Coeurs sanglants

A girl stands in the middle of the road, gets hit, and ends up sharing an ambulance with a serial killer who allegedly died in the electric chair. Well, he didn't die. And he is looking for the girl (Sara Wexler), which is coincidentally fairly easy, being in the same hospital.

Some of this movie is pretty good. The electric chair scene is alright, the coroner scenes are pretty good. And I especially have to give a hand to Robert Englund. I was afraid he would show up for five minutes and then disappear, or give a lackluster performance to get a paycheck (like Jeffrey Combs and Lance Henriksen seem to be doing lately). But Englund gives a great performance, and plays a hero brilliantly and with more passion than I've seen from him since "Slashed Dreams". Thank you, Mr. Englund.

The plot is shaky. A killer who survives the chair... well, I want to reference "Shocker", but should I? (If the director has a Shockeresque killer and casts Robert Englund, does he have a Wes Craven fetish?) Anyway, it's something hard to pull off because there are already many immortal slashers out there. Further ,the plot is just weird -- the string of coincidences around the Sara Wexler character... I don't know. Hard to believe.

And what's with the ripping out of the hearts? Okay, I get it -- he's a "heart stopper". But he puts his hand through a chest -- bones and all -- and pulls the heart out without blood and with neatly sawed off arteries. Weak, very weak. Maybe I can believe this in "Temple of Doom", but not here.

So yeah. I might be a little harsh. After all ,this isn't pure rubbish like "Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis" or any number of other films I could name. But I felt I was short-changed as a viewer. You set me up for what could be a great supernatural slasher flick and then really drop the ball at the key moments. Thanks a lot. I make no recommendations for this film to anyone.

In a stormy night, the evil serial-killer Jonathan Chambers (James Binkley) is executed in the electric chair. The arrogant coroner Doctor Hitchens (Michael Cram) brings the corpse in an ambulance to a hospital for the autopsy escorted by the County Sheriff Berger (Robert Englund) that arrested Chambers. Meanwhile the outcast high-school student Sara Wexler (Meredith Henderson) tries to commit suicide on the road and is hit by the Sheriff Berger's car. While bringing Sara in the same ambulance that is transporting the body of Chambers to the hospital, the teenager sees the dead coming back to life. In the hospital, Sara shares the room with the stabbed teenager Walter (Nathan Stenphenson) that coincidentally is her schoolmate, and she asks him to help her to leave the hospital. She tells what she saw, but Walter in principle believe Sara is nuts. However, when he sees blood on the corridor, he helps Sara to escape from their room. However, they find that all exits are locked and they are trapped in the hospital while the psychopath is slaughtering the patients and staff looking for Sara.

"Heartstopper" is flawed and predictable, but is not a bad low-budget horror movie. The gore story has the usual clichés of the genre, but I have found it entertaining in the end. The greatest attraction is certainly Robert Englund that has a minor participation. However, the sexy Meredith Henderson, Nathan Stenphenson and James Binkley have good performance the result is OK. The way Sara defeats the demon in the storm is not reasonable and gives a weak conclusion to the plot. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Devorador de Almas" ("Souls Devour")

A serial killer, who likes to rip out his victim's pumping hearts, is executed in the 'chair and his corpse is taken to a run down hospital for an autopsy. Somehow, inexplicably, he rises from the dead to continue his spree of carnage within the hospital. What grabbed my attention was the gory artwork featuring horror legend Robert Englund on the DVD cover. However he is not one of the main characters and past experience has taught me that he has appeared in many poor movies, this being one. The guy that plays the bald headed maniac is simply not scary and some of his lines are cringe worthy. Didn't care too much for the teenage girl and boy that take him on either. The ending was pretty ridiculous. Some reasonably good gore but nothing else to recommend Heartstopper.

"Heartstopper", directed by the always-reliable special effects wizard Bob Keen (he worked on the effects for no less than "Hellraiser", "Candyman" and "Hardware"), is a sadly forgettable effort that combines the plot of a typical late 80's cheesy flick with the outrageous gore and brutality of nowadays 'Torture Porn' movies. The concept of a serial killer with supernatural powers who desperately attempts to transfer his murderous spirit into a new body after his own execution is dreadfully unoriginal and already featured (more or less) in at least four movies, namely Wes Craven's "Shocker", the atrocious third entry in the "House" series, the criminally underrated film "Prison" and the overall lamentable film "The Chair". This movie has absolutely nothing new to tell in its plot, but at least it remains somewhat entertaining thanks to the incredibly high body count, explicit on screen bloodshed and the cast of clichéd characters. A young interracial couple have to defend themselves against the sneering and overly talkative psychopath Chambers (who enjoys ripping hearts out of people's torsos whilst they're watching), and they receive little to none help from an indecisive nurse and from the Sheriff, played by Robert Englund. "Heartstopper" is never really scary or disturbing because the plot is overly grotesque and incoherent. The setting of the nearly abandoned, ramshackle and soon-to-be-closed down hospital adds some morbid atmosphere to the wholesome. The surreal elements in the plot are totally ridiculous and the ending sucks, but hey, I'm sure you've seen newly released horror films that were a lot worse.

I have had my eye on this movie since it came out but just got around to watching it last night.I wanted to see it mainly because of Robert(Freddy)Englund.He was funny in this movie.I wonder if the producer of this movie originally had Robert in mind to play the serial killer role instead.I think I would have preferred it if he was playing the satanic serial killer role instead that gets executed and then comes back to life to wreak havoc.We all know he can pull it off.He is so good at playing bad guys. This movie turned out to be a bit of a b movie.I thought it would be more serious.I have seen this plot twice before.There was a good horror film made back in 1995 called Sleepstalker-evil never dies, about a serial killer on death row who is executed and resurrected as an evil sandman.And then there was the one called last rites which is also very similar.I liked the b rated flashes of lightning during the storm in heartstopper and all the campy acting.I didn't mind this movie.It had a lot of gore and was at least watchable.