The Refrigerator (1991)

(In French, On Cable TV, February 2020) There is, amazingly enough, quite a subgenre of “killer objects” horror comedies out there. Cars, dolls, beds… refrigerators: anything mundane can be possessed enough to kill you if you’re not careful. The Refrigerator at least delivers on its premise, having a fridge eating people. (You’d be surprised how many high-concept horror movies barely deliver on their main attraction.) Of course, the whole thing is silly and is executed in a silly way—even if calling it a “funny” film is overselling it. Writer-director Nicholas Jacobs isn’t afraid to go for the truly weird along the way, and that’s how we end up with actors playing opposite human-sized bottles of milk in shots meant to portray the weirdness taking place inside the fridge. The late-1980s fashions add to The Refrigerator’s eeriness. In keeping with the time/tone/genre, there is some welcome nudity—although most of it leads to death or other gruesome gore. Phyllis Salaberrios looks good—too bad she’s not in more of the film. Narratively, it becomes clearer as the film advances that there’s not quite enough plot to fill the film’s running time. Some domestic-abuse material feels out of place until it later justifies a death that would have been off-putting without that background. But the weirdness doesn’t quite gel, unfortunately, and we’re left with a film that’s not that funny, not that horrific, not that controlled nor all that satisfying. The low budget of The Refrigerator clearly takes a toll, but not as much as its unfocused script.