OTIS is a story of suburban America gone haywire. In the midst of a serial abductor/killer's rampage, a beautiful young teen, Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson), goes missing. When her desperate parents, Will and Kate (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas), are contacted by her kidnapper, an insufferable FBI Special Agent (Jere Burns) takes charge of the case. But, from deep within the psychopathic subterranean world created by Otis (Bostin Christopher), Riley turns the tables on her tormentor, manages to escape and to contact her parents. Fed up with the tragi- comic inability of the FBI to find their girl, Will, Kate and Riley's brother, Reed (Jared Kusnitz), decide to take matters - and justice - into their own hands. But when Otis brother, Elmo (Kevin Pollak), shows up unexpectedly, the Lawsons find themselves mired in one of the more unusual and macabre consequences of vigilantism. Far from proclaiming 'Mission Accomplished,' the backed-in-a-corner Lawsons will further complicate their already deadly predicament with a surprising, unfortunate and frankly hilarious final choice.
A fling at a horror-creepfest-black comedy, Otis means to score points by building a revenge fantasy into its tale of a junior-league Hannibal Lecter wannabe. Otis is a fat, nerdy pizza delivery guy whose home dungeon becomes a prison for high-school girls he's kidnapped. His current victim, Riley (Ashley Johnson), is made to endure all manner of yucky role-playing, including a fake prom date. Eventually Riley's family will turn suburban avengers, and the twisted humor of the piece will take center stage, but the movie spends far too much time on what can only be called torture porn--even if it's couched as a dark comedy. It's been done so many times before that the only interesting section of the movie, the family's reaction, is guilty by unsavory association. They're played by Illeana Douglas, Daniel Stern (carrying a warped memory of Home Alone), and Jared Kusnitz, all of whom appear to be enjoying the revolting things they're allowed to do. Otis is played by Bostin Christopher, who looks like Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket by way of Pruitt Taylor Vince. Most of the cast spends the movie in a full hysterical mode, including Kevin Pollak, as Otis's brother, and Jere Burns, as a colossally insensitive police investigator. The latter scarfs up most of the movie's genuine laughs, just by underplaying his most inappropriate comments. That sense of understatement could be used elsewhere in this overly familiar piece of sado-comedy. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
I'm taking Kim to the prom!!!:
Another delightful little indie dread fest. This is a highly orignal story with outstanding acting from the male lead who plays Otis, and great support from veteran charecter actor Kevin Pollack. This film is not in any way predictable, and this is one of it's strongest features. In today's modern horror, it is very seldom that an original flick like this is made.
More than Just Another House on the Left:
Question: What do you get when you take Wes Craven's original THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972), add a sitcom-like case of mistaken identity, and then mix in lots of seriocomic dialogue? Answer: Tony Krantz's OTIS, the story of a family who chooses to bypass the police system and instead privately mete out punishment to the middle-aged nerd who abducted their daughter and forced her to act out his unfulfilled high-school fantasies. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're saying to yourself, "Oh, no! It's... more info
"It's a 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle that Very Few are Trained to Understand":
This film will repel most every viewer. The taboo topic, the ear-bleedingly offensive language, the unrelenting gore, the sight of lovable actors "behaving badly." (Man, you should just leave this page now!) Think of this work as the comedic equivalent of McNaughton's Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer. (You don't know Henry? Oh, duuude ... make a run for it ... you have no idea what you're dealing with!) This film's sketchy/creepy/cringe factor is astronomical (even I was tempted to fast-forward through... more info
Brilliant Farce:
Absolutely brilliant and original...I wish I wrote this! How can you top something this screamingly funny?
