You read the title, you’ve seen the poster, so you know this one is going to get political. And while it goes after just about everyone in recent American politics, yes a certain orange reality show host turned politician gets the brunt of it. The other major target of PRESIDENT EVIL is, not surprisingly, slasher films, HALLOWEEN in particular.
The plot is simple. Years after donning a Reagan mask and killing his sister a psychopath escapes from the Lar-A-Margo Sanitarium. This time he grabs a Trump mask as he targets a trio of young women, one Mexican, one Muslim and the other Haitian on the night before the elections.
The humor is mostly on the level of SCARY MOVIE and its sequels. It’s silly, juvenile and all over the place. The opening scene where he kills his sister is typical. There’s a burst of confetti after he stabs her obvious implants, and when we see her corpse it’s a deflated sex doll. Sophisticated satire this isn’t.
Politically it’s all over the map as well. Yes, the right wing gets the worst of it by far, however, the film’s barely started when Hillary Clinton gets skewered, (somewhat literally). There’s a great parody of Vladimir Putin and references to Stormy Daniels among others mixed into the proceedings. But gags like the sign that reads “Vote Republican. Make America White Again” will probably have anyone with a MAGA cap quickly offended. I laughed at the jokes aimed at both sides of the aisle though I know not everyone can.
PRESIDENT EVIL is from Giant Meteor Films, writer Gregory P. Wolk and director Richard Lowry who also gave us the entertainingly batshit APOCALYPSE RISING. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s a cheerfully goofy film. That film went some odd places with religion, as this one does with politics. Clearly, these guys don’t believe in avoiding controversy. It’ll be interesting to see what they do next.
PRESIDENT EVIL is available on VOD as of October 31st.