The House That Drips Blood On Alex (2010)

Best bad quote: "Yeah... blood. From something that was once alive." 

New cult hero Tommy Wiseau is back. He's back in all his bizarre glory with a hysterically campy short film written by Brock LaBorde and directed by Wiseau himself. Wiseau might say that "The Room", the movie he's infamous for, is meant to be a campy film, but I've never believed him. Because Wiseau fails so miserably in his attempt to create a sincere and serious drama, The Room ends up appealing to our love of schadenfreude; his absolute failure becomes the entertainment factor, because the movie is not entertaining in its intended way. "The House That Drips Blood On Alex" is entertaining in its intended way. It's a comedy, almost parody-like film. This time, you are meant to be laughing. If you aren't, then you need to check that your sense of humor hasn't flat lined.

Wiseau's strange, corpse-like appearance, weird accent and voice inflection, droll delivery and all around terrible acting are the main draw. In "The House That Drips Blood On Alex" Wiseau's strangeness is tapped and condensed down to a magnificent 12-minute stretch of hilarious insanity.

Joey Greco, of "Cheaters" fame, shares a scene with Wiseau and together they chew more scenery than I ever thought possible. Greco mugs hardcore for the camera while Wiseau acts as if he lives on a diet of hard liquor and whippets. Wiseau's acting is marvelous. Most of the time he's acting as if he just took twelve consecutive shots of Wild Turkey, and his serious lines are delivered with all the inanity of someone who just realized that they forgot to send back their Netflix disc. All the comedy doesn't fall to Wiseau and Greco, either.  The other actors, including Wiseau's Luke Wilson-y friend Thomas, play it fairly straight and low-key, which is a great contrast with Wiseau's amped up performance. Wiseau's two friends have some great comedic lines that work well with less outrageous delivery.

The fact that this film is a short I think is a definite boon. I know we all can't get enough of Wiseau, but compressing him down to 12 minutes works so well that it'll be tragic if someone doesn't utilize him in this way again. I have to say , as well, that however insane Wiseau is in front of the camera, he's actually pretty good behind the camera. His directing adds to and does the intended campiness of the film absolute justice.

"The House That Drips Blood On Alex" is a tongue-in-check effort that does not fail in its comedic attempt, nor in its attempt to showcase Wiseau's special brand of strangeness. Wiseau might be a joke to many, but here he shows that now he's in on it. LaBorde and  Wiseau use our fascination with Wiseau's eccentricities to their advantage, creating a film that not only satisfies Wiseau fans, but a film that should also satisfy anyone with an appreciation of B movie-esque camp. This film is genuinely funny because it succeeds, not because it fails.       
  

You can watch this film over at Atom.com. I highly recommend that you click that link.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Naked, Bloody Wiseaus