Pauly Shore is best known for his broad comedy releases after breaking out on MTV in the 1980s and 1990s, but now he is turning his attention to horror. The new movie is called Remain Calm, and it is a short horror film that runs about 14 minutes long and has a pretty solid cast beyond Shore. The movie features both comedy actors and some great genre favorites. Shore, who hasn’t done much in the 21st century, returns here in a very rare horror performance alongside Nick Swardson and Doug Jones. In the end, it seems that this short horror film took the idea from Smile’s monsters and took it to a more comedic level, while upping the gross-out factor.
Remain Calm is a short horror movie by Jake and Sam Lewis, and it tells the story of a pair of workers at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere who encounter a creature that escaped from a secret government facility close by. The creature will eat anyone who shows fear or stress, so the two men have to laugh, smile big, and show no stress as everything starts to fall apart. “I’m so thrilled by the response of this short that we did with Jake and Sam Lewis, Nick and Doug,” Shore told PEOPLE. “I love that people are digging it. And happy Halloween!” Watch the short film here.
Pauly Shore’s New Horror Movie Is Actually Quite Good
Pauly Shore got his break working on MTV as a VJ whose quips and catchphrases made him a massive star for the slacker generation. He was able to take that success and become a movie star in broad comedies like Encino Man, Son in Law, In the Army Now, and Bio-Dome. However, his brand of comedy was never meant to last, and he faded from popularity as his comedy grew tiresome. In the 21st century, Shore was able to reinvent himself more than once with some interesting projects, including the 2003 mockumentary Pauly Shore Is Dead and the impressive 2024 short film The Court Jester, in which he starred as Richard Simmons.
Now, Shore is back in a horror short that is actually quite impressive. One thing that really helps this short is that Jake and Sam Lewis have really played into some solid horror tropes here and did it well. The music is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s old movies, and the cast is uniformly great. Shore does a surprisingly good job in his role as a man working at the convenience store, clearly recognizable but dialing back his old shtick to a more natural acting level. Nick Swardson is great as usual, and genre favorite Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) shows up in a rare human role as a government agent chasing the escaped creature.
The creature effects are also quite solid for Mr. Frett (played by Kevin Keppy), and there is enough of a mix between humor and gore here to deliver what could be a great comedy-horror movie if the Lewis brothers want to take this to feature length. A feature-length movie would have to play it carefully, because the idea of always having to pretend to laugh and be unstressed could grow old quickly, but if done right, this could be a hilarious feature-length comedy-horror film that could be a cult favorite.
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