REVIEW: The Orange Man (2015)

- By @LastBoneStands

The ‘horror comedy’ is not an easy task to pull off. There are any number of reasons why. Sometimes there isn’t enough humour and it loses the fun, not enough scares, and it becomes just a comedy. Sometimes there is not enough of either and it becomes unclear what the film-makers were looking to accomplish. Unfortunately, this is what happened with The Orange Man.

The title and the premise seems like it could make for an original horror comedy that would have just the right amount of cheese to satisfy the “B-movie” fans out there. A group of middle-age men go on a camping trip and run into a disgruntled orange farmer, who just happens to be a serial killer. A disgruntled orange farmer? Yes. A disgruntled orange farmer. It sounded like a great time to me. I figured I’d kick back, have a laugh and watch people get beaten to death with a sack of oranges. Both of these things did happen, however, there was more to this film than that.

The idea behind the story is pretty original. After being undercut by other orange suppliers, Peter Walkins ends up murdering all of his old clients and then hides out in the near-by forest for the next 30 years. He begins to stalk a group of middle-aged men on a camping trip, and the usual slasher formula beings to play out.

I suppose that I will start with the good bits first. Ben Rollins, who played Peter Walkins, was great. His look, his voice, and his insane laughter all worked together to create a memorable character. There was some decent humour to begin with, and I even chuckled a few times. The style of humour used, though, did become rather tiresome as the film wore on. There were also a few decent kills; the best, unfortunately, being the first.

Now, onto the criticisms…

To begin with, the middle-aged guys that are the main characters of the film, all act like they are 10 year old boys on a camping trip, and not like men in their 40s or 50s. This created a lot of the funny bits, but also ended up the reason why the humour became tiresome later in the film. The story itself, really didn’t make much sense and begs a lot of questions. If the Orange Man hadn’t been seen in decades, why was he suddenly stalking these men in the woods? Why is he still growing oranges if no one wants them? Why are his oranges so god damn hard? How does he know who these men are and where they will be once they leave the area?

Another problem is that it’s hard to tell how much time has elapsed between certain scenes. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I can’t get specific, but there are times when it’s not clear if a day has passed or a month, or more. This is even further clouded through the use of a dream sequence, at one point.

The film should be commended for taking a chance with an original idea in a sub-genre that is packed to the gills with formulaic tropes. It’s more than what a lot of slashers can boast these days. It just would have been nice if it was tightened up a bit.

@LastBoneStands