There have been many household items that have gotten hungry for human blood over the years, from Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, The Mangler (clothes dryer), a film about a blender massacre that may or may not exist, The Lift (Tagline-"The stairs! The Stairs! For God's sake, take the stairs!"), etc., and in the case of 1991 film The Refrigerator, it's exactly what it says on the tin!
Steven has just quit his job, and he and his wife Eileen are leaving for their new apartment, which is oddly cheap at only $200 dollars a month. They soon come to realize, however, the terrifying reason they got the flat so cheap...THE FRIDGE!...
The Refrigerator is mostly horror, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It knows what it is. Annoyingly, there's no shortage of people on the internet who don't get the joke, who say things like 'This film is unintentionally funny with its badness', as if the film about the demonic refrigerator took itself dead serious. It's meant to be somewhat goofy.
Fortunately and unfortunately, this movie is the kind of horror where as I explain in my Dangerous Game review, I like the characters enough that I'd want to see a TV show about them, or something (I'm more leaning on the something side when it comes to these characters). Fortunately, because that means the writing is good and the characters aren't like Tina in Halloween V, and unfortunately, because, well, it is a horror movie. But hey, I'm no softie-bring on the carnage!
And carnage there is, from a guy getting his leg chomped off by a garbage can, or torn up by a hostile cuisinart, to the titular refrigerative menace.
If you're wearing a hat like that, quite frankly, you deserve to get eaten by a fridge...
The film is a little slow-moving, but it's never boring, thankfully. I do kinda wish that deaths could have been more evenly spread out, as aside from the kill in the opening, there's not another death until over forty minutes into the film. But at least the movie is using said time to develop its characters and tell its story, so I won't be too harsh. One part I definitely felt was too short was the fun montage with an original song singing about the film's characters!
The characters are fun and likeable. Eileen is relatable with her character storyline (and the scene with her and her mother near the end is very good!), and Juan the plumber/super is likeable and fun, portrayed very well by Angel Caban.
There's not much gore, but what there is is more than serviceable.
By the way, I would write a Dirk Gently joke about now, but I'm really not sure how many of my readers have read The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, so I'll stay my hand at making obscure jokes for now.
Also by the way, The Refrigerator contains the best line in any horror-comedy!-"I am the wafflemaker!" It has to be seen to be believed!...
The film has very good scoring, which surprisingly manages to build an air of creepiness for a movie about a killer fridge! If you took out the goofy idea, tightened up the pace, you'd have a damn fine regular horror movie!...Not that I'm saying that should have happened. It'd be no good to deprive the movie of its charm. One problem though is that I wish there was some backstory for the killer gateway-to-hell fridge.
There is one stupid thing that happened at the end of the though...
SPOILERS!!!!!
When the crazy possessed Steven is carrying Eileen to the refrigerator, she grabs ahold of a knife, and instead of just cutting his arm or something, she stabs him in the back and kills him! Honey, don't act so shocked and distraught that he's dead, you're the one who friggin' killed him!
Also, there's no ending to the climax. Appliances go haywire, the fridge eats psychic lady (Why didn't you run, bitch?!), Eileen and Juan get out, then they smile with relief as they're out...But uh, what about the fridge?! You didn't do anything, you just left as psychic lady died, and called it a day!
END SPOILERS!!!!!
I recommend The Refrigerator. It's a fun little flick, and it's well worth a watch! Just remember to keep an eye out for your fridge. It's watching you. It's always watching you...
This post is for The Shortening, a blogathon set up by Emily of The Deadly Dolls House of Horror Nonsense.
Wow, who would think there would be so many movies about killer household items? Each one sounds more funny than the next! So how does this fridge manage to kill people? It looks like it keeps closing its door on them repeatedly while they just keep standing there. Hmm... I guess it eventually crushes their organs or something? I'm probably overthinking this one...
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with the little guy in the fridge? I was surprised to see him next to a can of Rolling Rock since I've only seen that in bottles. That's my favorite beer. It seems weird for someone to be keeping waffle mix in the fridge.
I don't even know how I'd go about finding some of these movies you've reviewed. Do you just run across these goofy things online?
A lot of them, yes. I think The Refrigerator is only on old expensive VHS's, so the whole film is comfortably sitting on Youtube. No need to go on long hunts searching for obscure German DVD copies required.
ReplyDeleteYep, opening and closing. It can move though, so the film doesn't need the characters to be morons who don't use their legs...most of the time, anyway.
He's this movie's equivalent to Delbert Grady to Jack Torrance from The Shining. A hallucination who convinces Steven to murder his wife.
Heck yeah! I'm glad you dug it. It's so obviously a comedy, and it's crazy that viewers wouldn't get that. I agree that the leads are genuinely likable, and there is some interesting depth in Eileen's storyline.
ReplyDeletePlus, KILLER REFRIGERATOR AND DUDES IN BAD HATS!
Agreed!
ReplyDeleteMUST. SEE. THIS.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen this one in a very long time, but I found it on YT just recently. This was quite a rental-store-hit in the VHS days, at least here in Austria and in Germany. I remember some aggressive advertising for it, posters, stand-up displays etc.
ReplyDeleteThe movie is silly as hell, but fun. The fridge attacks are hilarious and the waffla-maker line is just outrageous =D
That, along with Inspector Rex, makes Austria so awesome!
ReplyDelete