User reviews

This is easily one of the better SciFi channel offerings. Competently acted, directed and written it was enjoyable and well worth watching. The only sub-standard aspect was some of the computer generated effects (blood spatter, fire) were distractingly unrealistic. The storyline certainly borrowed from other movies, but there were enough novel touches to keep it interesting. The pace drags a little toward the end, but it is head and shoulders above much of the dreck they have put out over the years.

I hope this signals a commitment on the part of the SciFi channel to improve their offerings. How the same channel can produce superb fare like "The Lost Room" also produces crapfests like "Path of Destruction" baffles me.

The premise and support for much of the argument of the movie is decent unlike that of regular SciFi fare. Given that zombie, slasher etc type flicks are the films usually shown on SciFi, this movie deserves consideration simply on originality. Much of what was suggested wasn't too far fetched and more reasonable than the basis of most of the movies that get the usual 3 or 4 rating. The acting is still terrible and James McDaniel seems to be the only competent actor in this project. Still, if movies in this genre worth a 0 get a 3 or a 4 instead then this movie deserves at least a 6 and thats what I'm giving it.

Despite a good idea, I was not expecting much in all honesty from Living Hell considering it was from the notorious- in a negative way- Sci-Fi Channel. But it is one of their more tolerable movies, maybe not living up to making what happens truly hellish but it similarly doesn't live up in terms of horribleness either. It is far from perfect, the special effects/make-up looked often as if they were unfinished, the ending is really trite and a bit of a cop-out and the whole vines thing being linked to the military base was a stale plot point that could've been expanded upon to make it stick. On top of that, the characters- aside from the overly-obvious clichés- are nowhere near developed enough to be likable and with two exceptions the acting is pretty dire, Erica Leehrsen is beautiful but lacks charisma and needs more maturity in her acting. The two exceptions are Johnathan Schaech, who has some questionable lines sometimes but he is a likable and believable actor all the same, and James McDaniel, for the same reasons. Along with their performances, there are good things. For the Sci-Fi Channel, it doesn't look too bad. The scenery is nice to look at and doesn't look like someone's basements, and the editing has more clarity than you would expect. The music is a rise above the generic and over-bearing stuff I often here, while the script, even with some dialogue that doesn't always ring true, does have some intelligent touches and the story while not particularly original in terms of the telling of it(the borrowing from older movies) and the science as ever is enough to raise an eyebrow is never dull and actually has some suspenseful atmosphere. It also deserves credit for being a departure from the zombie and vampire movies I've seen a lot of(and considering the overall quality starting to get tired actually). The killings are decent as well, and some of the gore is enough to make the stomach churn without it being too overdone. So overall, tolerable Sci-Fi movie if not as terrifying(in what's going on) or as horrible(overall execution of movie) as you'd think. 5/10 Bethany Cox

No offense to stumpmee77, but to give this movie a "glowing, glowing report" is like calling McDonalds a whole foods supermarket. "Living Hell" is not only the title of the movie, but the experience one has while watching it. I won't go into detail (it's too painful). The general plot follows the sci-fi model of government experiment gone horribly wrong. Perhaps fans of this movie who believe it to be unique and exciting have never seen a sci-fi original in their lives, and to them I suggest sitting down in front of their televisions this Saturday and watching the newest film. We have the troubled protagonist, who's insane mother carved some plot device into his hand (it turns out he has a pretty messed up family - his dad's a government experiment). There's the saucy military-associated female cohort of his; this movie would not be a sci-fi movie unless the two of them hooked up. But they do more than just "hook up," why, the protagonist rubs his blood all over her in a scene that is equal parts confusing and disgusting. Really, there are so many factual inaccuracies in this movie I am left flabbergasted. Scientifically, this would be like if a movie decided to save California from separating from the rest of America due to plate tectonics it would be necessary to detonate nuclear bombs into the city. Oh, wait, sci-fi aired a movie that did just that. This movie is almost as absurd as a movie that would blow up the Loch Ness Monster in Michigan. Oh, yeah, sci-fi nailed that sucker too. But I digress. If one needs proof to realize this movie is not-so-good, I would direct them to the scene in which, for no reason, a minor female character rips off her shirt. The only "fear factor" present in this movie was the fear of my IQ dropping while watching. I suggest this movie for anyone who likes to laugh.

