Review: (Winnipeg) Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness (Fringe)

Unpleasant Dreams, Everyone
by Edgar Governo
@pseudohistorian

If you're not on the same page as a show called Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness, you're never going to be.

There is nothing here to satisfy anyone looking to take horror stories seriously, but a lot for those who enjoy callbacks to genre tropes of the 50's and 60's. Each of the comedic sketches being offered takes on a familiar tale from that era, including alien invasions, space age mutations, dates gone wrong...and in a surprising development, a creature feature that seems to come straight from the writers of Sharknado.

This is less Hammer House of Horror than Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and the sizeable cast is very aware of that fact, though Theresa Thomson stands out as especially able to convey that mix of camp and earnestness so common to the movies being lovingly parodied. Some of the sketches provided too many winks to the audience where I might've preferred a more deadpan approach--but for every gag that fell flat, there was a reference to Nazi dinosaurs waiting around the corner.

With a Satan that is far less frightening than the Cryptkeeper, and double entendres straight from the Elvira playbook, Macabre Tales is meant for those who've always enjoyed some laughs with their screams.

Macabre Tales of Horror and Macabreness is at the Winnipeg Fringe