Near Death

This movie has one of the coolest stories I've seen in a long time. Three students researching supernatural activity come upon a mansion inhabited by ghosts from the 1950's. There is the spirit of an old film director: Willie Von Brahm, his star: Vena (a prettier version of Gloria Swanson from sunset boulevard), his leading man: Harlan, Doctor Blanchard etc. The whole cast is colorful and entertaining. I especially liked the scenes at the pawnshop and at the beach. Probably the best thing about this movie is the sets. The rooms in the mansion are really cool, you can see this is where most of the budget went. the camera work is so/so, the actors have good scenes. Also interesting is the subplot involving Markie selling dead bodies to the ghosts for money.

After watching this movie I can only ask: "Why would anyone produce something like that?" You get a feeling that you are watching 1-2grade students performing in school skit, with the addition of getters props and decore.

One can't help, but wonder if this all the actors are capable of - most TV advertivements are better performed. One could say that these is a story befind it, but barely enough for a 1-2 page short story. As far as the director, it's dificult to imagine how he stood through it. I'll leave him with the benefit of the doubt, and speculate he just wanted to show how misguided the movie biz can get. If you've not watched this movie, I would suggest renting something else, or just watching the news.

I'm very surprised that this film was ACTUALLY released on DVD. When I purchased the DVD of this film, I was thinking.."Wow..I never heard of this movie..it seems interesting, with cannibals and such... and hey, the cover even looks cool!" Boy..was I WRONG. This movie was a horror movie cliché gone terribly wrong...There's something up with this house (saying this without spoilers) and these teenagers decide to investigate for a report, or something. The opening of this movie reminded me of a porno movie..and I mean, come on..was the shower scene REALLY necessary? And the filming angles aren't all that great, may I add. When they show the cannibals eating, it seemed like all they were eating was canned cranberry products. The 'gore' scenes didn't live up to the violence mentioned in the warning on the DVD, may I add. Also, the computer graphics was much too obvious. Frankly, I found this movie more of a comedy than a horror film. The actors were either overacting, or they seemed like they were not trying at all. The only character, I must say, that had somewhat good acting was Billy. The only result of this film after finishing it was inside jokes with my friend, since we were watching it together, laughing our asses off. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, unless you're in for a laugh of how corny this movie is. I will not watch nor buy another Castro movie. Ever.

I have an open mind to bad horror, and continued to watch this film after the first 2 minutes to see if it would get any better, against my better judgement. Its hard to describe just how poor this film really is. Lets face it, I've seen better acting in a porn film. The script was ridiculous, the plot was laughable, and the effects made me cringe and/or laugh out loud. Someone should tell whoever is responsible for this waste of time that jello looks nothing like innards, and never will. The camera work was poor, and this film just had "amateur" written all over it. I am stunned that "offerings" like this are even released on DVD, and even more amazed that they even get financed in the first place. Its an hour and a half of my life that i will never get back, and that makes me sad. Please do yourself a favour, and don't touch this, or any other film by the same company with a very big long stick.

Three parapsychologists investigate an apparently haunted mansion, once the home of an infamous film director. It is now inhabited by flesh eating undead ghouls. Released in the UK by Film2000, a label notorious for very bad movies, the DVD cover laughably describes this as a "classic horror film", boasting "state of the art special effects", Really??? Could not be further from the truth. Some, well most, of the acting is really bad, in particular Perrine Moore, who unfortunately plays a dual role. The effects, especially the CGI, are poor. As is the sound at times. There are plenty of potholes. I have rather generously rated this 3/10, and that is purely down to the fact that there is quite a lot of gore on show. The only thing worth the pain of sitting through this horrible excuse of a movie.