d rather spend my funds on a good costume. In the event money doesn’t grow on the trees in your backyard either, you might be looking for something to rent at home instead of throwing money away at the theater. And just like balancing your checkbook, sometimes you have to balance the tricks and treats that Hollywood has to offer so here are a few other classic “funny horror movies” you could watch to prepare yourself for the softer side of Halloween.
Way to Prep #1: Scream (1996)
This is definitely the scariest recommendation but I use the term “scary” loosely. Back in the 90’s, teen angst was all the rage thanks to writer Kevin Willamson’s signature witty flair. After scoring great success with TV’s Dawson’s Creek, he teamed up with legendary horror director Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) to revamp the dying slasher genre; long gone were the days of Freddy Krueger’s murderous dreams. Rather than fearing gruesome monsters we learned to fear our neighbors, people that could have a stick up their butt because your mom slept with my dad and ruined my family… so now I’m going to gut you like a fish with a knife.
It made the whole “killer” thing more realistic, which made it more terrifying. To alleviate the stress this film would inevitably cause, Williamson softened the blow with oh-so-clever quips delivered by catty teenagers; teens that live in a world where renting videos from Blockbuster Video makes them aware of horror movie “rules” they then mock by having casual sex and smoking the marijuana cigarettes. To me, this movie was my everything. It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw during the pre-teen era of mine that was ruled by Dawson’s Creek. It was a great way to start my horror movie obsession and remains one of the few genre classics that broke the $100 million barrier in theaters. It was so great and worthy of imitation that only three years later a comedy would come along to flip this updated genre on its head.
Way to Prep #2: Scary Movie (2000)
Once the horror genre’s blood started pumping again after Scream, Williamson would use the same witty-horror formula to make the similarly successful I Know What You Did Last Summer. That then led to the Final Destination series, some Urban Legend movies, and a whole new sub-genre was born and boring before you knew it. Scream was there to save the day when slashers became redundant, and Scary Movie was right behind it to usher in another era of the mock-movie. This genre comes and goes every few years. Leslie Nielsen mocked a whole bunch of movies in the 90’s but it wasn’t a genre back then so much as a one-man firing squad. After Scary Movie, every genre ever would get mocked and it’s all thanks to this faux-fright flick.
Even though Scary Movie targets a whole genre, the base plot mirrors Scream almost exactly. The Wayans Brothers, comedy legends in their own right, blaze their way through writing, directing and starring in the films that shoot each Scream scene full of steroids with sight gag after dumb blonde after small penis joke. The laughs are consistent and often gut-busting with special props going to Anna Faris. It was her first big movie and it launched quite a career. She would go on to star in four of the five Scary Movies, all of which were successful despite the attempts of their less successful competition (Epic Movie, Superhero Movie, Date Movie, etc.)
Way to Prep #3: Jason X (2002)
If you can’t reinvent a genre or make fun of one, you can always make fun of yourself. Even though slasher films had died a gruesome death after the 80’s ended, that wouldn’t be enough to stop the immortal terror of Jason Voorhees. Even though it looks as though I’m suggesting Jason didn’t get a makeover until after the success of Scream, that couldn’t be further from the truth. No slasher franchise has had more makeovers than Mr. Voorhees. Heck, he wasn’t even the killer in Part 1! That honor belongs to his mother. Jason didn’t take over the machete until Part 2; he didn’t get his iconic mask until Part 3; Part 6 or 7 had something to do with telekinesis; Part 8 took Jason away from Camp Crystal Lake and into the dark, dangerous world of New York City; and then another studio took over and Part 9 had something to do with Jason’s heart being a creature and possession or something, then the franchise died again.
That was until cheap special effects and comedic-horror became new norms.. Jason had been to hell and back almost a dozen times but he has never been to space. Naturally, this is where he went and we are all the luckier for it. Jason has always been scary because he is a physically deformed immortal with an irrational penchant for revenge (a few campers make a mistake and he drowns, his mother slaughters a bunch of camp counselors, one girl kills his mom and suddenly we have ten films and hundreds of victims). As scary as it is, it’s stops being creative after nine movies. There are only so many ways to kill with a knife or axe. In space, you have scientific labs, futuristic technology, changes to gravity and about a million new ways to slaughter the innocent. It may not be the best movie or the scariest, but it is one of the more creative attempts at low-budget, sci-fi, comedy-horror. You’ll definitely smile more than you scream and you’ll learn that sometimes the funniest joke is the one you tell about yourself.
Way to Prep #4: any Madea movie other than Boo! (every year or two)
This is a good time to remind my loyal readers (or those just joining 5 Ways to Prep for the first time) that I have one rule when making my five recommendations: you can only have one of the five movies be from the related franchise. If I don’t do this then you’ll find me recommending Star Wars Episodes 3 through 7 before you see Episode 8 this December. Usually, you can get away with seeing just one movie from a franchise, either the first (as it establishes the tone/rules for the franchise) or the last (how we most recently left things off). With the release of Boo 2, I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that the Boo franchise (the first sequel Perry’s Madea has put us through) won’t exactly be mythology heavy. In other words, you probably don’t need to see Boo 1 to understand Boo 2.
With that being said, you also don’t need too many hits of Madea before experiencing an overdose. She’s kind of a “less is more” type of character. Sure, you’ll laugh and cry watching one of her movies but gimmicks are only good for an hour or two. If that’s the case, then I imagine you’ll also burn out on Madea’s Halloween routine before the first film is over, so it would likely be counter-productive to watch Boo 1 before Boo 2. As such, if you want to watch a Madea movie before seeing Boo 2 to learn of the character then you can watch any number of other nonsensical situations that curvy mama has found herself in. She’s gone to jail, went to a family reunion, did Christmas stuff, was in the witness protection and so on. She’s been through a lot and has lots to teach. Her Halloween has already been done so I’d dodge that bullet before Boo 2 and dip your toes into her massive chocolate pond with a different feature.
Way to Prep #5: Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
Like I said earlier, before Scary Movie started a never-ending barrage of low-budget, barely-funny, mock-movie copycats, there were individual actors that starred in movies that made fun of different genres. I mentioned Leslie Nielsen as one of those stars, not just because he was one of the most famous but because he is the one my father raised me on. He made fun of spies, action heroes and even classic horror creatures like Dracula. However, that’s not the same as making fun of Halloween itself. That distinction goes to another one of my childhood entertainers, Ernest. He was a goofy, bumbling redneck that was funny and extreme and exactly what a young boy might find hilarious. Jim Varney stars as the titular Ernest, a man who has been to jail, who saved Christmas, who… wait a sec, is this Ernest or Madea?
Madea owes her career to the likes of Ernest and Nielsen, while Perry might owe them royalties for “borrowing” their ideas… and by ideas, I mean identical film release patterns. Ernest only stumbled his way through Halloween once, so Madea takes the cake there, but it was Ernest who lit the path of pumpkins. Madea turned those pumpkins into sweet pie, as even the $30 million adjusted-for-inflation earnings of Scared Stupid doesn’t compare to Boo’s $73 million total. The movie industry needs all the help it can get right now so I hope Boo 2 does well, but even if Madea’s franchise is killed with this sequel she’ll be sure to resurrect again soon enough.