Burying The Ex (2014)

Dir: Joe Dante

Max (Anton Yelchin FRIGHT NIGHT) is like you and me. He loves horror films, decorates his abode with vintage posters and can rattle on about how Val Lewton is art house B-Movie magic. Only he doesn't drink himself into a stupor every night and lives in California. So he's kinda like a younger version of me. And he has a really hot girlfriend (sorry dear!) in Evelyn (Ashley Greene THE APPARITION). Alright, he's a little bit like me. The sex with Evelyn is fantastic but she is somewhat overbearing. She's a vegan so Max had to stop eating meat, fish and dairy. As a greenie she couldn't stand Max driving a non-electric car so he had to sell his car and start using a scooter to get to and from work. Max's half brother Travis (Oliver Cooper PROJECT X) rubs Evelyn the wrong way. And Evelyn is a jealous bitch. But the sex is good.

Despite Halloween right around the corner, Max's workplace Bloody Mary's Boutique which stocks everything from skulls to naughty nurse costumes, never seems to be very busy. During a lull, Evelyn stops by to make the beast with two backs with Max in the shop. Post coitus they pledge loving one another forever and it just so happens that Evelyn activated a Satan genie doll which grants wishes in the most evil of ways.

Great sex does not make the entirety of a relationship. Evelyn moves in and whilst Max toils away at Bloody Mary's boutique, she redecorates their apartment; in an environmentally friendly manner. She folds Max's vintage posters and hides them away in a drawer. She folds his posters! Fed up with her bossy ways Max decides to break up with Evelyn and seeks advice on how to do it from Travis. Spit balling a few ideas, Max decides on telling her the bad news at the local park in hopes that the public setting will reign in Evelyn's fiery temper. Sadly, Evelyn is run over by a bus on the way to meet Max and dies in his arms.

A distraught Max spends his days in his apartment eating take out and watching horror films. Wanting to use Max's apartment for a tryst, Travis suggests that Max take in the double bill of horror films playing at a local theatre. Reluctantly, Max agrees and after the show bumps into fellow horror fanatic Olivia (Alexandra Daddario TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D). and strikes up a conversation. There's chemistry and a common interest shared between the two but what about that promise to the now dead Evelyn about being with her forever?

Comedy / horror? Zomcom? Whatever one wants to call it this is a light horror film that leans more to the comedy genre, much like director Joe Dante's GREMLINS. Unlike GREMLINS, BURYING THE EX is rated R but there's little in the way of gore. It's a decent film but nothing special. I laughed in the right places, ogled where I was supposed to, but I didn't find anything to raise the film up beyond a pleasant way to while away an hour and a half.

**1/2 out of ****