Vivieno Caldinelli’s gut-busting Scared Shitless is a horror comedy with a giant monster and a lot of toilet humor. Like, actual toilet humor. There are more jokes about plumbing than pooping! And who you gonna call when an unstoppable human-eating creature comes crawling out of your toilet to eat your loved ones in a single bite? This is no job for an exorcist. The Ghostbusters can’t help you. For something this gnarly your only recourse is to call in those fearless experts that keep the world turning. Those working-class heroes that fearlessly charge into the fray: The Plumbers.
Featuring some slimy creatures designed and created by Psycho Gorman director Steven Kostanski (who has a new movie of his own at Fantasia this year) Scared Shitless is a gory playground of practical effects. The monster, a thing-from-another-world style worm creature created in a secret lab by Canadian comedy legend Mark McKinney (Kids in The Hall), travels through a building’s plumbing to pop up and devour anyone unlucky enough to be, uh- otherwise occupied at the time. What starts as a routine service call for unsuspecting plumbers Don & Sonny (Steven Ogg & Daniel Doheny) quickly becomes a rescue mission as the residents are feasted on like a toilet tank take-out!
“A must-watch for horror fans with an insatiable love for goofy gory gags.”
Scared Shitless is a must-watch for horror fans with an insatiable love for goofy gory gags. But it’s really going to hit hard for anyone that has recently come into contact with a Canadian Dad. Honestly, half of the funniest moments in Scared Shitless are just in the song choices for its needle drops. If you’ve sat shotgun in a minivan while a 50+ man drums on his steering wheel to The Kings’ This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide or if you’ve watched your uncles air guitar to Loveryboy’s Turn Me Loose at least once this summer, Scared Shitless will hit real close to home.
Steven Ogg (who genre fans will recognize as Simon from The Walking Dead or the deranged game show host in V/H/S/99) plays a classic middle-class Dad just trying to make a living, and maybe a couple people smile while he’s at it. He takes pride in his work (like all trades workers, he’s quick to point out how the world would fall apart without plumbers), and he’s hoping to pass the torch to his son Sonny. Of course, Sonny’s got stomach problems, anxiety problems, and a real problem with germs that definitely doesn’t make plumbing a living nightmare for him. On the front lines with them in their fist fight with this freaky beast is Patricia (Ginny & Georgia) the building’s owner/concierge/de facto goofy badass. In the same spirit as Sting from earlier this year, Scared Shitless takes advantages of its confined location for some killer set pieces and an onslaught of laugh-out-loud gags from its kooky cast.
“Scared Shitless is the most fun you’ll have on the toilet this year!”
If you like rock solid creature effects, practical gore and a good laugh, Scared Shitless is the horror movie you’re going to be introducing to your friends over a couple of beers next weekend (or whenever it comes out). It’s absolutely hilarious and never takes its foot off the gas. From start to finish, people are ripped apart, swallowed whole, and dragged kicking and screaming a watery, goofy death. Scared Shitless is the most fun you’ll have on the toilet this year!
Vivieno Caldinelli’s Scared Shitless celebrated its World Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival let us know if you’re excited to see this gory comedy over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
