Pulp Modern: Die Laughing
A Review
Featuring buckets of blood, severed limbs, cannibals, a demonic talking cockatoo, and a Beethoven soundtrack, Pulp Modern: Die Laughing is a series of horror-comedy shorts adapted from a special issue of Pulp Modern, the long-running independent pulp fiction anthology magazine. While certainly a throwback, this fast-moving grindhouse feature comes off as uniquely fresh in 2024. It is both unapologetically R-rated and, in an especially unusual turn for our gray, present day, Pulp Modern: Die Laughing seeks to genuinely make people laugh with gags that are free from any modern puritanical or ideological guidelines.
These five shorts, each with different directors and crews, are woven together by a cool late night D.J. dude named Mr. C, played by the author and real-life DJ Alec Cizak, also the original founder of the Pulp Modern publication. As Mr. C spins various classical tracks that bring a haunting timelessness and gravitas to a film which is proudly ridiculous, we see he’s getting stalked. Someone’s sending him mysterious packages in the mail which he opens while hosting his radio show, and each package serves as the instigation for a new story.
The first two sections are Overkill and Mirrored. Overkill is a teens-camping-and-getting-picked-off-in-the-woods horror story where the Jason-like killer just won’t die, no matter how hard the lone surviving heroine tries to finish him off. Before the murders get underway, we see these teens satirically converse with each other over the campfire like modern day insufferable woke snowflakes. While it seems unlikely that teens in 2024 could survive that long without iPhone reception, it’s certainly hilarious and absurd. Mirrored is about a cursed mirror that projects back some unpleasant images.
The third section, Rest Stop, is the most traditionally accomplished. Based on a short story by Stephen King, it follows a New England professor with a successful writing career that seems to be having too powerful an effect on the rest of his life. Rest Stop is longer than the other stories and has the slickest production value. It’s confident and impressive material.
Cocky is about a young man living with his mother who teaches dirty words to a cockatoo that proves to be demonically possessed. Cocky is the funniest part of a very funny film and Simon Laherty, the actor playing the young man, was a standout in the cast. Laherty’s comic timing is excellent and Cocky is the best section of the film.
Sloppy Seconds is the final installment and then the Mr. C. storyline is all tied together.
Speaking as an author who was once published in Pulp Modern, I can tell you why I’m so happy this magazine endures. These days, most short story anthologies exist to lift various writers’ careers — their subject prompts are reliably connected to whatever “The Current Thing” happens to be and therefore, when published, lack staying power because of the fleeting, social-media-centered derivation of their themes. Of course, most of this stuff lacks any real entertainment value, something anyone still capable of having any fun can see. (“Did you catch that pulp crime story about gentrification in the latest issue of Circle Jerk? I think it was important. It think it will truly change things.”)
Pulp Modern never trafficked in a pompous, superficial agenda of this sort. PM is fun for any reader, not just the “independent fiction community.” By bringing to cinematic life one of their showcase issues in such a fun and often absurd way, Pulp Modern has shown their commitment to that agenda — Pulp Modern: Die Laughing truly is a blast. Be sure to check it out.
