Lasso

What an awesome surprise! We just watched the premiere at the Oakland International Filmfestival and were blown away. This movie will be an instant fan favorite ... in its deviousness reminiscent of Tucker & Dale and Peter Jackson's Braindead it delivers the most outrageous kills with sardonic consequence .. anything you can imagine doing with branding iron, cattle prod and horseshoe - the movie has it and more .. 2 points aubtracted for the cringe worthy dialogue .. it feels surprisingly sloppy given the overall care that has been put into the film (direction, camera work, production design and F/X are excellent). All in all a very funny romp. 8/10

The movie follows a group of elderly tourists who are on a trip to attend a rodeo show, but their excursion takes a dark turn when they are kidnapped by a gang of twisted cowboys who force them to participate in a deadly game of survival.

The film boasts a talented cast, including Sean Patrick Flanery, Lindsey Morgan, and Andrew Jacobs, who deliver solid performances throughout. The cinematography effectively captures the bleak, rural setting of the film, and the visuals and gore are well executed.

At times, the story can feel clichéd and predictable and the characters are not well-developed enough to fully engage the audience. However, "Lasso" remains a convincing horror movie that delivers thrills and scares,. It is worth checking out for horror fans and broader audiences who are looking for a fresh take on the genre.

This movie is for fans of the slasher genre. If you aren't one of those to begin with, then you might not care for it. But if you are a fan of the genre, then LASSO delivers the goods in terms of suspense and plentiful well-executed gore scenes. It also messes with some of the formulas in a fun way. Rather than hapless oversexed teens being dispatched by the bloodthirsty cowboys, we have a tour bus full of old folks. There's something extra fun about seeing old people fight back. There were a couple of scenes where I found myself clapping in my chair. This isn't CITIZEN KANE, but as far as modern slasher films go, it gets very high marks from this fan. A solid 9 out of 10.

On the surface, there could be a decent horror movie in this. Killer cowboys hunting down people? It's a silly enough that it could merit some entertainment.

Unfortunately, it's just not a great or even decent horror film. The characters are thinly written and sometimes completely pointless (did we really even need a senior tour group involved?), the acting is mediocre, the dialogue is awful, the pacing is erratic, the movie is not very scary and a lot of things happen at random with no rhyme or reason. Worst of all, too much of it feels like an excuse to showcase long, over-the-top torture scenes. Admittedly, some of the gore is effectively nasty and it's not badly directed in terms of cinematic presentation, but after a while you start to grow numb to the violence. One person's death means no more than the other's when we have no investment in their safety and there's nothing else happening in the plot to justify its existence.

Even more obnoxiously, it's clear that this was made by people who hate cowboys and rural culture, but have never been to a rodeo, talked to a real cowboy/ranch-hand or understand anything about them outside of cartoons. I know I'm asking too much from a mindless action movie that wants to have it both ways by being an over-the-top parody and a serious horror movie, but it comes off as amateurish and at times like ignorant animal rights propaganda (which is crow-barred into the story for no particular reason because it never plays into the story after its original discussion). All we know from this film is that cowboys are murderous human and animal abusers that need to be slaughtered just...because.

So yeah, this is a big ole pass, pardner.

So "Lasso" delivers the goods in spades with gore and some gnarly scenes. Psychotic Cowboys. A novel idea! Yes? A group of Seniors and a few stragglers on a field trip end up at a rodeo that is revealed to be anything but routine. Soon they end up on the proverbial chopping block.

The movie is a brisk 90 minutes and cuts to the chase... We don't get any backstory on the baddies. Nor do we get much backstory on the victims either. I was hoping for maybe more chase scenes. But overall It's no dealbreaker for me. Still it would've been nice to get just a little more story on both parties. Why are the Rodeo workers doing this? Who knows!

The film also looks and sounds great. The calibrated weapons of choice are also a nice touch. On paper a roving gang of homicidal Cowboys sounds silly. But it makes the most of the absurd premise. It plays it fairly straight.

Still with it's very minor flaws the film is pretty enjoyable. Shakespeare this is not. Rustle up some grub or a brew and enjoy the show Hoss. Yeehaw!