Playback

Playback does a great job at building a story base on an actual figure--think of Robert Johnson and the legend of the crossroad--that you want to look up the figure to see if there's any truth to the lore. However, the movie dragged in the middle and became a chore to watch. I found myself looking at my phone most of the time and had to rewind to the previous scene to understand why the lead got so upset.

Overall: the acting was decent, and the movie didn't skimp on the gore. Would I recommend this movie--yes, but only for the lore.

If you read some of the reviews for Playback, you may notice it receives more than its fair share of negativity. In some ways it deserves it, in others it doesn't. A lot of the criticism comes from how it's been sold. If you read the blurb, you'll see it mentions an 'ex cop (played by Christian Slater) investigating a mysterious killer.' This is simply not true. For a start, Christian Slater's part in this film is little more than an extended cameo and it seems to be a blatant attempt by the studio/promoters to do their best at cashing in on the one and only (semi) big name attached to the project.

The film is actually about a group of teenagers who are trying to make their own horror film when they stumble on a particularly nasty supernatural force that links back to their town's past. In many ways, Playback is little more than a (supernatural) slasher film that loosely borrows from superior works like The Ring. You may even forget that Christian Slater is in the film because his character has so little to do.

Playback is okay. If you can ignore its miss-selling and are just looking for a run-of-the-mill horror to fill an hour and a half, then this one will probably do. Yes, there are a fair few unexplained bits that may leave you with a question mark or two over your head, but, like I say, it's far from perfect, but it just about makes the grade.

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The only thing great about this movie is probably the over rated movie poster. The movie itself was absolute crap with glitter wrapping on it. i hope to never ever come across another load of crap again. The plot was none existent, the characters where incredibly watered down to the point where you will find yourself not caring about them at any level and the scares where just loud noises like a loud truck or dog suddenly barking. This is not even a movie you consider if you where bored. Majority of the time i found myself looking away from screen and just wondering how the directors can get away with releasing movie like this. At the end of it i felt i had wasted over 1:30 minutes of my life for no reason. Do your self a favor and don't bother watching this crap.

First pet peeve with movies like this is 30 year olds playing teenagers. C'mon! Furthermore, don't get fooled by the reviews written by people of the production company or "friends of the director", this movie really isn't worth anything more than a 4 to 5.

A federal law should prevent any more Japanese style horror movies. It's done! Go sit in the corner with the found footage films and the creature features and if you ask me, the highschool road movie.

So here it goes again. Mundane, predictable, the copy of the copy of the copy. It might be nice as a background movie while you are cleaning your fridge don't spend a Saturday night on it.

When a group of film students attempt to document the brutal history of their town's past, they unleash the evil spirit which inspired the rampage and must stop it's current rampage before it exposes the secret behind it's existence.

This is overall a pretty lame and barely worthwhile effort. The only true sense of credit that this one really has is it's plot line about the body-hopping spirit that can only be transfered through video, which is pretty creepy and doesn't get used often-enough as a concept since it generates some really impressive moments here and there of the possessed beings out and about with their unknowing victims. Otherwise, this here is a gory, low-budget boring mess that seems to fling itself around in ten different directions without any sort of inner compass to determine what it wants to do, a low-budget feel that never lets it's full scope become apparent despite the feel it's going for and a laid-back pace that rarely lets on it's a horror film and never really goes for any sort of excitement or enjoyability. A true let-down and not really worth it.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and underage drinking.