Heckle (2020) Review
The film, which premiered at FrightFest, tells of a famous stand-up comedian that encounters a seemingly insane heckler, who starts stalking him obsessively. Then, his friends start ending up dead! This takes heckling to a whole new level.
HECKLE is a comedy/horror that I was pleasantly surprised to see had been directed by someone that I once knew, albeit through Facebook – Martyn Pick (Evil Never Dies) – and it was great to see his name up there onscreen. Martyn’s film plays well for the most part but unfortunately falters when the anticipated slashing kicks off in the second half.
Firstly though, I must say it’s always a joy to see Toyah Wilcox grace the screen and there’s a nice cameo from HELLRAISER’s Nicholas Burman-Vince, who brightens up things no end, for me that is, when he appears shirtless, thanks Nicholas! And secondly, it’s rare for a lower budget film to include songs that sound decent and there are also glimpses of a movie-within-the-movie that looks like it would have been a treat.
However, for a film about a stand-up comedian there’s few laughs to be had and when the body count kicks off paradoxically the film becomes less interesting. Also, I couldn’t fathom why the killer despatched people that had no bearings on the original of their rage. So as I mentioned before, HECKLE is a film of two-halves, the first is more character-based and is a joy to behold, but the horrors that come later don’t quite measure up unfortunately, squandering what was an effective build-up.