The movie begins well with an interesting if not original take on the outbreak/monster escapes genre. However it doesn't remain any good for any length of time. The story premise is not bad, but the plot is terrible, the script is abysmal, most of the acting is dreadful, Erica Leerhsen is okay but how John Schaech's completely wooden and cheesy acting ever gets him work is beyond me. The physical effects are okay but the cgi is totally below par.

The premise: a boy is branded on his hands by his mother just before she kills herself and her husband. The boy never forgets level whatever it was and vault 12 because it's on his hands!! Cue years later and the army base which the message relates to is being decommissioned and the boy now a man remembers his mother's warning "don not disturb vault 12" so he drives into the base to warn em all.

Fans of intelligent sci-fi will despair. Brits (we're an intelligent bunch) don't even bother unless you want ninety minutes of shouting at the screen at the stupidity of it. But if that's your bag then go ahead, it's probably worth watching just for this gratuitous soft core 'cover me in blood' scene, like Arnie covered himself in mud in predator- it's so cringeworthingly bad they all deserve an award.

Or you could just skip to that scene and save yourself all the trouble - roughly 1hr 10 mins in.

Im not sure whether some people are conditioned by watching sci-fi channel a bit too much. That will sure explain some glaring "reviews" here. Either that or connection to the crew . I was really surprised to find relatively high score for this movie here at IMDb. Make no mistake, this "movie" is just another cheapo, full of holes, wooden acting, nonsense, "special" effects , physics that bends just like script needs and such. Its not even bad enough to become fun. Just ordinary , boringly bad. Positive things? Main heroine is cute. Btw, someone mentioned Myst as somewhat similar movie. I guess human imagination has no ends. Stay far far away from this turd.

I insist on watching the movies on Sci-Fi because, well, I have to. I keep hoping someday there will be a hidden gem, or at least one with some cool special effects. This one was a little of both. While overgrown with B-movie clichés and iffy CGI effects, there were still some pretty interesting twists, and some genuinely creepy moments. I did get caught up in the race to defeat the -ah- monster (?), and I liked the acting of the two main characters, even if the dialog left them pretty thin. The story was a very nice diversion from the usual sort of humanoid-alien-or-zombie run wild. It was fun to watch. I thought the solution was maybe a little trite, but I enjoyed the film enough that I was OK with it. There were little glimpses of pretty intelligent writing sprinkled through the movie. It almost felt like a decent script that got stretched and produced and Sci-Fi-ized into a B-movie (C-movie?). But I think it still maintained some of the interesting parts of the premise, and played them out well. All in all, I enjoyed watching it, and it held my interest all the way to the end. I wonder why the Sci-Fi channel insists on matching cheesy special effects with cheesy acting and cheesy writing. Dr. Who is proof that good writing can carry really cheap effects. I think this movie was a big step in that direction, and I hope they go with it more.

Oh yes, you've heard it right. Living Hell (or here incorrectly listed as Organizm) is a sci-fi channel movie that actually doesn't suck! Sure, while not the greatest monster movie ever, I still actually had a fun time with this despite its many clichés and plot holes. But hey, I wasn't looking for an Oscar movie. The story is set around a male teacher (Schaech) who breaks into a base to warn the civils not to demolish a New Mexico base, but they don't listen to him and head to the sub levels where they accidentally set a deadly organizm free. Most of the civils get murdered, the creature escapes, and one of the survivors (the beautiful Leerhsen girl from the 'Chainsaw redux) teams with the teacher to stop the organizm before it kills everything in its path. I enjoyed this predictable little movie mostly because the screenwriters knew they weren't making the most original movie, so they just went with it. There are a lot of scenes similar to other horror films (Alien among others), but the good acting and effective directing with many original camera angles makes it up for the very predictable and dull plot. Moreover, the monster is also pretty fake looking and not scary, but after all this was a sci-fi movie, so that didn't bother me. Like I said, it's not the greatest horror film ever, but I was entertained and that's the biggest reason why I'd recommend it. If you're ready to avoid clichés and some fake scenes, you'll enjoy this. Thumbs surprisingly up.

