Warning, this post contains spoilers for the recent Banana Splits horror movie and discussion of gore, in case that's not your thing.

Others have written about disappointing WAM setups on TV and in movies that failed to live up to their promise: thrown pies that missed, the wrong stooge getting it, etc.

Well, I cannot believe how meticulously the Banana Splits Movie script writers set up the opportunity (and the actual set) for an ultra-rare horror/slapstick WAM crossover scene, then completely and totally squandered the opportunity. I liked the movie overall but am still beyond annoyed at this!

Spoilers, again: The movie is based on the late-Sixties kid's show, with the animatronic band still on TV before a live audience 50 years later. Only when the show gets cancelled, the characters go haywire and the bodies start piling up. That's...really all you need to know, plot-wise. This is very likely inspired by the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy's movie that WB was originally slated to film.

So although it was never in the original TV show, each episode involves a segment called "Sloppytime," a messy obstacle course. The Splits throw pies at the contestants while they navigate the course, which includes wading through ankle-deep red gunge and crossing a ball pit. I *thought* I knew exactly where this was headed when the adult victims were forced onto the set, but then it got disappointing really fast.

The characters, one of whom was a genuine all-around good guy, were tortured and wounded, then set loose into the course, sobbing in pain and fear. So that alone crossed the line to torture porn versus the wickedly ironic and ridiculous fates previous victims had met in the movie, but then things really went downhill.

They completely wasted the WAM setup! The Splits missed every single pie and only spattered a few specks of whipped cream on their victims' backs, and the victims made it through the red gunge without being significantly slowed down or dirty. I guess the point is that it looked like (more) blood? Instead of any WAM-related fate, they were offed in the most generic way possible for a horror film, one of them with a simple stabbing we'd already seen in the film.

I liked the movie overall but am still sore about this. It proves they shouldn't have been trusted with the FNaF script anyway and it's in better hands now with a smaller studio. Just really sloppy writing, pun intended.

I'm also mad the good-guy character didn't make it. Forced (non-sexual) WAM with an element of true fear is totally my thing, writing-wise.

That's all. Just venting with like minds, I guess.

One banana two banana three banana four
We're all disappointed there wasn't more gore
Four banana, three banana, two banana one
Why do these movies spoil our fun

Flipplin' like a cream pie, poppin like a cork
If you rent this movie you are a big dork

One banana, two bananas we really don't care
All we really want is a white plastic chair

Tra la la, la la la la.
Tra la la, la la la la.
Tra la la, la la la la.
Tra la la, la la la la.

And THAT is for sticking that stupid ass theme song in my head.

Yeah, the biggest dorks BUY the DVD outright. Guilty as charged.

And sorrynotsorry for the earworm, but those are great lyrics!

Thanks for getting that restuck back in my head now

I was a huge fan of the Banana Splits as a kid and now have the song stuck in my head (Thanks Robbie). Even had a stuffed pillow of Bingo (the Gorilla guy).
No comment on the movie or WAM, just wanted to mention having the Banana Splits pillow.

Especially for Robby, the punk version by those Dickies.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=flMS2gHFOH0

I can relate to this. There is, technically, a WAM scene in "Eden Lake" (kind of a UK "Deliverance", which came out about 10 years ago), where the gorgeous Kelly Reilly hides in a bin full of mud and rubbish. But it's not at all sexy.

First, from the way other characters react when they open the bin, the smell is supposed to be pretty revolting, and I like my WAM hygienic! Second, the context is that a feral gang of teenagers have already murdered her fiance and she's hiding in fear of her life. Forget it. Terror isn't erotic at all, and so for me wiped out the WAM aspect when she stands up, covered in muck, after everyone's gone.

Happily, I can't remember the Banana Splits song. It was shown in the UK when I was growing up in the 1980s, but I never paid much attention to it so right now I'm escaping the earworm that's infecting everyone else...

Wow! What did you do?

I did enjoy "Eden Lake", btw. Stuff of Daily Mail nightmares. I also really liked....the first Descent, back in 2005. Must admit, I passed on the sequel, sorry!

The Descent is a true classic, arguably one of the best horror films of this century. (Less "cerebral" than It Follows or Hereditary, but more visceral and scary.) Seeing it in a small theater was something.

Pretty sure The Descent 2 was just the studio owning the rights to the name and trying to cash in. Neither Neil Marshall nor any of the other principals behind the first film were involved in the sequel.

Now that's rock n roll! (Apologies to Shaun Cassidy)

Someone get this man a record deal.

Surprised no one has mentioned the pie fight from 'Danger Island' ("Oh oh, CHONGO!") with the cannibal-istic natives (it was probably shaving cream) but with one good (quick) pie smush in the face of the leader's cute blond daughter...I remember how utterly ridiculous and unexpected this pie fight was...stuck in the middle of yet another silly (but kinda fun) episode of this short-length 'series within a series' (of the BS show).

You can see a few clips from the fight here (but they cut out the daughter's hit, sorry, can't find the full scene):

https://youtu.be/QB6dnIB8jjo