by Joel Harley
A serial killer stalks the streets of New York, raping straight white men to death. We will leave you to wrestle with your own sensibilities as to whether this is appropriate fodder for a comedy-horror film in 2023. Meanwhile, the rest of the film is about podcasters and stand-up comedians, which should give viewers an idea about what sort of tone to expect here.
Director Onur Turkel (Catfight, Scenes From an Empty Church) returns with this slasher satire, following various subcultures within modern America as they attempt to come to terms with the ramifications of the killer and his crimes. On one level, it challenges the reaction to rape when perpetrated against the cisgender male (“No one cares!” goes the film’s tagline). On another, it’s a cheap punchline designed to shock and offend. Turkel keeps the tone so light that it’s hard to take any of this seriously, even if there is a behemoth serial killer stomping around, doing you-know-what to you-know-who.
As with his bone-crunchingly plausible fight sequences in Catfight, so Turkel brings the goods with a striking kill sequence set on a New York train. When it mimics ’70s and ’80s slasher cinema, the film is at its most on-point. Turkel’s vision of the city feels authentically grimy and dangerous, reminiscent of Maniac Cop and The New York Ripper. And then it cuts to a gang of podcasters snarking about rape, spoiling any sense of atmosphere.
There is some amusement to be had – particularly when Turkel himself is onscreen, playing a butt-sex-fascinated liberal – but it quickly wears out its welcome. The serial killer element is lost amidst endless scenes of podcasters podcasting and affected liberals bickering at dinner parties and in their bedrooms. From the endless #MeToo jokes to the umpteenth bum sex joke, the comedy element of this comedy-horror quickly wears thin. At best, it’s gratingly smug; at worst, it becomes a South Park-esque exercise in all-sides-suck-ism.
Poundcake had its international premiere at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on August 25th, 2023.