First of all, in my opinion, this story would get a prime rating if it had been made as a video game but not a movie. Imagination in story is great and story has still lots of room to improve... Maybe we'll see a sequel in the following years. This story deserves a better shot in combination with a better directing.

Even though there are some inconsistency about sci-fi logic, in my opinion, this film deserves to be over 5 about rating. The end of movie is highly predictable but this didn't keep me out of watching till the end of movie. Special effects might be better but again don't let this prevent you to see the movie if you hasn't yet.

This isn't a terrible movie. It is very dull. You're not going to be able to just sit down and watch it. It is viewable while you're on the elliptical or the bike, and in this day and age there is a place for such a movie. That is obviously what the director markets this movie for. It is hard to fathom what's going on, but the plot is (and this isn't a spoiler, because it becomes evident quite early) about an deadly organism (call it a disease) for which the antibodies must be derived from the one human who has the natural immunity. It's part "Blob", but mixed in with the writer's own additions. Now, every writer in science fiction is toying with an idea of how to do a movie in which one human has an immunity to a disease, and his or her blood must be used to battle it. That said, all the science fiction world expects a good story line to go with it. This isn't the worst. It isn't the best, either. The directing is very disjointed. It seems like an extra long movie. It plods along. Future editing can fix the disjointed part, perhaps, but not the dullness. It will appeal to American audiences, particularly women, since the female lead is one of those pale, plain Janes women can identify with. She's a bit dull and plain looking for men to enjoy, but women usually decide what movies to watch. Again, the director placates his audience, and used confessingly, a lot of acceptable clichés, such as the dark haired man-blonde woman, the monster that can't be killed, the authorities who won't listen to citizens (this one is usually true to life, however). Everything that makes it acdeptable to IMDb members and the American public. But such clichés are in most movies, and this movie doesn't cliché any more than most of them. As I said before, this is marketed to be something you watch while exercising or doing housework. Don't expect anything more.

A neurotic geek crashes the gate at a closing military base, raving apocalyptic tales of woe. He warns everybody not to open a secret deadly vault that nobody knew about in the first place until this dummy told them. So they ignore his fanatic warnings, stupidly open it, and a lot of cast extras die.

Could have been better. Plot staples such as sinister covert government operations, a mindlessly brutal and effective extra-terrestrial killing machine, scary Indian tribal legends--not bad stuff. Has potential. But the story doesn't develop. Just more yelling, gratuitously violent deaths, and government stupidity. Also more poor acting. Turn off the brain, and it's just passable.

i see this movie is good and it's not boring with repeated story like another Sci-Fi movies . the story is good and it may be real , the acting also is well, the events are somehow interesting with a little horror shows.. and a lot of mystery to find out what's going on and what's this disses or that monster that attack everything... and i see this movie could be great if it's have more horror action ... also i see this movie or the story it could be smiler to doomsday 2012 with little difference .. however i can't tell you the events of the movie to don't spoil it to you.., and in my opinion of this movie it's good and it deserve to watch that's all that i can say it about this movie.. enjoy it .

The story-line is familiar: An old Army Base. A Classified Cold War Weapons Experiment. A buried secret that should never have seen the light of day.

But the Telling of this War/Monster story is edgy and quickly paced-- without the usual ludicrous Hollywood interpersonal sidetracking and with believable characters. The viewer is caught up in HOW quickly the worst case scenario can be averted-- if it can be.

Also the beginning flashbacks are used incisively and with spare story-telling economy while increasing the tension to a nicety.

This Saturday Night Horror flick was done well.

Dreadful acting. Terrible effects. The directing was bad, script was bad. There isn't much that wasn't horrendously bad about this flick. But the absolute worst was the female lead. THe actor was one of the worst actors I have ever seen and her character was the single most stupid woman in the history of woman-dom. I wont go into details but let's just say if there was a cliff near her she'd deliberately run off it and then scream for help and wonder how she got in that predicament.

Do not waste your time on this movie. I am serious. You'll only end up feeling like banging your head repeatedly against a brick wall like I do.

If you want to see a 1000 x better movie with a similar subject watch Splinter. It's one of my favourites and has everything going for it that this flick lacks.