User reviews

I had higher hopes for Crazy Eights than previous films I had seen from the Afterdark Horrorfests' 8 Films to Die For lines, because after seeing a few, I thought I had acquired the ability to pick out the ones that would be good by then. That incident just goes to show you can never be too sure about a movie. Do not get me wrong, this movie was indeed entertaining, but only so because of how much you are wishing it will pick up at any moment, and it does not do so.

To start off, the main premise is interesting. "Circumstance brings six childhood friends together to face their past, and a secret they share." The performances are not bad; not Oscar-worthy, but worthy of being deemed tolerable. The film itself is watchable, in a sense, but that's all it really is and all that should be expected. It's the way the actual story/plot is played out that makes it so frustrating. There is little to no suspense, and that is only because the pace is so abrupt and confusing at times. The premise as I said is interesting, but the plot ultimately defeats this plus-side, never giving us anything short of excitement or empathy for the characters. It's like the director and writer were drunk on the job, but had potential.

I barely remember the climax/ending because I was put off by that moment, and just ready for the film to be over. I might sound a little harsh, seeing as how I did say I was entertained, but I was expecting a lot more than I got, even if this is a B-movie and much can rarely ever be expected from a wide variety of them. Maybe it is time for me to give this film another watch, but it is only for the fact that I am willing to give it another chance, as I give any film I do not enjoy that much on a first watch another chance so long as I did not hate it, and not because I am ready to watch it again out of satisfaction.

Six people come together after the death of a childhood friend and begin to unravel the secret behind a past they can't remember while trapped in some abandoned hospital kind of place, and thus begins the very many problems with Crazy Eights.

The film is basically one very big collection of plot holes, beyond what I tried to sum up never really made sense, because for someone like me who has a long attention span, I can clearly say that barely anything is explained, for example, what was the purpose of the experiments? why was the dead girl so vengeful if she died accidentally? And how can a group childhood friends remember each other but they don't remember a thing about their childhood? I don't know if the director tried to make one of those films that's suppose to stay with you for a long time after you've watched it, wondering about the same things I just pointed out, well he did, only after I watched it, I didn't really like it.

Another problem is the score, while watching the film I noticed that the score practically played throughout the film, I can probably account for less than three seconds for when I didn't hear it, and it was more annoying than anything else, for the majority of the film it just played, it didn't help set the tone or create a certain mood or help the film build any kind tension, it just played and muffled a lot of the dialog.

The acting was so so, but whatever kind of film the filmmakers tried to make obviously doesn't work, want my advice? Broaden out the storyline leaving fewer plot holes and make less use of the score and more use of sound and lighting effects to create a lot of atmosphere, I am sure it'll work better.

Between 1954 and 1976, a large number of children were submitted to behavior studies in the South of the USA. When Brax Young dies, his childhood friends Jennifer Jones (Dina Meyer), Gina Conte (Traci Lords), Father Lyle Dey (George Newbern), Wayne Morrison (Dan DeLuca), Brent Sykes (Frank Whaley) and Beth Patterson (Gabrielle Anwar) reunite after twenty years. While in Brax's house, they discover a letter asking them to search a time capsule from their childhood and map indicating its location. They travel to Entonsburg and find a trunk with some objects and a skeleton hidden inside. Their discovery triggers traumatic recollections from their childhood with tragic consequences.

"Crazy Eights" is a messy collection of clichés, with a confused story about a government study that affects the subjects, proving that it was no harmless as promised to the families. The characters and situations are awfully developed, and the circumstances why the group becomes trapped in the abandoned house are ridiculous. Why should six people in a truck stop the car during the daylight to break in an abandoned house to seek directions? Further, the soundtrack is annoying. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Lembranças Macabras" ("Macabre Recollections")

A cast made up of some fairly well known stars embarrass themselves with this highly disjointed ghost story. After 20 years, six childhood friends gather together for the funeral of a seventh. This in turn leads them on a path of remembrance and revelations. The movie did have promise, I will say that. Good locations and a good story or both sadly derail by bad editing, mediocre acting (if this were a cast of newish actors I'd be apt to overlook that, but most of them are seasoned pros so I can't), and the film just raises more questions than it answers. Sorry, but another miss for After Dark Horrorfest. It's down there with "Deaths of Ian Stone"

My Grade: D

This movie isn't good enough to be fun or bad enough to be funny. Luckily, I saw it on the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, and was able to accomplish some things (like folding laundry) while it was on. I kept waiting for something to happen (ho hum) and then I kept looking for the control (dang those new-fangled TVs), and finally just left the room. I love grade B horror flicks, but this hasn't anything to recommend itself - oh, and the score, there's some syn-instrument that keeps plinking out the same chords - the tune reminds me of that Intel commercial - THAT was the best thing about this movie, and when the best thing about a movie is that it reminds you of a TV commercial, then 'nuf said.

To describe the plot of Crazy Eights would be a waste of time because there wasn't one. This movie was a big bomb that would've found a home on Mystery Science Theater 3000. While watching it with friends, all we did was crack on it.

My opinion of "8 Films to Die For" is steadily lowering after seeing a few really bad movies in their line up. Previously, they had some great picks like "Grave Dancers" or "Unrest." But lately, I think they've been taking bribes to include films like "Crazy Eights" or "Tooth and Nail" (even worse than Crazy Eights). Do not bother renting this movie. I did so at RedBox and was so p----d off for wasting even a buck on this pile of dreck, that RedBox gave me a free rental.

p.s. Traci Lords sucked too (no pun intended.)

