One of my all time favorites.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I'll admit that I was biased toward the film because I knew Bostin Christopher in high school and was very interested to see what he could accomplish (outside of his all-too-brief turn in "Unbreakable"). The description of the movie and the seemingly low production value of the DVD jewel case warned me that this movie was going to suck and not live up to my hopes. I was pleasantly wrong about the film.Bostin himself completely lived up to my hopes, imbuing Otis with characteristics that included menace, dimwitted-ness, and ultimately I felt sorry for him in a weird sort of way. The rest of the cast were flawless, from Daniel Stern's timidity to Illeana Douglas' righteous Mom-Anger; everyone seemed to reflect real emotions to the developing plot with their flaws completely visible. The real brilliance of this film, though, is how it seamlessly blended suspense and terror with comedy. The parts that were supposed to be scary were scary, and the parts that were supposed to be funny were genuinely funny (in a dark way). For the first half of the movie, I was confused as to which genre it was trying to be. After my third cocktail, I just stopped trying to analyze the film and ran with it. Do the cocktails have anything to do with how funny I thought this film was? Likely. It's quirky, it's weird, it's funny, and it's something that is completely worth your while. Buy it? Maybe. I'd rent it first, because this sort of film isn't for everyone.

This movie has a lot of references to Last House on the Left that I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt of paying homage rather than ripping it off.A girl is kidnap, beaten and tortured and then the parents get revenge. Last House on the Left 2 girls get kidnapped and killed and one set of parents get revenge. Even the 'no bra' comment by the dad is in both.In Last House on the Left, the parents get dressed up in medical gear before they're about to torture one of the killers (turns out to be a dream of the killers) in Otis, they actually dress up in medical clothes. The dad is a doctor in LHotL, and the mom's a nurse in Otis.Law enforcement in both movies are portrayed as bumbling idiots. And the song selections play a big role too.So with all of this, it has to be homage since it's not too subtle. And I'm sure the director probably has mentioned it. But I'm not going to take a bunch of points off for this.Otis does a good job of making the main villain seem creepy but lovable at the same time, which I'm sure was the point. The acting was pretty decent, mostly well known actors. My biggest complaint is a the brother. He annoyed the crap out of me. I wondered if he had any clue what he was referencing when he kept choosing a different weapon or when he says the line "the horror. the horror". The acting had a good mix comedic moments sprinkled in the mix.The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the song choices for certain scenes. The opening scene with the Shocking Blue's Venus and the dance scene with BoC's Don't Fear the Reaper were great, made it memorable.This was a horror-comedy, I wasn't expecting it to be some masterpiece. So with that mind frame, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.

This movie was really great,I recommend this to anyone and everyone. The movie starts off really fast. At no point in the movie is it slow or boring. I enjoyed every minute of it. Turns out a 40 year old psycho path kidnaps and later kills teenage girls if they don't play along with his little game of being his girlfriend. Im guessing that his brother got the girl Kim in high school and Otis ends up being the loser brother-in-law who is still obsessed with Kim. It was quite interesting, the twist kept me wanting to see what was gonna happen next. So after Riley escapes and contacts her family. Her family decides to take matters into their own hands and kill Otis, but they end up killing his brother instead. After finding out they killed the wrong person the family feels guilty. the FBI agent is a mess; completely hilarious he finds the tape of the family murdering the brother, whom he thinks is Otis and decides not to rat the family out. Once the family is home, the brother calls and orders a pizza knowing that Otis is the pizza guy. The brother then collects a shotgun, when Otis arrives, Riley's brother shoots him and then the mother congratulates him on the kill. This movie was really good I enjoyed every minute of it. The family was great. So any and everybody try to see this movie.

Otis Broth loves pizza, Froot Loops and Kim. And Kim. And Kim. Multiple times now he has tried to make a girl love him by chaining her up in his basement and calling her Kim. His latest victim, Riley Lawson (played by Ashley Johnson, perhaps best remembered from "Growing Pains" or "What Women Want") isn't ready to die like the others. And her family doesn't trust the police, preferring to take matters into their own hands.I keep seeing the quotation comparing "Otis" to "Juno" and I don't know what to make of that. I really liked "Juno" and I really liked "Otis". But I don't know that they have all that much in common. The tone is completely different, the humor is different, Otis doesn't talk like he lives next door to Pacey Witter or Josephine Potter. I would love to know the reasoning behind this claim, as it seems a bit of a stretch. I see it as a darkly humorous take on other horror films -- but "Juno"? "Otis" has a rocking soundtrack (best of the 1970s), a dark humor that many will not appreciate, and takes on horror motifs of today. Want a girl imprisoned in a basement (like Jack Ketchum's "Girl Next Door")? Want torture ("Saw")? You'll get it, but without all the rape and gore. All of the torture takes place off-screen. Or, at least, almost all of it. Your imagination might leave you feeling grossed out, but the film doesn't cross the boundary. How do you balance rape, torture and humor? I don't know, but the makers of this film came as close as anyone probably ever will.The actors were great. Bostin Christopher (Otis) couldn't have been cast better. Ashley Johnson (Riley) is both sexy and yet girl-next-doorish, alternating one scene to the next. Daniel Stern (Mr. Lawson) is a welcome addition, although one wonders where all the extra weight and gray hair came from. Are you getting older, Stern? Has Kevin McAllister worn you down? It's understandable.The special features on the disc are decent. The obligatory audio commentary appears, which I'm always a big fan of. There's an alternate ending (which is even more grim than the standard finish, though not as satisfying). And there's an "Otis Broth Joint" (thanks, Spike Lee) called "Suite 16" that seems ready-made for placing on YouTube as a promotion, but is worth at least one watch (it's short).Of the horror movies I've seen this year -- and it's quickly approaching 100 -- this ranks in the top three, alongside Ryan Harper's "Circulation" and Ryan Nicholson's "Gutterballs". If you see only one horror film this summer, I suggest "Otis". Warner Brothers and Raw Feed make a compelling case that horror can be fresh and new no matter how stale the genre seems to be getting with each passing day. How this skipped theaters and went straight-to-video is a modern mystery.