Killjoy Goes to Hell (2012) — Triskaidekafiles

KILLJOY GOES TO HELL

WRITER: John Lechago

DIRECTOR: John Lechago

STARRING: Trent Haaga as Killjoy

Victoria De Mare as Batty Boop

Tai Chan Ngo as Freakshow

Al Burke as Punchy

John Karyus as Skid Mark

Stephen Cardwell as Beelzebub

Jason Robert Moore as Detective Ericson

Cecil Burroughs as Detective Grimley

Randy Mermell as Dr. Simmons

Ian Roberts as Bailiff

Jim Tavare as Scribe

Jessica Whitaker as Sandie

QUICK CUT: There’s nothing funny about a trial.

THE MORGUE

Killjoy - An arrogant, mischievous trickster demon, who has lost all his power. He has zero patience and less chill. All he wants is to restore his bad name, and escape out into the word to cause more chaos.

Skid Mark - A nerdy, annoying, brown noser of a recently demonic human who serves as Killjoy’s lawyer. He’s somehow even more self serving than most demons.

Batty Boop - Killjoy’s sidekick and occasional girlfriend. She’s fun loving and seductive, and will do anything to help Killjoy, even if half the time she’d just as happily see him dead. Love is complicated that way.

Sandie - A former victim of Killjoy’s who defeated him by laughing at him, and is still laughing at him to this day, which has driven her a little mad.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! I was reminded that the Killjoy franchise was a thing that existed, so I decided it was time for the fourth movie, Killjoy Goes to Hell. You fool, you're supposed to go to space!! It was 11 years since I tackled the first movie, and this one came out the year before.

The movie opens up in Hell, so that was a short trip. Good night, everyone, thanks for read...oh, there's more movie.

A crone like figure is scuttling around, and finds a piece of something, pleased with it, since "he is looking for" it, and heads back to her shack. Which is sadly not on a pair of chicken legs, but I digress.

She drops the flesh into a cauldron, with some other ingredients, and makes a big bowl of Killjoy soup. Once the gooey naked Hellclown returns, she hands him over to a big buff dude, who chains him up, and drags him off to be put on trial, deeper in Hell. And just cutting to the quick, it's for being not evil enough.

We take a brief trip back to the real world and see Sandie from the previous film, is in an institution, and being questioned by cops about her involvement in those events. She is still laughing to keep Killjoy powerless. Which only serves to make her look less sane.

The lead detectives talks to Sandie, and tells her that he's been going through the professor's files, and coming across lists of names, that he believes belong to a singular entity, and it's a name he remembers from growing up, an urban legend in the inner city...Killjoy. Okay, not gonna lie, I appreciate trying to tie things together, even in a broad way. The movie does it a bit more later, too.

Oily Thor, the Bailiff, takes Killjoy into a Hellevator, and takes him EVEN DEEPER into Hell. for his trial. And for what is an otherwise simple elevator ride, it should not go THIS hard. The music rises, the camera shakes. It's shockingly epic in its simplicity.

Okay, fine, it might not be space, but I GUESS I can accept this.

They sit Killjoy down to meet Judge Beelzebub and the district attorney, or actually "Devil's Advocate" and the Hellclown is as defiant as always. He declares "AH'M KILLJOY!!" and summons his hammer...but it does nothing.

Beelzebub takes "mallus bufoonum" from Killjoy and uses it as his gavel for the rest of the movie, then sends Killjoy off to prepare his case.

Meanwhile, Sandie is talking to her doctor, when she's not laughing, about Killjoy. She insists that is who killed her friends, and he makes clear; Killjoy is not real.

Back in hell, Killjoy meets his lawyer, Skidmark, who can poof in and out of places, but because of handwavey nonsense, he can't spring Killjoy from the big house.

So they make a plan to summon our returning cast from the last movie, the demons Killjoy used, to act as character witnesses about how evil he is.

Batty Boop doesn't want to help though, after the way she was tossed aside, but Skidmore has a talk with her. And we start to get the sense that this guy has more planned than he is letting on.

The trial begins, and Skid Pro Quo is as useless as you would suspect. Either because it's part of his plan to make things worse for Killjoy and take his throne, or because he's truly just that bad. Honestly, probably a little from column A, and a little from column B.

And the DA puts forth her case that Killjoy is no longer worthy of being named in the sacred scrolls, and one of his many names is crossed off. With each name, his identity is lessened, he is removed from the consciousness of reality, and he gets a bit weaker.

Freakshow gets put on the stand but, since he's a mime, he can't exactly say much in Killjoy's defense. Also, if you're gonna make quibbles about, say, written statements, or an interpreter, just remember; this is Hell, and your rules and suggestions mean nothing.

With all due respect your honour, my lawyer is a clown.

Next up, Punchy gets put on the stand, but the most he can do is talk in izzle like he's Snoop Dog. Ultimately, Skidmark is the only one who can translate, or so he claims. He actually tells utter lies to make Killjoy even worse.

And so now it's Batty's turn, and even though she's actually able to communicate almost normally, things go very badly. She's upset with Killjoy, and he gets so frustrated, he apologises to her. An act of kindness. In court. On the record. oops.

