Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Woodyanders Obese loser pedophile psycho and pizza delivery guy Otis (superbly played to creepy and intense perfection by Bostin Christopher) abducts lovely young teenager Riley (a winningly sparky portrayal by the foxy Ashley Johnson). However, Ashley manages to escape from Otis' clutches and alerts her family about where Otis lives. Things go extremely awry when the family decides to take matters into their own hands. Director Tony Krantz and writers Erik Jendresen and Thomas Schnauz ably concoct a wickedly warped, quirky, and often hilarious horror black comedy gut-buster that viciously satirizes the incompetence and insensitivity of the FBI and media alike, the dangerous foibles of gung-ho vigilantism, the varying degrees of psychosis existent in American culture (in an especially neat, inspired, and downright subversive touch, Riley's family prove to be every bit as crazy and deadly as Otis), and how basically everyone has a latent capacity for extreme violence and brutality. The fine acting by the top-notch cast keeps the movie humming: Daniel Stern as meek dad Will, Illeana Douglas as brassy take-charge mom Kate, Kevin Pollack as Otis' angry and abusive older brother Elmo, Jere Burns as the sleazy and inept Agent Hotchkiss, Jared Kusnitz as Riley's delinquent brother Reed, and Tracey Scoggins as tactless news anchorwoman Rita Vitale. The first-rate dynamic soundtrack of choice rock songs gives the picture an extra kinetic buzz. Thomas Yatsko's glossy cinematography provides a stunningly bright and attractive look. An absolute riot.

johnstonjames whoa. every time i see this wicked little bit of horror it gets funnier and more disturbing. it is satire. no doubt. it satirizes our fear, our relation to it and how our emotional responses deal with it. it is a satire about society and how it deals with anger, revenge and our suppression of our blood lust. beyond satire, 'Otis' is also a really vicious and grisly horror B flick. worthy of comparison to some of the best of Romero and Craven.lets start with the character of the piece, Otis. Otis is one of the best horror film monsters in recent years. Otis is off putting not only because he is a 6 foot tall, 400 pound, creepy gorilla who is demented in a particularly foul way, but also because he is disturbingly human. the viewer can't help but respond to both sides of the coin when Otis's much shorter, but older brother lays into Otis and berates him. nobody likes to see someone lectured or berated by another, but you also can't help but feel the brother has insight and is pointing out some truths when he calls Otis a "moron and a idiot". Otis IS a moron and a idiot, and worse, he's a mean, cruel, and evil young man. but it isn't hard to understand how a society that seems designed to confuse and frustrate, can create such a desperate monster. after all, Otis's brother's only solution is for Otis to keep his job as a pizza delivery guy.after being exposed to Otis's disturbed and sadistic nature to start, we are then introduced to the family of Otis's next victim. they are actually nice enough, reasonable people with the usual amount of dysfunction. the husband and wife carry on in a repressed frustrated manner while their son degenerates into a sociopathic delinquent and their only daughter seems more interested in learning about her sexuality and boys more than math, history or science. a real brain the daughter ain't. doesn't mean she deserves to fall prey to the likes of a disgusting monster pig like Otis.what results eventually is a hilarious send up of revenge and capital punishment, but also our obsession with violence and blood. we all have that crocodile brained carnivore waiting to be unleashed. lets just hope we don't all inner channel it to the extreme the victim's family does.the acting, direction, photography and idea concepts here are excellent. the whole thing is executed (hah a pun) almost flawlessly. i can think of better horror films than 'Otis', but i can think of few that are brought off so well and with so few rough edges.with so much talk of bullying in our society today it is good to remember that within every victim is a bully waiting to get out. it's not that i don't support victim's rights, but the "bully" cry that is being made at the moment is very outward in it's projection and accusation with very little insight on the victim's passivity and subjectivity about the incident. what do they say? don't take it too personally. i sometimes believe that every person is capable of being bullied and of being a bully. something this film points out in a very strange manner.

guil fisher I blame writers Erik Jendresen and Thomas Schnauz for writing this sick movie and Tony Krantz for directing this piece of crap. No wonder we have serial killers running around killing people at the mall in schools, parks and playgrounds. Writing like this only encourages the demented killers to continue their rampages. When are we going to end this blood thirsty make a buck movie? Time to put a stop to them, for good. When you let something like this movie out to the public and then make money on it especially allowing the killers to get away with this sick crimes, you want to face the writers and actors and tell them all to go to hell. I'm going to mention this cast as I hope none of us are forced to watch them again in any film. With the exception of Kevin Pollak (brilliant in A Few Good Men) and wasted in this trite. And lovely Ashley Johnson, the only realistic actor in the movie as the victim. But put the likes of Bostin Christopher (Otis), Daniel Stern (psycho father), Illeana Douglas (sick mom with Peter Lorre bug eyes), Jared Kusnitz (complete ass of a brother with the brains of an ant) and Jere Burns (playing a gum chewing cop whom you get sick of watching) together in one movie and you get so you want Otis to kill them all. Absolutely no sympathy for the sick family and you wonder how the young girl, Ashley, can even live with such a family. This kind of film should be banned from showing. Just imagine all the psycho killers out there getting ideas from the sick minds of the writers intentions. Are they too looney tunes?

tonywebman I was compelled to write an entry here only because of all the negative reviews I read BEFORE I watched this movie. I almost didn't bother with it because so many people put in their two cents worth and gave it a thumbs down. I'm so glad I watched it regardless. This movie is highly underrated and I believe the reason for this is that there are so many people who don't get that it is a Black Comedy. It is a social satire with a statement about the desensitization of the American white middle-class to the violence that is so pervasive in their (our) society. Either that or it is just plain funny as hell but also very sick and disturbing. It's a fine line between black comedy and bad taste but the director manages to pull it off. I would have rated it higher except that the ending was unfulfilling, but sets things up nicely for Otis II (which I will be hoping to see soon).