'SNL' fan favorite: New Horror Trailer
Saturday Night Live
Filmmaker Wes Anderson can add the cast of "SNL" to his fan club. On Saturday night, the show turned out a spot-on Halloween-themed spoof of the director's stylized movies, but it came off as more of a sweet homage than mockery. The digital short, "The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders," featured classic Anderson fixtures, such as detailed sets, use of stationery, and obsession with objects, like stuffed animal heads. The spoof includes a man with a falcon, murderous twins in matching tracksuits, a record player, a stop-motion mouse, and notes on personalized stationery: "Dear homeowners, can we kill you? – The murderers." "It's a good game of spot-the-reference for Anderson fans," pointed out Indie Wire. Host Ed Norton, who starred in the actual Anderson movie "Moonrise Kingdom" as a scoutmaster, played a shaggy-haired actor Owen Wilson, who has also starred in past Anderson vehicles. The impression is almost freakishly perfect, down to the nasally voice. Alec Baldwin, who narrated "The Royal Tenenbaums," appeared, in a turtleneck and smoking a pipe, to narrate the parody as well. "The murderers all look like they're straight out of, well, a Wes Anderson movie," gushed the Atlantic Wire. "They could not have hit every Anderson beat better." In fact, reviews on the Web instantly clamored for an actual Anderson version of a horror movie. As Gawker's review put it, "This 'SNL' West Anderson horror movie parody isn't real but it should be." Over on Twitter, the fake slasher film looked scary good to viewers. Gene Pease @iamgeneoh posted, "That SNL Wes Anderson Horror movie spoof is great. I'd totally watch it." Maritza Lugo @PolaRoid_Rage added, "The Wes Anderson horror movie spoof needs to be real. It's so Wes Anderson, Wes Anderson is confused by how Wes Anderson it is."