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In James Gunn’s new film Super, Rainn Wilson (The Office) stars as an unassuming softie who becomes a homemade superhero, the Crimson Bolt, to rescue his junkie girlfriend (Liv Tyler) from a seductive drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). Along with his horny and loopy sidekick, Boltie (Ellen Page), Crimson seeks vengeance by any means necessary. Heads are bashed in with a wrench, shotguns blow off faces, and animated tentacles cut open a man’s head to implant courage into his brain.
And, somehow, Super, is a comedy, albeit one of the darkest order. Fascinated by subverting expectations and alternating between tones, Gunn’s penchant for blurring the lines between comedy and thrills gives the movie a uniquely impulsive edge. It’s the same skill—honed while starting his career at Troma Entertainment—that made his script for Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake, as well as Gunn’s 2006 directorial debut Slither (a horror/comedy he also wrote), beloved within genre circles.
“Being able to switch tones like that is something that might not be comfortable for everyone, but it’s thrilling to me to go between light and dark,” says Gunn. “I like to be able to feel as many parts of myself while watching a movie at one time. I think that’s what Super is—it’s funny, but it’s also sad. It’s very touching in certain ways and it’s also got a very dark sense of humor. So it’s allowed to go anywhere.”
Impressed by his weird and extremely entertaining new flick, Complex asked Gunn to run us through his 10 favorite dark comedies, the movies that, in a sense, paved the way for Super. He didn’t disappoint.
Visitor Q
10. VISITOR Q (2001)
Director: Takashi Miike
James Gunn says: Visitor Q is the most fucked up film on this list, by far. [Laughs.] I am loath to suggest Visitor Q to anyone, because you’ve got to have a warped brain to even understand or appreciate it a little bit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I have been blessed with a warped brain, and I really dug it.
It’s not my favorite Takashi Miike film—that’d be Audition, but, although there are comedic moments in Audition, I don’t consider it a dark comedy. Visitor Q is much funnier and much stranger. The other great Miike dark comedy is The Happiness Of The Katakuris, which is a musical and it’s outlandishly strange and real. But with Visitor Q, its weirdness seems to be more consistent within itself; The Happiness Of The Katakuris seems to try to be goofy, and it’s not as good of a film.
Complex: So what is Visitor Q about?
James Gunn: Fuck. [Laughs.] Dude, it’s so fucked up. I’m about to look it up online—that’s how hard it is to describe. It’s not really about anything. [Reading from the Internet] “A strange visitor to a wealthy family seduces the maid, the mother, the son, the daughter, and finally the father before leaving a few days after, subsequently changing their lives.”
I guess that’s what it’s about. [Laughs.] It really is a surreal film. It’s just a bunch of crazy, weird Japanese nonsense. Visitor Q has all of these weird sex scenes that are just disturbing and creepy and Cronenbergian.
I’ve watched tons of Asian cinema, so it was tough to just pick one for this list. I was hoping that I could somehow squeeze in this movie The Story Of Ricky that I thought about putting on this list, but ultimately decided not to. It’s fucking crazy! It’s a Hong Kong movie with this super muscular, strong guy named Ricky and he goes around punching people; as he’s punching people, he’s punching through their bodies, so their bodies are splattering all over the place as he hits them. It’s kind of like if Superman was just walking around and punching regular human beings like they were tissue paper.
But The Story Of Ricky is not really a “good” film; I think Visitor Q is actually a pretty good movie.
The Hospital
9. THE HOSPITAL (1971)
Director: Arthur Hiller
James Gunn says: This is a Paddy Chayefsky script, which was his follow-up to the classic Network, and in a lot of ways it’s like Network. It’s about the corruption of institutions, and a series of murders that are going on within this hospital. It stars George C. Scott in one of his greatest performances.
The Hospital is just a fantastic movie; I actually think it’s much better than Network myself, although I’m probably alone in that. It doesn’t telegraph its message as much as Network, so that makes it a better movie for me.
Happiness
8. HAPPINESS (1998)
Director: Todd Solondz
James Gunn says: In some ways, I think Happiness is the darkest film on this list. When you have the father sitting with his son at the end of the movie, and his son finds out that dad has been molesting all these people, and the son looks up and says, “Daddy, does that mean you would fuck me?” He’s just found out that his dad is guilty of child molestation. The dad looks up and says, “No, I would just look at you and jerk off.” [Laughs.] It’s too much!
And the movie is really sad. It’s almost mean-spirited. Honestly, it’s the most mean-spirited movie on this list. Todd Solondz seems to have absolutely no love for his characters, and he’s a very different director from me in that way. All of my characters are really angry, dark, and fucked up, but I really love them—even the bad guys. In Happiness, there’s no sense of that love; in fact, it’s an utterly loveless affair, but very funny and a fantastically acted and shot movie.
Chuck & Buck
7. CHUCK & BUCK (2000)
Director: Miguel Arteta
James Gunn says: This movie was written by Mike White, who went on to write School Of Rock and write and direct Year Of The Dog, and he also stars in the movie. It was directed by Miguel Arteta, who just did Cedar Rapids. Oh, and the other two stars are the Weitz brothers, Chris and Paul, who wrote and directed American Pie. The performances from all three of those guys, who are writers, are great. It’s really interesting how writers can so often be good actors, because they just don’t overplay things.
Chuck & Buck is a creepy cringefest. It’s about these two guys who’ve been best friends all of their lives, and you find out that they used to fuck all the time when they were kids—Mike White and Paul Weitz. When the characters were kids, they used to say, “Chuck and Buck fuck and suck!” [Laughs.] Mike White still obviously wants to fuck Paul Weitz, and Paul Weitz isn’t really interested.
