Yes,
these kids chose to watch a Satanic smut film that summoned a nasty succubus,
but it is hard to blame them, considering their other choices were Encino
Man and A League of Their Own. Yeah, yeah, “no crying in baseball,”
but seriously, do really want to watch Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna kvetch
again? Of course, we would rather see a rude and tasteless horror comedy.
Fortunately, that is exactly what Keola Racela’s P*rn* happens to be.
The title is slightly misleading (and prone to excite nanny-ware), because the
naughty bits are not the least bit sexy, as viewers saw for themselves when it
had its New York premiere at the 2019 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
It
is 1992, so nobody has cell phones. The staff of this neighborhood first-run
theater are all professed Christians in accordance with the owner-manager’s
hiring practices, but they are really just as horny as any other horror movie
teens. Chaz (as in Chastity) is hung up on Ricky, but he is not so into her,
for reasons we can immediately guess. Everyone knows Todd is a horndog because
he was busted for window peeping, but it was really the idea of Abe, who turned
out to be much fleeter of foot. Meanwhile, Heavy Metal Jeff, the projectionist,
clings to his Christian hardcore death-metal dreams.
Their
boss lets them have their own private Friday night screening after the last
public showing (Mr. Pike is supposed to be complete pond scum, but that is
actually a pretty cool perk), but it will be a little delayed when a crazy old
dude bursts into the theater and through a drop-wall to reveal a secret
screening room and archive in the sub-basement. It is there they find the can
of film that will summon Lilith. Of course, when she shows up, all H-E-double-hockey-sticks
breaks loose. There will be temptation and some super uncomfortable gore (that
happens to be funny, in the darkest way possible).
Even
though the film portrays Pike as a hypocritical jerkweed and it skewers the
Evangelical mindset in general (especially straight-conversion camp), Prno ironically
holds more affection for its Christian characters than most Hollywood movies,
in which religion ostensibly should not even play a role. In this case, their
belief in Satan, End Times, and fire-and-brimstone evil is certainly vindicated,
in spades. Regardless, they are generally good kids, just a little confused.
They
are also unusually sharply drawn characters, especially by horror movie
standards. By the end of the film, viewers understand where they are all coming
from. Jillian Mueller sets the pace as Chaz, the closest thing they have to a
leader (since she’s the key-holder). However, Robbie Tann scores the biggest
laughs as the ever so unfortunate Heavy Metal Jeff. Plus, Evan Daves and Larry Saperstein
have the right kind of “Two Coreys” buddy chemistry as Abe and Todd.
Screenwriters
Matt Black & Laurence Vannicelli will probably offend the cancel culture
once for every ten times they offend Evangelical Christians, which is something.
In the case of horror comedies, the more offensive they get, the better they
are. Prno comes to play and it takes care of genre business without
wearing out its welcome. Highly recommended for fans in the mood for some
outrageous midnight movie comedy, Prno will have a whole lot of life left
on the festival circuit after its New York premiere at this year’s Brooklyn
Horror Film Festival.
