As has been mentioned many times before by reviewers and critics, including myself, horror comedies are often the toughest films to create. And while I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some films that pulled off the balancing act well, such as the recent Patchwork. Then there are those films where the comedy tends to fall flat, like the skits in Hillbilly Horror Show. Nevertheless, comedy is always a subjective thing. What may be funny to you, might not register the same with someone else, and so on. This brings us to Jimmy Lee Combs’ Hans Crippleton: Talk to the Hans. Part faux reality show, part zombie film, Hans Crippleton at first glance seems more in line with a Troma film in terms of its brand of humour (which I never got). Nonetheless, an open mind is key for something like this. An open and inebriated mind, it turns out.

Barnaby Hunt (Andy Hankins) hosts a show called Horror Hunts, a documentary show devoted to reporting on paranormal events and personalities. This particular episode involves the Crippleton family and their farm. Hans Crippleton (Kevon Ward) is in charge of the farm, which apparently has a bit of a zombie problem. This is on top of Hans’ struggle to deal with the fame and celebrity that comes with the farm, as well as his own line of merchandise (not to mention his obvious physical and mental handicap). Other members of the family include One Legged Sis (Katie Bevard), cousin Bumpkin’s (Heath C. Heine) moonshine production, and The Doctor (Ryan Manley-Rohrer), whose experiments are ethically dubious.

Reportedly shot for $5000, the makeup, creature effects and sets are quite impressive for the money involved. Granted, you will get the blatantly obvious cheap stuff (such as Hans’ hand, most obviously). But given the ambitiousness of the crew (judging from the making-of videos on Youtube), as well as the humour involved, the cheapness again hearkens back to the Troma style of films and film effects. There’s a certain charm to these sort of things, and they shouldn’t necessarily be entirely passed off as simply being cheap.

The acting also goes in hand with the “Troma-esque” quality of the film. The cast obviously enjoyed their roles, and subsequently made for some great chemistry and interactions with each other. It’s still amateur acting, but at least they enjoyed doing it. Hankins played up the stereotypical British host Barnaby Hunt, mimicking the intonations of a BBC documentary host. Obviously, it’s a satire, so bowler hat is included. Kevon Ward pulls off the goofy inbred titular character with ease, while also selling the idea that fame has gone to Hans’ head. The rest of the cast all play to the camera realistically, just like many of the families and individuals reality TV shows that revolve around them.

Now comes that “subjectivity” part in regards to the humour. Obviously, this isn’t going to be high-brow. From the moment the film shows the home video of Hans’ birth in the field (think a puppet of a fetus being dragged by its umbilical cord), you know this is going squarely for the Troma crowd. It’s definitely playing to a certain crowd. The main problem for the film is its pacing. It’s all over the place, as is the plot. The zombie component feels very tacked on, and only comes into play in the last half hour of the film where they take a bulk of the subject matter. It doesn’t help that the film’s runtime plays to the film’s detriment. A film like this should not clock in at 100 minutes. There’s simply not enough of a plot to keep the audience’s attention, no matter how absurd or offensive the jokes get.

Hans Crippleton apes the Troma formula almost perfectly. This is either good or bad news, depending on your love of Troma films. There’s an obvious enthusiasm to be seen in the cast and crew, who clearly loved making this film. The humour, plot and effects again have that certain charm that will either have you laughing or rolling your eyes. This is certainly not a film for every horror fan, but if you enjoy this sort of humour, then there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this one.