Meanwhile, we complicate the plot by meeting a gathering of demonc clowns to decide what they will do at the end of Killjoy's trial. Broadly, they plan to work against him, but Punchy shows up to get them in line and...this is a weird movie.

Batty comes up with a plan to go get Sandie, and have her testify on Killjoy's behalf, and thanks to some stuff Freakshow's been up to, they have access to a magic mirror to go get her.

She takes Freakshow through the portal so they can grab the girl and put her on the stand. The cops want to do the same, because their evidence keeps going missing thanks to Killjoy losing his names.

Eventually, they notice the guard sent to get Sandie hasn't come back yet, and this leads to the only scene of any real horror in this movie, as the clowns take out the cops and cause some other damage.

I thought the police always said “freeze”?

I haven't done a Crow reference during a Killjoy movie in forever. That sure felt good.

Batty Boop finally finds Sandie, and takes her through the mirror, and back to Hell, so we can get to the third act of this movie.

Oh, and because the magic mirror is getting poor signal, and they have to use "clown compression" to handle the signal, when Sandie comes out the other side, she's been a bit clownified. Look, I don’t make the rules.

Beelezejudge grabs Killjoy to go on a little field trip, and the Hellevator goes EVEN MORE DEEPER. How much more down can this movie go??

They eventually reach the final circle of Hell, a formless void that looks like a dying sun, and this is Oblivion. And that is what is in store for Killjoy, once all his names are erased. It will be "like he never existed" and oh, oh happy day.

Finally, Sandie gets called to the stand, and you know what? For a movie about Killjoy being put on trial for his behaviour in the previous movies, this movie has shown a SHOCKING level of restraint in not using a single frame of reusable footage.

......Damnit. Spoke to soon. Right as Sandie takes the stand, she begins recounting what happened to her, and there it is. But, I'll give the movie this, at least its use of old footage is to show the ENTIRETY of Killjoy 3, at an incredibly increased speed. That's funny.

Anyone who chooses to represent themselves at trial is a fool.

Anyways, Sandie really gives it to him, as the foul, despicable demon he is, and the judge is impressed. Not enough to end the trial, but to give Killjoy a chance.

Bad news; it's trial by combat. Good news; it's against Squidward

Killjoy pounds his face in, but that's when we find out what Skidmark's other trick is, and it's all thanks to an earlier encounter with Batty Boop they kept alluding to; she met him as a human, and gave him a bite, which has somehow allowed him to Hulk out.

That's when Punchy and the Clownsel show back up in the plot, and hand Killjoy a bag o' tricks to give him a bunch of gag weapons to use, so things are a bit more even. He only uses like…two of them, but at least they tried.

Not enough though, as Killjoy keeps getting curbstomped. While everyone is distracted by that, Sandie sneaks around, and swipes the mallus buffoonum back from Beelzejudge, tossing it to Killjoy.

Killjoy smashes Skidmark's head with the hammer, and the crowd goes wild. No. Really. They go wild. A man at the back said everyone attack, and it turned into a courtroom blitz.

Bang bang! Killjoy’s wooden hammer came down upon his head!

In all the chaos, Killjoy gets the hellevator key from the judge, and is ready to return to the upper realms.

But before he can leave, he has to see what's in a box the judge left him as a little just in case; and inside is a big red button labeled 'self destruct'.

Killjoy fights his urges, but the merry prankster that he is just can't exist the double whammy of a Big Red Button, and Utter Destruction. So, he presses it.

So, the countdown to his courtroom going boom begins, and Killjoy and friends, and Sandie, rush to make their escape.

They're all happy to be back on Terra Firma, and Killjoy decides to be nice and give Sandie a headstart into the credits, and probably the next movie. What a way to end it.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It looks a bit cheap, and the production values aren’t the best, but the video itself looks good enough, although it lacks a certain cinematic punch.

Audio: The sound is good.

Sound Bite: “Consensual sex? You know what THAT leads to!" "CUDDLING!"

Body Count: It’s a late start, and most of the deaths happen in a blur in the finale, but not terrible.

1 - A shocking 48 minutes in, when Punchy pies Harlequin to death

2 - Freakshow kills a security guard

3 - Batty Boop kills one of the cops

4 - Freakshow kills the other cop

5 - Killjoy squishes Squid's head

6 - And then probably a bunch of deaths during the courtroom brawl

Best Corpse: Oh, that head squish is so, so satisfying.

Blood Type - C+: Not bad, but definitely lacking in the blood department. There’s some good creature designs, though.

Sex Appeal: Oily Thor for the ladies.

Drink Up! Every time one of Killjoy’s names gets crossed off.

Movie Review: I gotta say, I really enjoyed this, for what it is. While I mock the original movie a lot, the series overall has grown on me, and the movies have a lot of fun moments. Some solid campy movies, more often than not. They’re well made, and Trent Haaga is having a blast chewing scenery. Not a classic of the genre, but solid fun. Four out of five mallus buffoonums.

Entertainment Value: Again, Trent chewing the scenery is a highlight, and the court proceedings are just a ridiculous farce of a good time. Four out of five magic mirrors.