Grand Hotel

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2017)

Set in a world in which monsters fear the wrath of human beings, Count Dracula runs a refuge and has to hide the fact that his latest guest is really a lost human backpacker this animated comedy. While never short on imagination, the film begins poorly with lame flatulence and urination gags as well as silly wordplay with terms like "holy rabies" and "scream cheese". The humour does not really improve as the movie progresses either (fingers stuck up noses), but the main characters become well developed and likable, especially the backpacker - an avid horror fan who enjoys interacting with the monsters with a natural curiosity, sticking his hands into skeletons and so forth. Some of the backdrop gags work well too (the backpacker beaten up by an invisible knight) and there is a great sequence towards the end where the monsters come across a town in which they are celebrated as horror legends rather than feared. The film does, however, also become more sentimental as it progresses, especially as Dracula's daughter predictability falls in love, but the overall product is more enjoyable than one might expect from the barrage of toilet humour and groan-inducing wordplay puns early on.