In a way, one period of stand-up comedy has been ushered out by culture. The angry guy shouting at his fans, laughing at racist and sexist jokes is no longer cheered. Rude and caustic humor has largely been heckled into submission by a media that no longer appreciates insensitivity or cheap shots aimed at marginalized or disenfranchised communities. Andrew Dice Clay (or even Lenny Bruce) wouldn’t be able to have a career as a comedian today.
Even when beloved and adored comics like Dave Chappelle cross the line (which it should be admitted is partly what comedy is for), there are cries of boycotts. Such comedians as Louis C.K., behaving in extremely inappropriate and abusive ways, tend to withdraw from the public consciousness only to remain unwelcome in larger society even after attempting comebacks. Stand-up comedy changes with the culture.
Almost an elegy for this kind of comedy, Heckle is actually a really literal film from low budget horror director Martyn Pick (Evil Never Dies, Blood Clots). In fact Ray Kelly, an offensive stand-up comic played by Steve Guttenberg,is killed in his own home during its opening scene.
Several years later Joe Johnson—an equally misanthropic comedian—is going to portray Kelly in a biopic but gets psychologically tortured and then hunted down by someone who heckles him. This started with just being present in an area where lights blinded him among the audience until he began calling Johnson through his phone eventually.The caller ID reads “culture” though.
As far as scripts go, Airell Anthony Hayles –who wrote it (and directed elsewhere)–actually had quite a good idea. By using the basic structure of traditional slasher films but filling them with possibilities and potential to update slasher flicks with some sort of significance social criticism Hayles really did set up something amazing here—most of which never comes to pass, though; this is also the writer and director of Spider Inside Her, Werewolf Santa, and Midnight Peepshow.
The heckler grows more aggressive and disturbed with each stand-up performance at which he’s heckled Joe Johnson. This is followed by Joe going out for Halloween that year in an ‘80s-themed party (which could be seen as a parody of the slasher genre) hosted in his entourage’s hideaway house.
At least, those who are there hate him to some extent if they aren’t scared or annoyed. Nobody believes anything Joe says when his phone starts ringing again and the heckler is closer than he thought…at least they all think it’s just a relapse from sobriety.
Joe is the type of prototype that is a self-centered, overconfident and sarcastic comedian you can find around; something similar to Russell Brand in early years, but getting mixed with Dane Cook and Ricky Gervais. The idea of Joe being funny seems ridiculous, even though humor may be subjective, besides all these comedians listed above has become superstars thus who are we to argue? What little we see of Joe’s act on stage is simply disgusting if not intentional. “But hey! It’s these kind of people that we pay every single cent to make us laugh.”
Guy Colmes could also have attended the school for terrible actors because his interpretation of Johnson was not exactly great. But then again the character is actually meant to be an obnoxious caricature of cocky aggressive comics; so when combined with a late twist changing much about this guy as a person it makes sense that Colmes would play him like this: awkward, annoying and unlovable.
Unlike Ray Kelly who quickly dies off in the film, Steve Guttenberg plays him really scarily commanding. He starts the movie by threatening his partner for no tangible reason other than he happens to be in his room chair sipping whiskey through bloodshot eyes. This man is just immoral, cold-blooded with sadism tendencies who understands how to hide under a wig when he should hate everyone.
Many comics are genuinely angry; performing stand-up comedy allows them to channel their aggression out in ways which are cathartic and sometimes socially acceptable (though today it’s mostly cancelled) as they do not think about their own pain.
In flashbacks throughout the movie Guttenberg appears multiple times, each one more acidic and hateful than before. A number of actors try either bringing some fun or sometimes making evil villains seem complex psychologically thus creating empathy or at least developing an interesting three-dimensional character. Guttenberg instead decides to go full-steam ahead into nastiness, not excusing any of Ray Kelly’s actions or making his words more thought-provoking.
All humaneness and compassion that once existed in Ray Kelly has rotted away and died, leaving behind one of the most loathsome, despicable characters to be found in recent years. His role here is literally a world away from the actor’s work in Police Academy as well as Cocoon and Three Men and a Baby films.
A number of other actors are quite memorable (especially Louis Selwyn as Johnson’s abused manager David), while Clark Gable III (grandson of the Gone With the Wind star) pops in for a strange scene before dying after filming; however, it is the stand-up comedy characters who are truly evil and bloody core of this picture. For some reason I cannot imagine discussing this film without mentioning modern art including jokes on stage. If Heckle can make any cultural argument, then these angry male comedians with so much hatred inside them are simply going extinct for good reasons.
As a horror movie, Heckle is a slow burn. It’s not until about 50 minutes into its brief 80-minute runtime that there is even a proper slasher killing and even then the film spends more time playing with tension and dark comedy than actually scaring its audience. This makes sense given the material; both comedy and terror are uniquely intertwined in the physical visceral reactions they elicit from viewers, employing jump scares as well as belly-laughs in virtually the same ways.
Heckle throws in an unexpected twist towards the end which changes everything retroactively and alters character motivations rather interestingly. Then it runs for ten minutes of flashback scenes where Guttenberg is being as nasty as possible before revealing his character’s death. At that point, this narrative device almost sucks all of the suspense out of the movie leaving it with only exposition instead. Guttenberg is terrifying to watch yet it feels like somewhat self-defeating act. However, when it eventually arrives, the ultimate ending to this movie is deliciously sinister.
What if major producers or studios believed in Heckle? The basic concept is pretty awesome, and if you were to use some thought-provoking stunt casting for Joe Johnson (like Louis CK, Dave Chappelle or Russell Brand who had been criticized publicly) but kept Steve Guttenberg’s nihilistic rage, Heckle could have been an absolutely mesmerizing film probably even great. Instead, it remains one heck of an indie horror flick starring Guttenberg.
However what’s dismissing such movies supposed to achieve? In effect ‘heckling’ a film review; are we not engaging in heckling with reviewers themselves? What do we gain by picking apart someone else’s work – something which takes huge amounts of will power, time investment and expertise just to get done at all – no matter how small-scale? In many respects society has become one large audience member who heckles performers all day long. Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes and Twitter are social media that seem to democratize the critic.
A single handful of disgruntled haters can shatter careers, businesses, even works of art. This process can cost people their jobs since many apps and companies are driven by star ratings from often fickle consumers who don’t take into consideration the possibility that someone (the Uber driver, the waitress, the chef) might just be having a bad day. The late great Anthony Bourdain had some words for these kinds of Yelp haters:
Who do we think we are? Society has become like one episode in Black Mirror where a new radical democracy of digital age allows everyone to attack any person, to discredit and destroy. Perhaps Heckle is a movie for these times when all of us are hecklers in a way or another.
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