Screenwriter Stephen Sustarsic, the pen responsible for such notable comic scripts as “Darkwing Duck,” “Dilbert,” “ALF,” and “Goof Troop,” pulls a Stephen King and creates a worst-case scenario for himself as he presents us with a down-and-out comic writer who may or may not be losing his grip upon reality. Though Steve Cuden’s film is lacking in production value, he more than readily compensates with a stellar energy and an impressive premise, making Lucky one of the better low, low budget horror efforts in recent memory.
Millard Mudd (Michael Emanuel), an alcoholic has-been comic writer, hits a dog named Lucky (Sydney) one night as he is driving back home from the liquor store. Just as he is burying the canine, the pup miraculously springs back to life. To Millard’s surprise, not only can Lucky communicate with him telepathically, but he has a gift for creating storylines. As Lucky helps get Millard’s career back on its feet, Millard’s dream girl-cum-newfound love interest, Misty (Piper Cochrane), is killed. Is Lucky responsible for the corpses which are quickly beginning to fill Millard’s back yard or is the talking canine yet another facet of the unstable, intoxicated writer’s imagination?
The more I reflect upon Lucky, the more impressed I am, beginning with Cuden’s characterization of Millard. We open the film with a very long, stream-of-conscious voiceover monologue outlining the character’s existentialism and thoughts upon quantum theory. However, unlike many such diatribes, it is fitting in that it fleshes out the character within the opening scene as well as makes plausible that the raging inferiority complex of an intelligent individual would entertain and readily accept, after pausing only briefly to doubt the legitimacy of the situation, a logistical anomaly in the form of a telepathic dog. And this, my friends, the genesis for the genius of Sustarsic’s script, which is only trumped by Cuden’s patience with its presentation.
What the production lacks in budget, the filmmakers readily make up for in energy in the guise of wry, sardonic humor, which is the film’s saving grace as it carries the film by way of charm. For example, not only are we witness to Millard’s résumé of failed attempts at love–which include a nun, a hermaphroditic relative, a very senior citizen, and the like–but once Millard obtains his Holy Grail of fantasy women, his mind swerves to the left as he ponders upon sadomasochistic acts as the hypothetical scenario is granted us time onscreen as Millard, sitting next to a bound Misty, coolly considers her equally cool opinions about being the victim of a sexual murder. Perhaps the most hilarious instance of black humor contained within the film–aside from Millard’s carpet consisting of empty beer cans, thus the director masterfully illustrating how much of a drunk the character truly is–is when Millard becomes preoccupied with the question upon whether or not the sin of necrophilia would be compounded in severity if the corpse were underage, thus making him a pedophile as well. Of course, amid all of the comical absurdity, one can easily forget the implied adage that if Millard is caught with numerous cadavers in his backyard, his plea will simply be “My dog made me do it” which, before I forget, Sustarsic is to be saluted once again in that many writers would presume that a telepathic dog is enough of a character in and of itself without bothering to round out the figure. However, Sustarsic goes the extra mile by making the canine a jive-talking smartass.
Yet, this is the interesting aspect of the film in that Cuden does not focus upon the premise of whether the murders taking place are due to Lucky’s authoritarian influence over Millard or merely the effects of an obviously slipping mind which, if this is the case, has manifested its id in the twisted, albeit interesting, guise of a telepathic canine. Instead, the director merely allows this notion to be presented as the climax–which at first appears to be the Creative Writing 101’s trite resolution of a storyline–refuses to conclusively answer any questions, forcing the audience to become empathetic to Millard’s plight for he obviously cannot determine which of the two options is more viable. Like many of the great comedies, as we are laughing, we all too readily forget that something of value might lie hidden amid the jokes and, as such, Lucky becomes of the better horror comedies as a consequence. Interestingly, after the film closes, a third, postmodern possibility presents itself: Perhaps the narrative was merely one of Millard’s own comic creations which the fictional author cast himself as the star (which comes a year prior to Paul Giamatti’s similar role as Harvey Pekar in Shari Springer Berman’s Oscar-nominated American Splendor).
Though a diamond in the rough visually but almost the Hope of horror comedy scripts, Steve Cuden’s Lucky is the closest we’re probably ever get a cinematic adaptation of Robert Crumb’s autobiography. Cunningly, Cuden pushes his film forward by way of pitch black humor as his highly meditative thesis upon mental instability coyly bubbles on the back burner. Not only is Lucky an outstanding effort, but many filmmakers could learn a thing or two from Cuden’s dedication atop Stephen Sustarsic’s ingenious writing.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
