Reflective Encounters

“Though seemingly at odds with each other in terms of their desired effects, horror and comedy share surprising commonalities in their construction. Both frequently centre on transgressions of everyday norms, and in each there is a weighty importance placed on timing and the careful marshalling of tone. Billy Wilder once said that a comedy audience need not always be laughing, but it must always be primed to laugh at any given moment; in a horror film the maintenance of a sense of suspense or dread carries an equivalently crucial importance.

In Peter the Penguin such overlaps are readily apparent in its balancing act between absurdist farce and the terror of the uncanny. Beginning from a plane of reality with nebbish protagonist Nigel and his nervousness about meeting his new girlfriend’s daughter, the escalating situation surrounding her toy penguin sees his mood shift from one of polite amusement into fear. The arrival of an ambulance crew might appear to offer sharp relief and signal a restoration of objective, exterior sanity to the house, but in a quick stroke it only serves to amplify the film’s evocation of the dualism of hilarity and horror.”

— Jonathan Bygraves