Street Date: June 10

Official Synopsis:
Otis is a story of suburban America gone haywire. In the midst of a serial abductor/killer’s rampage, a beautiful young teen, Riley Lawson (Ashley Johnson), goes missing. When her desperate parents, Will and Kate (Daniel Stern and Illeana Douglas), are contacted by her kidnapper, an insufferable FBI Special Agent (Jere Burns) takes charge of the case. But, from deep within the psychopathic subterranean world created by Otis (Bostin Christopher), Riley turns the tables on her tormentor, manages to escape and to contact her parents. Fed up with the tragi-comic inability of the FBI to find their girl, Will, Kate and Riley’s brother, Reed (Jared Kusnitz), decide to take matters - and justice - into their own hands. But when Otis brother, Elmo (Kevin Pollak), shows up unexpectedly, the Lawsons find themselves mired in one of the more unusual and macabre consequences of vigilantism.
  
Our Take:
Baffling. Confusing. Retarded. Those are all good words to describe Otis. Horror. Comedy. Witty. Relevant. Those, on the other hand, are words that can’t be used when speaking about whatever genre, or type, or whatever-the-hell kind of movie Otis is.

And I say all of the above with conviction. I have no idea what type of movie Otis is supposed to be and I honestly don’t think the filmmakers had any clue either. Although after listening to the commentary, it’s obvious that the filmmakers have somehow managed to take this movie on a serious level.

I was semi-on-track with this movie from the trailer I saw and with the knowledge that it stars Daniel Stern (who rocks hard) and Illeana Douglas; heck, even Kevin Pollack shows up for a bit. But they are all thrown away to waste in what at one time looked like it could have been a funny riff on Last House On The Left. Instead it turns out to be nothing more than a bunch of awkward situations strung together and labeled as a plot.

Special features on the DVD include:

* Commentary by Director Tony Krantz and Writer Erik Jendresen.

* Festive Alternate Ending The Birthday Party (6 minutes) – With optional commentary.

* The Twisted World Of Otis (12 minutes).

* Additional Scene Suite 16 (3 minutes).

It’s hard to say to someone to stay away from Otis at all costs, because who am I to say that absolutely no one in the world would find something to enjoy in this movie? But the sad fact of the matter is that’s it’s absolutely terrible.

Overall Picture:
Movie: F
DVD: B-

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer