Fans of Psych may have only just recovered from the intense withdrawal of the finished series, but there is good news. James Roday has taken the directing skills he honed on episodes like A Nightmare on State Street and This Episode Sucks to a feature film: Gravy. In an interview with Uproxx Movies Roday mentions that “comedy-horror can be especially tricky” – any horror fan knows this to be true. He chose to put the film in order of “comedy first, horror second” and it shows, in the best way.
The film gets off to a slower than usual start, introducing Anson flirting with a girl at a convenience store. This scene ends up paying off a few times throughout the movie, so it’s worth it. We move to the restaurant where we get to know the various employees – the bartender who just got a new job as a paramedic, the security guard studying for a history test (Gabourey Sidibe, who is amazing in her role) with the stuck-up French chef, the wanna-be boxer, a stuck-up party girl, and the lovable manager. Crying in the bathroom is the forgotten patron who is already having the worst day of his life.
The film gets you invested in the characters quickly, without falling on too many tired tropes. One of the strengths of Gravy is that when it uses tropes it often flips the script or takes it to a different place that will either get a good laugh out of the viewer or make them view the trope completely differently. When the action starts, the film gets funny fast.
Anson (Michael Weston), the lovable clown from the convenience store, his brother Stef (Jimmi Simpson), and Stef’s girlfriend Mimi (Lily Cole) are the crazed cannibals with gourmet palates that have taken over the small restaurant, welding the doors shut from the inside. Once they get the employees tied up and stuff their mouths with tangelos the fun starts. It becomes clear from the start that this is not your average home (restaurant) invasion or cannibal horror movie. Interested in “fairness” and having a good time, the trio choose who will become their next course by playing games. While Stef is in the kitchen with the chef, Yannick (Lothaire Bluteau) preparing the first course, the next victim is chosen by a rousing game of The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Where Gravy wins where other comedy-horror fails, is when they don’t rely on the absurdity for laughs. It is there, when it works; but smarter jokes make up most of the gags, and the film is surprisingly progressive in its comedy. The only off-color jokes are told by Mimi, who causes tension between the brothers for being a bigoted bully. The film makes it clear that even crazed cannibal killers look down on the kind of people who throw out gay slurs when Anson tells her, “You’re ugly on the inside.” 
Gravy isn’t scary, but neither was Zombeavers or most of the other films that try to pass for comedy-horror in the current cinematic climate. The gore is there, for sure. As a fan of horror, I’ve always felt a film has to earn its gore. It’s not enough to simply spray blood and guts around and expect a reaction from viewers who have seen it all before. The film has to bring something to the table (pardon the pun) that makes the effects worth the budget. Gravy brings it. The action sequences are fast, intense, and often fun. The jokes are on point and there are several laugh-out-loud moments. The kills are creative, and the relationship between the three killers is interesting and compelling.
Gravy actually pulls off the delicate balance of making you like Anson and his brother despite what they are doing, and still have you root for their victims to win. Even the Final Girl manages to smash tropes in her own interesting ways. I won’t give away the ending, because Gravy does a decent job of keeping even the most cynical viewer guessing. Walking the line between comedy and horror leaves room for them to pull a few tricks out of their hat in ways a pure horror or pure comedy film couldn’t.
Michael Weston, Sutton Foster, Lothaire Bluteau, and Gabourey Sidibe give amazing performances and the soundtrack is absolutely killer. This is a promising debut from Roday and I definitely want to see more. I’m almost glad Psych ended, if it’s going to bring more films like this to the screen.
*Gravy is now available on Blu-Ray/DVD and OnDemand.
