Hot Picks

- There's No Such Thing as Zombies 2020

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Dream Hacker 2025

- Love and Comminication 2022

- If I Could Ride Again 2025

- Freak Off 2025

- Lavender Men 2025

- Lost Cos 2023

- Sound of the Surf 2022

- The Stillness 2025

- Frankie Freako 2024

- The Texas Witch 2025

- Cannibal Mukbang 2023

- Bleeding 2024

- No Choice 2025

- Nahual 2025

- Bitter Souls 2025

- A Very Long Carriage Ride 2025

- The Matriarch 2024

- Oxy Morons 2025

- Ed Kemper 2025

- Piglet 2025

- Walter, Grace & the Submarine 2024

- Midnight in Phoenix 2025

- Dorothea 2025

- Mauler 2025

- Consecration 2023

- The Death of Snow White 2025

- Franklin 2025

- ApoKalypse 2025

- Live and Die in East LA 2023

- A Season for Love 2025

- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre 2025

- Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness 2012

- The Darkside of Society 2023

- Jackknife 2024

- Family Property 2: More Blood 2025

- Feral Female 2025

- Amongst the Wolves 2024

- Autumn 2023

- Bob Trevino Likes It 2024

- A Hard Place 2025

- Finding Nicole 2025

- Juliet & Romeo 2025

- Off the Line 2024

- First Moon 2025

- Healing Towers 2025

- Final Recovery 2025

- Greater Than 2014

- Self Driver 2024

- Primal Games 2025

- Grumpy 2023

- Swing Bout 2024

- Dalia and the Red Book 2024

- Project MKGEXE 2025

- Two to One 2024

- Left One Alive 2025

- Burgermen 2020

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Last Laugh
Killing Joke

USA 2020
produced by
Matt Medisch, Jeremy Berg, Chris Joseph Taylor, Jason Dreyer, David Moscow, Todd Remis, John Portanova (executive) for The October People, Adventus Films, Cool Productions, Salem Street Entertainment, UnLTD Productions
directed by Jeremy Berg
starring Steve Vanderzee, Eric Stone, Lowell Deo, Angela DiMarco, Meranda Long, Marcus Leppard, Brad Jessernig, Nick Sage Palmieri, Tonya M. Skoog, Luke Schuck, Jeffrey Arrington, Scott C. Brown, Taylor Johnson-Heath, Mark Rahner
written by Jeremy Berg, practical effects and makeup by Lisa van Dam-Bates, visual effects by David Phillips

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


Myles (Steve Vanderzee) has once been a very funny stand-up comedian - but has lost his edge ever since he has lost his wife (Taylor Johnson-Heath), something he has never come to terms with, which is why he's on prescription drugs. However, his manager and friend Nelson (Eric Stone) still believes in him, which is why he has booked him a big gig opening for Reggie Ray (Lowell Deo), once a star comedian yearning for a comeback, and Nelson has even invited top comedy promoter Isabella (Tonya M. Skoog) just to see him. Now all Myles has to do is deliver the goods - and it really seems everything's working in his favour, the show's venue is not yet another small club with an unreceptive audience but a big theatre with its own stage manager (Marcus Leppard), sound guy (Brad Jessernig), costumer (Tonya M. Skoog) and other staff, who prove to be very helpful, he has his own dressing room, and manages to strike a friendship with the usually cold theatre director (Angela DiMarco). Thing is, he has somehow misplaced his medication, and he starts seeing blood dripping down the walls first, and dead bodies later - but every time he tries to tell someone, the respective bodies are gone, and everybody just blames it on Myles' nerves. Thing is, a masked killer is actually roaming the backstage area of the theatre, killing staff pretty much left and right, but keeping the dead bodies out of sight for anyone to notice until it's too late. And this killer seems to be hell-bent on making Myles' murder his crowning achievement ...

 

In many a way, this film is somewhat reminiscent of gialli of old, what with the masked killer, gruesome killings, and psychological undercurrents, and due to the theatre setting, Michele Soavi's Stage Fright (1987) most readily springs to mind - but that's to say, The Last Laugh is actually anything but a carbon copy of the giallo formula, as it's less fixated on the murders (both visually and narratively) and is actually much more of a character study of a man trying to not break up when keeping it together means the most - and Steve Vanderzee does a wonderful job bringing this to life. Thus the direction is very subtle throughout and mostly relies on character work rather than setpieces to create tension and suspense, and at the same time it does a wonderful job keeping the audience guessing how much is actually happening, how much is in Myles' head, up to the point where one can't be sure whether the killer might actually be himself. And even if this might be a very unusual thriller due to its focus on its lead's (unrelated) mental problems, it's very cool genre entertainment all the same.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dick Turpin

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kamen Rider

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Last Laugh
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Last Laugh here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!