Feathers are ruffled as a local theater group is taken under siege by a mysterious force that attempts to take them down one by bloody one. Zombies, ghosts, mysterious and gruesome murders and bizarre incantations all take center stage in Playhouse, and if you think it all sounds pretty horrific, you'd be only partly right in your assumption. In addition to the aforementioned macabre elements, we're also dealt with double entendres, sight gags and a hard-boiled detective who still sleeps with his teddy bear (even with a bottle of scotch on the night table). Yup, you guessed it, Playhouse is indeed a horror spoof at heart.

The story is centered on the theater group and their attempts to thwart the evil force that has taken over their Pittsburgh Playhouse. In terms of spoof quality think films like Student Bodies, Groove Tube or Kentucky Fried Movie. Playhouse is funny, but doesn't seem to always thrive on that comedic momentum, which is actually quite refreshing. Rather than having the jokes fly at a tremendous speed (which can work towards a filmmaker's advantage as well), the filmmakers here present us with sporadic, yet effective humor that mixes in quite well with the gruesome and sometimes serious (but never too serious) horror bits.

Playhouse is pretty wacky, but never too over the top, at least not any more over the top than your average nonsensical horror flick usually tries to be. In any event, everyone involved was obviously just having a good ol' time, making a flick that they really wanted to make. This is without a doubt part of the immediate appeal, mainly because this is what filmmaking is all about. The police are always nearby, but of course are never much help. The double-talking detective is just that, all talk. The playhouse janitor sports an effective, yet obviously fake Scottish accent and there are periodic (and sometimes) unrelated newsbreaks to help move things along. For the low brow crowd, there are plenty of vomit jokes to keep you occupied as well, all bases are covered.

Through it all, the real appeal of Playhouse are the effective comedic performances, smart script and professional score. Let's break it down. For starters, performances here are light years beyond your standard indie flick. Beyond that, in order for a lot of the humor to work, there is a certain level of comedic timing that has got to be present, needless to say - in Playhouse it almost always works. Think of exchanges by Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello or Tom and Jerry, then you'll start to understand what I'm talking about here. Next up is the creative and quite often funny writing. Not all of the jokes hit, which is to be expected, but the important comedic scenes do indeed work, and they work well. There are some comedic exchanges that are extremely funny with near perfect timing. If I gave any of it away, it would be pure criminal, so you can head on over to the films official site to check out the trailer for some examples. Finally, we've got the effective piano heavy score that easily swings the multi genre spectrum from comedy to horror and back again.

Shot on video and presented in a 16X9 widescreen transfer, Playhouse looks fairly good on DVD. The industry screener I reviewed showed some mild signs of artifacting, and boasted fairly strong colors throughout. Despite being enhanced for widescreen TV's I still noticed that quite a few of the shots appeared misframed. Whether it was intended or not, I do not know, but quite often tops of heads were chopped off or characters were talking offscreen when it appeared as if they should have been onscreen. Audio options include both English stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1. The 5.1 track features some subtle yet effective surround activity, but nothing really directional. Dialogue is clear, and there is really no evidence of distortion or mic problems. For a low budget SOV flick, we've got a solid sound mix all around.

The only extra available on the screener I received was a feature length cast and crew commentary. It's your typical indie flick commentary. A bunch of friends hanging out, talking over each other and chuckling quite a bit. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing mind you, it's easily worth at least one listen. The final product DVD features a few extras that I wasn't able to check out, including outtakes and an FX behind the scenes documentary.

Playhouse does indeed have quite a bit to offer the indie scene. From a filmmaker's standpoint, it misses the mark visually, but it easily makes up for this loss with its clever script, inspired performances and fantastic score. It's not all gold here, but it is worth sifting through for the few nuggets that you will inevitably find. Fans of the indie SOV movement looking for something frightfully clever and thoroughly entertaining would be wise to give Playhouse a once over. If you wanna support the indie scene, Playhouse is a fine way to do it.

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