Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

Director: Gene Wilder

Starring: Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Dom DeLuise

Two radio voice actors are getting married. Larry has fits of fear. A shrink needs 36 hours to scare him to death and cure him – during a family reunion at a scary family castle.

To call the film’s premise preposterous, would be euphemistically speaking. Nothing about this horror comedy made any sense and might just as well have been a school stage play.

Gene Wilder stars as voice artist Larry, who suddenly developed a speech impediment since asking fellow voice performer Vickie (Gilda Radner) to marry him. Larry’s uncle, Dr Abbot, believes he can be cured with a form of shock therapy – to “scare him to death”.

And so they head to the castle where Larry grew up, and Vickie meets Larry’s unconventional and dysfunctional family. Dom de Luise stars as Larry’s eccentric Aunt Kate, and I thought Dom was quite funny portraying this character. While the family is playing tricks on Larry, there is something more sinister lurking on the castle grounds…

‘Haunted Honeymoon’ is a film for kids. They might enjoy the silly characters, costumes, make-up, over-acting and all the fun and games. From a mature point of view, though, this was a bit too silly. In time, I doubt very much I’m going to remember what the film was actually all about. Not that the unbelievable premise will help at all… Ultimately, this was just too weird.

‘Haunted Honeymoon’ flopped at the box office, earning $8 million on a $9 million budget.

Would I watch it again? No.