I decided to watch 1984’s “Screamplay” under the assumption that it was a middling horror comedy set in the gritty underbelly of Hollywood. Maybe I’d get some spatters of gore, I thought, or at least a blonde starlet losing her clothes on the casting couch.

Umm… no.

Upon clicking the play button, I discovered Screamplay is a black and white film. And it’s the kind of high contrast black and white you associate with Charlie Chaplin films. “What is this?” I raged from my couch. “The 1930s?”

But, you know, it turned out to be an interesting little picture. Protagonist Edgar, played ably by Rufus Butler Seder (who also directed the film), is the stereotypical writer who arrives in Hollywood with stars in his eyes. After almost being killed by a rolling-skating, cross-dressing mugger (you know the type), he ends up in a Hollywood apartment complex fairly similar to one I used to live in. There he meets various archetypes: the former B-Movie actress, the burned out rock musician, the failed agent, the young actress with a head full of dreams. 

Edgar inserts these characters into the murder movie he’s writing and soon finds that the deaths he types onto the page occur in real life. So who is the real killer?

That’s the setup, but it’s hardly taken seriously by this absurdist film. (EVERYONE overacts in that melodramatic 1930s fashion.) This is the kind of thing John Waters would have produced if he was more of a west coast auteur.

I can’t exactly say I recommend it, but if you want a close look at what low-fi, “outsider art” filmmakers were doing in the 80s, this is as good a sample as anything. Those films tend to stick with me in ways more benign fare with higher production values do not.

Lloyd Kaufmen of Troma films (the force behind the “Toxic Avenger” movies and other zaniness) is listed as a producer, but I think that’s only because he purchased and re-released the film.

Despite my opening statement, there is some gore and nudity, but it’s all so, so silly.

Best bit of dialogue: “Love.. hate… they’re all the same to me!”