I read the reviews prior to watching this, as usual. What struck me as odd is:
- First, when reading the reviews they tend to have similar style, technical & writing expertise, a have similar flow, even those that aren't similar in content. You know...as if the same person was writing each review, intending for them to be different, but since a writer can't hide his style and word choice (without trying), we know it's the same person.
- Second, probably 2/3 of these similarly styled reviews end with a mention of being excited to see the movie again when they but the DVD. STILL coincidence?
- Third, each of the longer (but similarly style) reviews mention how the nurse is an homage to Jason, Freddy, or Michael Meirs. The mention is done under the context of how well the movie's antagonist performs as a legacy-level slasher.
- Lastly, each of the accounts who wrote a review signed up the same day, and have exactly ONE review...a STELLAR review of this movie, some going as far as stating that the acting and the cast performed at rarely seen levels of skill. I've watched it...any reviewer with such polished writing skills (and intelligence) who says THIS movie exhibits exceptional acting and chemistry did not watch the same movie I did. More on that later.
I mean, come on...do these phony reviewers think all IMDB review readers are brain dead and won't pick up on reviews written by the same person?
As with all my reviews, there are no spoilers. Re: the film's production, it is pretty bad all around.
- The acting is terrible. The majority of actors in the film have likely never acted a day in their life. Or if they have, it is without training. Conversations between characters sound and feel like the actors memorized a script and are reciting by request. There is nothing convincing from any actor...I mean...it's bad. Even the back-and-forth "fight" between the "white gangsta" and his "hoe" sound like two cardboard cutouts reciting lines from book. I picked out at least 6 examples of actors forgetting or flubbing lines; they were left in the movie and. It edited out. That's bad. Even with a good script the actors wouldn't have pulled it off. It's them, not the script. Though the script is exceptionally bad.
- I could not recall a single movie I've seen that had a script worse than this. There are a TON of what would be considered "normal everyday conversations" in this film, and the writers wrote the script verbatim from that kind of thinking - instead of omitting ancillary parts of no consequence. These lengthy exchanges happen throughout the film and it is just painful to listen to, especially since the actors recite lines in such monotonous tones. Those facets, if acted-out with high skill could cover a bad script, but with terrible acting the script's lack of quality really shows.
- Speaking of quality, another aspect of the film that had NO QUALITY is the filming/camerawork/sound. The camerawork is done with hand-held home video recorders and looks like any home video you would have on your shelf. Combine that with the sound being equally as bad, and it's difficult to watch. There are no ambient mics or booms used for this film...only the mic on the camcorder. This makes it even MORE like a home video. Shaky, bad sounding scenes rare what this movie is comprised of.
- The direction actually wants half bad, but this comes with a caveat. If the actors were replaced with top-tier talent and provided an actual script, this wouldn't have been so bad. I understood what the director was going after but the lack of talent/script never allowed the ideas to shine. It just goes to show that you can't shine a turd.
- Since multiple reviews mention special fx, it is worth noting that for the most part, they are on par with the rest of the talent. Maybe a SLIGHT bit better. Then again, one step up from absolutely terrible, is still terrible. At least I could tell they tried. To the director's credit, they did not use CGI but chose practical fx. None of them were convincingly realistic, it was still better than seeing poorly done CGI inserted into the vicinity of the actors. Overall, they were not terrible, and I applaud the choice to go practical over digital.
Honestly, this is just a really bad movie. I watch almost 100% indie films, and especially enjoy indie horror flicks. I even love "cheesy b-flick horror movies"...the ones that are so bad they're good. This movie is just bad. Bad acting, bad filming, bad script, bad editing, bad direction...just bad. I can't in all honesty offer one instance of redeeming value in this film, and I can usually do that with even the worst b-flicks. Again...not this one. It's possible this movie makes my Top 5 Worst Movies list. Maybe even top 3.