It’s a great movie for straight males to freak out on. [Laughs.] But it’s great. Knowing that Paul Weitz is a straight guy makes it creepy to watch. It’s just really creepy, but it’s funny and strangely touching at the same time. It’s really one of the best movies on this list.
Bad Santa
6. BAD SANTA (2003)
Director: Terry Zwigoff
James Gunn says: Bad Santa has some great moments. The darkest of dark comedic moments is when Billy Bob Thornton picks up that child and starts punching him in the face, and we’re rooting for him! That’s insane. It’s one of the few movies on my list that was actually successful at the box office. A lot of people went to see it, despite the fact that it was so dark.
Man Bites Dog
5. MAN BITES DOG (1992)
Director: Remy Belvaux and Andre Bonzel
James Gunn says: It’s almost hard to imagine that Man Bites Dog is a comedy. [Laughs.] But it is really funny at times.
It’s about this reality TV crew following a serial killer who kills people in front of them while they try to stay objective. There’s a moment in which the crew following the one serial killer run into the crew following the other serial killer and they end up killing them, the crew becoming involved in the murder and rape—that’s really one of the darkest moments in cinema history, and also strangely one of the funniest. [Laughs.]
It’s shot in that documentary style and there’s a scene where they’re interviewing the serial killer’s parents grandmother, who he lives with. What many people don’t know is that those are his actual parents and grandmother, and they thought they were being interviewed for a documentary about their actual son! That’s the craziest thing in the world! That’s why they’re so dry, and they talk about, “Oh, he’s a little crazy.” It’s because they’re really talking about their son and they had no idea that they were shooting this movie about him killing people. It’s total genius.
I saw that movie in New York City when it came out, and it’s a movie that people remember. Not too many people have seen it, but those who have will always remember it.
In The Loop
4. IN THE LOOP (2009)
Director: Armando Iannucci
James Gunn says: This is a political dark comedy with James Gandolfini. It’s a British film, very fast moving and full of fast talking that’s very dirty and filthy. It has the chick from My Girl in it—Anna Chlumsky. She’s great! I couldn’t believe how good that girl was! I can’t believe she’s not working more; I thought she was fucking great in that movie.
In The Loop was a little gem. That was a movie I saw right before the end of the year, because I started hearing tons of good things about, and I do like my “favorites of the year” list every year. I had started hearing that it was good, but it didn’t appeal to me at first. But then I saw it and thought it was just a blast throughout, and it ended up being my favorite movie of that year, actually.
Monty Python And The Holy Grail
3. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)
Director: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
James Gunn says: Monty Python And The Holy Grail is a hugely important movie to me. I remember watching it for the first time on cable, when I was about 13 years old. I remember seeing the scene when the Black Knight is getting his limbs cut off, and I laughed so hard. And then the scene with the killer rabbit. I laughed so hard during those scenes, I don’t think I ever laughed harder in my life before then or since.
It’s just an all-out hilarious movie from moment to moment. And in a lot of ways, it really was the first real slapstick gore film. Movies like The Toxic Avenger later one-upped it or at least tried to do so.
I like their other movies, too. Life Of Brian is hilarious, and I probably would have put that on this list, too, but I decided to just give Monty Python one pick.
Pretty Poison
2. PRETTY POISON (1968)
Director: Noel Black
James Gunn says: My second favorite dark comedy is a movie that not many people know about, and it’s called Pretty Poison. It stars Tuesday Weld, who is at her absolute hottest. She’s the old movie actress, a little blonde ingénue who was so hot in this movie, and that probably influenced me a little bit in terms of how much I like it. [Laughs.]
It also starred Anthony Perkins from Psycho, and it’s a black comedy about this young girl. In fact, I can quite certainly say that Pretty Poison influenced Super because it’s about this young innocent-seeming girl who just gets crazier and crazier and darker and darker, and Ellen Page’s character is a lot like that in Super.
It’s a cult movie that not many people have seen, but it was just released on DVD not too long ago. It’s really well worth seeing. One of the things about Pretty Poison is that I had a book as a kid called Cult Movies, written by Danny Peary. I was really into cult movies when I was like 14, 15 years old, and one of the movies in the book was Pretty Poison.
For years, I tried to see this movie. I even remember trying to set up a screening at Warner Bros. one time but I was unable to. I wasn’t able to see the movie until a few years ago, and not only did I like it, I loved it. It met my expectations, and that so seldom happens. So many times people talk up these movies with these great premises and then when you see them they just don’t work. But this movie is fantastic.
After Hours
1. AFTER HOURS (1985)
Director: Martin Scorsese
James Gunn says: My favorite dark comedy, which is also one of my favorite films of all time, is After Hours. I’ve seen After Hours as much as almost any film I’ve ever seen in my life; I’ve watched it dozens of times, and I still watch it once a year. I still get a thrill out of it every time I see it.
I think Griffin Dunne’s performance in the movie is a masterpiece. It’s one of the few comedies where the camerawork is really important, and really crazy, and it actually works. Most comedies work when the camerawork is a little more basic, but After Hours has some very interesting camerawork, and Scorsese does a great job with it. He did another great black comedy, The King Of Comedy, but I think After Hours is a better film, and definitely a funnier film.
I just showed it to my girlfriend for the first time, about two weeks ago, and she was blown away. There are just some great performances in that movie. Rosanna Arquette is so, so damn funny! It’s full of people who gave performances and then you never saw that kind of performance from them again.