Random In Defense Of 'Nothing But Trouble,' A Macabre Screwball Gem From '90s (12 items)

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  (#3) Judge Valkenheiser's Nose Resembles A Certain Body Part

  Judge Valkenheiser is repellent to look at thanks to the pounds of prosthetics Aykroyd wears. Like some of the most repulsive horror monsters, the detail in Valkenheiser's makeup is astonishing - but there's one particular piece of it that's super gross. 

  Valkenheiser's nose very clearly resembles a man's privates. It's not immediately noticeable when the judge first appears, because the prosthetic changes depending on the scene, but in several close-ups, the suggestively shaped schnoz is 100% a ding dong.

  To really hammer the joke home, the most explicit prosthetic appears when the judge is chowing down on a soggy gray hot dog. The sight nearly makes Chevy Chase's character lose his lunch.
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  (#8) Despite Featuring Famous Comedians, It Isn't Funny In A Traditional Sense

  How can Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Dan Aykroyd star in a film that's meant to be a comedy and not make it funny? It's telling when the funniest line comes from one of the guys in Digital Underground. 

  Nothing but Trouble is best viewed as a surreal, WTF film experience. All of the characters, not just those who live in Valkenvania, act nutty throughout the entire film, and every few minutes there's a new set piece that's crazier than the last. This is a film that's best viewed with a group of friends who don't care about things like narrative structure or character development. 
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  (#10) The Tone Is 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' Meets Bugs Bunny

  Nothing but Trouble isn't a movie that you sit down to enjoy with the family. It's crude, the film looks grimy, and none of the characters are particularly worth rooting for - aside from the constable played by Candy, but he disappears halfway through the movie. 

  The film seems to take its tonal cues from both from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Merry Melodies cartoons of the 1950s. The Bugs Bunny feeling is evident in the vignette-esque nature of the film, and in the way that its characters act like complete cartoons. For example, at one point Chevy Chase jumps through a wall and leaves a person-shaped hole behind him. 

  As far as the film's connection to Chainsaw, the set design of the judge's mansion is a major hat tip to that '70s panic-fest, as is the gross-out dinner scene, the family of disgusting weirdos, and the group of cityfolk who find themselves in trouble (and nothing but!) when they go off the beaten path. 

  Even if the film doesn't deliver on its promises of being a horror-comedy, it's worth watching to see the way Aykroyd blends all of his influences into one big, bizarre movie. 
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  (#4) Valkenheiser Might Be Undead

  Technically, Judge Valkenheiser is 106 years old, but considering his physical state (he wears several prosthetic body parts), he might be technically undead. Nothing but Trouble never gets into it, but there are some hints that the judge has been feeding on the poor folks that get trapped in his house of horrors. 

  The most overt hint arrives with the Digital Underground (yes, that Digital Underground). When the hip-hop group finds themselves in front of the judge, they note that his residence is "extremely Draculated." They probably mean that the residence is just spooky, but it's also a tip of the hat to the judge's status as a member of the undead. 

  Other hints to Valkenheiser's zombie-like nature include the piles of bones that fill his home, and his ability to survive the film's explosive finale.
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  (#11) Valkenvania Is Based On A Real Place

  Valkenvania, the rural Pennsylvania town that was ruined by wealthy industrialists and turned into a desolate place where smoke and fire literally billow out of the streets, is actually based on a real place. Centralia, Pennsylviania, was once a major mining town before it was wiped out by an underground fire that began in 1962 and is still burning to this day. 

  Centralia has since become a ghost town with a handful of remaining residents. Aside from being the basis of the town in Nothing but Trouble, it's also the inspiration for the film adaptation of Silent Hill.
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  (#7) The 'Mr. Bonestripper' Roller Coaster Is Everything

  In this very real movie that definitely exists, there's a section in which the judge sentences a malcontent (played by Daniel Baldwin) and his friends to execution by roller coaster. Their sentence is carried out for the transgression of speeding through Valkenheiser's town with a bunch of unlawful paraphernalia. Rather than just drop them into a pit or something, the judge loads the quartet onto a roller coaster called "Mr.  Bonestripper," which does... exactly what it sounds like it does. 

  Mr. Bonestripper is basically a carnival ride lined with flame-throwers and spinning blades. Inside, there's a bunch of mechanical teeth that chew up Baldwin and his friends, and then spit out their bones.  

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