The instantly grabbing element of Oh Jeff! is actually a formalist one. This isn’t a side-by-side horror venture: there’s no guts, no run and gun, no horror show with screaming victims… but there is plenty of comical performance here, and a post-modern and very social contextual idea that surrounds the main structure of the film.
Oh Jeff! also features a really consciously snazzy edit at its heart – it is born out of a strange concept, one that is really a kind of buddy film gone wrong (or is it ‘gone right?’ – in the context of horror at least this is a yes… but of course, it is a strange event in a way… a sub-genre fit in an awkward middle ground).
The film’s use of sub-genre (which feels like a toe-dip into fantasy-comedy-horror plus, the buddy film genre)…, which helps shape the larger style, is greatly enhanced by the performances. The actors in this film know what they are starring in. And the film provides a platform for the characters ‘to live’ in. They inhabit a time and space that is unique to their personas and the situation which they are in…
…and it is all FUCKING NUTS. So, sit back and enjoy as these two personas, who are meant to be just having a chat, go wildly off-topic and scare you in a fun psychologically tangled way.
