Phillip Shih (director)
Signature Entertainment (studio)
15 (certificate)
85 mins (length)
06 October 2014 (released)
04 October 2014
Fade in... We see the face of a serial killer and 'Cult' Leader who failed to die on the chair and escape mid shocking. We then move onto a young woman is running away from a crime she has committed. She decides to hitchhike as this will be her only transport away from the place. She meets a grim salesman who seems to only want her body but when she finds out he is loaded, she plans to string him along and fleece him. They stop off at a hotel that is being prowled by the undead spirit of 'cult' villain and new horror movie franchise 'The Reaper'
Oh boy this is going to be tricky. A B movie which wants to be an A movie is not a bad thing in itself. The majority of horror films in the B and C lists are simple this and unashamedly so! When however the film seems to have been built by finance people and built on a planned trajectory of sequel, horror monster franchise and lots of saleable stuff it sucks the life out of the viewer and fast. This film is exactly that thing which almost all horror fans loath. It is a planned cash cow, with dull ideas and weak aspirations. In the last few months a few of these films have floated about on straight to DVD / Blu ray. They want to take Jeepers Creepers and Wrong Turns success and make a run with it. Both of those films were ok and the second Wrong turn was brilliant in fact but this film would have a long way to go.
The issues are vast and hard to put down without sounding like a total hater of the film. Its shot annoyingly badly, with no interest in even the basic build up to frights or creativity in say a major part of horror, that of tension. Then it feels flat, like the director and some of the cast gave up about five minutes in and now want to wing it till the end. The self reference is boring and feels crow barred in, like a writer saw Scream and thought I could add that and get some credibility. Boy, were they wrong. The film doesn’t even compel you to watch further. I actually wanted to get up and instruct the film makers in how to get people to care by making the story have connections. Slice and dice is fine but done in a way that even the 80s worse slasher films would look at and nod in disgust is saying something.
So did this film have any positives? It did and yes they were hard to find but after a comprehensive search I did find four. The first is Danny Trejo, He is an actor that suits this role well and he is a likeable guy. He is also the reason the film gets four stars. It would have been 1 without him and I know he doesn’t read press but he is a good guy and an actor that I like to spend my time watching! Two, this film will not spawn a sequel and as such almost everyone in it will look back after doing better things and say, we survived. Three is simple. Vinnie Jones is in it for such a short time that he doesn’t irritate. Then four, the lead actress Shayla Beesley will do better things and like Roxanne
Pallett is real hot and deserves more than this.
Hopefully the next review will be nicer!