Parents' Guide to

Haunted Honeymoon

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Tame scares, not many laughs in '80s horror-comedy.

Movie PG 1986 82 minutes
Haunted Honeymoon Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Rpeters111111
Rpeters111111 Adult
October 28, 2018
age 16+

Too much sexual inuendo

While there is no nudity, the first 30 minutes alone was embarrassing to watch with my 12 year old. The sex rating should be 3 stars. One guy is necking a woman profusely. Wilder gets into bed with who he thinks is his fiance and starts fondling the person and then gets on top them. This is very much an adult movie.

This title has:

Too much sex
Belinda N.
Belinda N. Parent of 6, 9 and 12-year-old
October 11, 2018
age 11+

It’s got some generic horror scares, but it’s boring

It’s a bad movie. It’s got some swearing in it, like hell and goddamn are used. Pissed is also used, but I don’t consider that a real swear. But the main problem is how dull this movie is. It uses generic stuff to scare us with, like a hand coming out of a grave and that kind of stuff. It’s really boring to sit through.

This title has:

Too much swearing
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In HAUNTED HONEYMOON, Larry Abbot (Gene Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Gilda Radner) co-star on the popular 1930s radio program "Manhattan Mystery Theater" and are engaged to be married. However, since the engagement, Larry has developed a speech impediment that threatens to destroy his career. Larry's uncle, a doctor, decides, without informing Larry, that the best way to cure Larry is to startle him out of his speech impediment (similar to how people are startled out of having hiccups). Larry and Vickie travel to the old castle where he grew up. In the castle, Larry reunites with several of his very eccentric relatives, including his Great Aunt Kate (Dom DeLuise), who hints at past debauchery in the castle and hints at impending doom. Larry's uncle lets the family in on his plan to cure Larry's speech problems through scares, but it immediately becomes difficult to determine if the scares are part of the cure, or the efforts of a family member trying to get rid of Larry so as to collect on Great Aunt Kate's inheritance, or something far more sinister.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Considering the talent involved, this movie should be funnier than it actually is. Director, co-writer, and star Gene Wilder attempted an homage to the "comedy chillers" of the 1930s, but even with earnest intentions, the talents of his wife Gilda Radner, Dom DeLuise, and a gifted ensemble cast, Haunted Honeymoon never comes close to what Wilder achieved with Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein or the wacky camp of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Instead, the movie is a jumble of three or four conflicts and storylines, with none of the scares remotely as frightening as Dom DeLuise dressed in drag as Great Aunt Kate.

This would also be Gilda Radner's last movie before her untimely passing from ovarian cancer in 1989. The fact that the beautiful chemistry between Radner and Wilder -- married in real-life -- is the most entertaining and memorable aspect to this movie gives the scenes between the two a bittersweet sadness. But that magic cannot overcome the rest of the movie's shortcomings, and the end result was a box office bomb and a minor footnote in their otherwise incredible careers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about comedy-horror movies. Can "comedy" and "horror" be in the same movie, or do the two tend to cancel each other out?

  • How did Haunted Honeymoon attempt to mine humor out of the conventions of haunted house-style horror movies?

  • How do you think the movie would be different if it came out today?

Movie Details

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