Suburban Gothic

Ray Wise was a fierce highlight and almost warrants a recommendation just for two clearly improvised bits of conversation with Gubler. Storywise, they build up to outrageous takes like: bigoted rednecks are bad. Okay. You don't need any work for that one. I'm on your side already. What? That's a major plot point that comes back multiple times? Ugh. Ray Wise though. Ask him which film is his favorite.

Suburban Gothic is a film that doesn't run short on ideas, but does run out of steam after it tries to introduce a more linear plot to the equation. Its weirdness and bounty of ideas will keep you watching for its entirety, as will Matthew Gray Gubler's wonderful leading performance, but the comedy dries up part way through, and the focused mystery is far less interesting than watching Gubler meander around town and interact with the locals. You don't necessarily need to see Suburban Gothic.

A muddled result that's a big let down as Bates' sophomore effort following the superb Excision. Not even a hint of the greatness that shone in Excision is evident here. Weak slapstick gags, cheesy suburban caricatures, generic ghost mystery that's hard to care about... it's a disaster of lame comedic efforts that the writers may have had a giggle with each other writing... but no one else cares. Gubler and Dennings work their charm, but nothing could save this clusterfuck.

It's not instantly memorable or a cult classic in the making, but Bates has upped his game since Excision and it manages to be thoroughly entertaining for the majority of it's running time.

Background noise fodder. Not terrible.

Suburban Gothic feel too amateurish to be taken seriously or even really enjoyed. It has a few funny scenes, and the constant insult hurling works in its favour, but in the end it's too contrived and never rises above mediocrity. Gubler isn't bad but has neither charm nor gravitas to command the lead, and Dennings affirms her lack of range. Overall, this film offers little and nothing is gained watching it.

This fails to be both a comedy and a horror movie. Too bad.

A complete nonentity. Gubler and Dennings have almost negative chemistry and there just isn't enough going on to justify watching. Add in tonal whiplash from masturbation jokes to a ghost ripping off someone's toenails back to back and it just hurts.

Admirably deadpan. I enjoyed this much more than I expected to, and not just because it is always good to see Ray Wise.

The wry comedy and deliberately hackneyed storyline of Suburban Gothic is all played for tongue-in-cheek laughs but the film simply doesn't present enough ideas of its own to be consistently entertaining for 90 minutes. Gubler does a decent enough job but Kat Dennings just trots out the same character as always, and John Waters' cameo is an all-too-fleeting pleasure.