Happy Friday, my fiendish friends! This week I pull from my shelf one of my favorite thriller comedies, a sub-genre near and dear to my heart. As a wee little fiend I used to sit up and watch movies like Clue (1985), High Spirits (1988), and this little gem, before graduating onto the harder realm of horror and hack n’ slash. Starring Gilda Radner, Gene Wilder, and Dom DeLuise, Haunted Honeymoon is a classic. These actors helped shape this girl’s cheeky, cheeseball sense of humor, and made me appreciate great comedy teams.
Real life Husband and Wife, Radner & Wilder play soon to be married radio stars Larry Abbot and Vickie Pearle. On the set of their radio drama ‘Haunted honeymoon’, Larry begins to choke more and more as the big day arrives. Fearing cold feet, Vickie consults Dr. Paul Abbot (Paul L. Smith), Larry’s cousin and Psychiatrist; who tells her that is may be something far more serious. Fearing not marriage, but returning to his ancestral family home, where a terrible tragedy from his childhood took place. The cure? Why, to scare him more of course! And it better work too, or Larry may be looking for a new job.
Vickie and Larry are off to his childhood abode for the wedding, and for Vickie to meet his very colorful family. Headed up by the angst ridden matriarch, his adoring Aunt Kate who is played by Dom DeLuise. Aunt Kate, eccentric and paranoid, warns the household that there is a curse on the Abbot family, and that one of them may be a werewolf! But that shouldn’t get in the way of cocktails, dancing, and an all out good time. Chock full of secret passageways, family secrets, Dom DeLuise in drag and murder most foul, Haunted Honeymoon remains a movie I go back to again and again. Despite being a film, the comedic timing, the musical interludes and the colorful characters give this flick the feel of a classic radio show. So if you like your laughs with a supernatural bent, and a little 80’s nostalgia to boot, then give this flick a shot. -Ruby