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The Mystery Team Solves the Case of the Haunted Hotel

Posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 by Russ Fischer

mystery_team_1

The DERRICK Comedy group, aka the folks behind the movie Mystery Team, did a killer panel at recently Comic Con. One of the highlights was a new Mystery Team short called The Case of the Haunted Hotel, which showed just how the comedy group packs some really sick jokes into an unsettlingly friendly atmosphere. Now the short is online to help promote the roadshow rollout of the feature prior to its nationwide opening in October. The excellent short is after the break.

Seeing this short with an audience would be the ideal experience, but I think you’ll get the idea even watching alone. Director Dan Eckman, producer Meggie McFadden and writer/performers D.C. Pierson, Don Glover and Dominic Dierkes manage to combine a genuine childlike worldview with some really awful adult experience, and it’s a potent piece of comedy. And if you live in Austin you can see them perform live for the premiere of Mystery Team at the Alamo Ritz on August 27. Another seven roadshow dates are planned for the film in the midwest and south before the movie opens for real this fall. You can get all those dates at the official website.

I’ve had a few chances to talk to the DERRICK folks, but haven’t yet been able to see the feature, so here’s what Peter had to say about Mystery Team when he saw it at Sundance:

Mystery Team is a film about a group of former Encyclopedia Brown-type child-detectives who have yet to grow up and are still solving stupid crimes during senior year of High School. When an 8-year-old hires the team to solve a case of her parents double murder, the Mystery team must face the first adult case in the team’s history…The Derrick comedy group have perfectly captured the feeling of reading an Encyclopedia Brown type mystery on acid.

Editor’s Update: Here is a listing of opening release dates for Mystery Team:

8/27 Austin, TX MYSTERY TEAM Premiere with Derrick Comedy Live!
8/28 Austin, TX
9/4 Athens, GA
9/11 Gainesville, FL
9/11 Tallahassee, FL
9/18 Ames, IA
9/18 Iowa City, IA
9/25 Columbia, MO
9/25 Lawrence, KS
October – NATIONWIDE

Tickets to the Austin event will go on sale 8/14 and will be available for purchase at the Alamo’s website.

Comments

Dr_Mecha

WTF? Is the whole movie done is this silly, over-acted style?

glenjm

Yes. It was brutal.

Fir3Wolf

I've never heard of these guys prior to hearing about the movie at Sundance. I saw the trailer and I found it really funny so I do want to see it. After watching this I still do, that was really funny imo. Maybe I'm just an easy person to please and make laugh but that doesn't bother me.

Jose Antonio Coa

OMG that was awful :(

Brandon Feagan

I thought it was completely hilarious. I think I laughed harder at this clip than at any point in Land of the Lost or Funny People.

facebook-68901664

Hilarious. Can't wait for the movie to hit theaters. I tried to make it to the LA Mystery Team screening and couldn't get seats.

RyanL2BT

I agree with all of the comments here. Except for the comment about liking this in small doses. I couldn't stand this for longer than a minute. Not into it, at all.

Nokoo

I didn't care for the video. The jokes fell flat and the acting was rather weak for this style of comedy.

quintushalls

I like this in small doses. I don't think I could watch a 2 hour movie of this. I'd be bored in 10 minutes.

Dr_Handsome

To me their online sketches never seemed all that funny and I was really hoping that they'd have gotten better since those days. As far as this video goes, I can't say that's entirely true. I'm actually pretty disappointed too.

In the end this all just seems like a poor spin on the boy detective concept being done brilliantly on the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. Like this short or not, I'd highly recommend that show to anyone and everyone.

Saladinho

I like the concept, but I really couldn't get into the execution of it at all. I don't think I'd want to see a full feature of this.

djoser

These guys are hilarious- ly awkward and ridiculously uncool.

Their supporting cast seems like they carry a good part of the actual humor, which they do quite effectively.

I'd like to see Derrick do some other characters, b/c they have an interesting chemistry. I just think Mystery Team is a bit ... juvenile for my tastes.

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