Unfortunately, the next movie in my After Dark alphabetical lineup was not quite as good. With a cast that has had a somewhat undeserved amount of attention placed on it, "Crazy Eights" is a story of 6 friends, reunited by another friend's funeral, who in following out said friend's last wishes, find themselves trapped in an abandoned medical facility, that as it turns out, holds the key to an event they all shared, but had blocked out of their memories. Despite the somewhat promising premise, the film turns out to be about as well written as my last sentence (can anyone say "run-on"?). The dialogue is generally bad, the plot developments are easily figured out way in advance, and some events come off as just silly. When one character manages to severely break his leg, one can't help but wonder just how clumsy he is to have done all THAT in a little tumble. There are some scenes that seem a bit creepy, but they are all to often ruined by an obnoxious synth-string theme that keeps popping up and/or very sloppy editing. While not exactly awful, this film is not really recommendable. So far, I'm saying this is this year's equivalent of "The Gravedancers" in the first 'fest. And in case you're wondering, that's bad.

Another one of the After Dark, Horrorfest movies, that is kind of a Big Chill horror movie with a very angry ghost. The death of a childhood friend of six others, bring them all together at the funeral. The deceased has outlined something he wants his friends to do, and that's follow a map that leads them to a spooky building, that they get trapped inside with a little girl ghost that takes them out one by one. Not a lot of action in the first half of the movie, mostly dialogue between the six which is pretty interesting, but might not sit well with a lot of horror fans. After the ghost comes into the story, it becomes a survival against all odds, and with a very strong cast, they pull it off pretty well. I kind of liked the movie myself, but I can see why other genre fans may not be too fond of it.

I will keep this review as short as possible. If 0 or negative stars were available this movie would not have gotten this 1 star. It is worse than awful... i love movies, good or bad, i'll watch the whole thing and typically find a few things about it that i thought were interesting or at least done well. Not this time, this was pure garbage. The plot was simple the acting was terrible, and they call it a "horror" flick... maybe powder puff at best. I only wish that I could call redbox and have them send me a check for the $1.05 that this movie cost me to rent. Do yourself a favor and just go watch your lawn grow, i promise it will be more rewarding than watching this movie.

Much like "Unrest", "Crazy Eights" is the same thing currently oversaturated in big-budget horror and something that shouldn't be showing at a horror festival. I would've thought the people hosting it would have the sense to instead show something with imagination and ambition behind it, not some concept produces every other month.

Some old friends reunite after the death of one of their own. On request of the dead man they journey to somewhere they buried a time capsule, which they dig up.

While trying to leave, they seemingly travel in circles, passing the same house again and again. It's similar to the spacial distortion trick commonly found in haunted house films except they haven't entered a haunted house yet. Additionally, the mandatory "no way out" scenario provides the only other haunted building tradition.

And then, well, people stumble about, jump scares will substitute for attempts at atmosphere, and a ghostly woman goes around killing anyone who - sorry, there's no "anyone who", she kills people she's intending to murder, but takes longer to murder them than you'd expect. Seriously, they can't hurt her - lets not forget, she's a spirit! And they're locked in the building through her powers so therefore, nothing's really stopping her from slaughtering everyone very quickly.

Of course the ghost's past becomes relevant. Of course the opening scene involves people studying a subject important to the plot. Apparently someone forgot to write one of the characters as a skeptic who doesn't believe a spirit could be killing, but don't worry, people will have other things to be skeptical about as the plot progresses.

Jump scares cause most problems here because while normally a poor replacement for atmosphere, for "Crazy Eights" lacking atmosphere leaves viewers watching people sitting in a room while daylight pours through the windows talking about how there's no escape. The building refusing its captives an escape route is a commonly used idea, no atmosphere means the building comes across as nothing more than some building.

If it was some big budget Hollywood film this would get four stars on account of its what I expect from them. However it's a horror festival selectee and whoever runs Afterdark should've known better. Higher expectations equals lower rating therefore.

The last in this years HorrorFest line up (and not a moment to soon), this film also wins the award for Most Promising Premise Trashed By Sheer Incompetence. It's part The Big Chill and part Silent Hill, all rolled up in a script desperately in need of four or five rewrites.

Okay, long story short. Six friends get together after a seventh dies and begin uncovering long buried secrets of their shared past. Sound good? Well, it isn't. The plot spins off into things-happen-for-no-reason territory shortly after we hit the point where the character's predicament becomes painfully obvious to everyone but them.

From there on, all the usual horror film tropes are visited upon us, from the relatively modern cell-phones-that-never-work to the ancient let's-split-up-so-The-Evil-can-kill-us-easier. Unfortunately, even counting the clichés becomes boring long before the film ends.

Just saw this one at the "After Dark Film Fest". I want to tell everyone to avoid this movie. Why the other comments here have been positive I can't imagine. Maybe they were people that worked on the movie. Or relatives. Or didn't actually see it. At a running time of about 70 minutes it seemed like 3 hours. Very confusing. All Psycho babble. Tracie Lords went form Porno to making fairly good B movies. She has just dropped down to the D class of films. The other two movies I watched today at the fest were good to very good, Unearthed and Borderland stick to them. I like independent movies, but this one was really lame.

Don't watch this movie if you love special-effects driven gory horror movies. it is far more subtle than that.

Six friends, who seem to remember little about their childhoods except that they were all on a baseball team together (the "Crazy Eights" of the title) reunite for the funeral of one of their members. they discover the secrets that they have been blocking out, and why all of them have been having nightmares, and how these nightmares and their pasts all tie together. interesting premise, but so much more is given here.

the directing was perfect -- lighting, music, pacing, lack of showy special effects, it all served to build an excellent new take on the "haunted house" or "amnesia" style of plots. but the very pacing that makes it scary is a turnoff for people expecting a fast-paced Hollywood horrorfest. it's much more like a foreign horror movie, where technique matters over showiness. if you thought that "A Tale of Two Sisters" was scarier than its remake "The Uninvited," this is the movie for you.

Think session 9 meets the big chill but not as good as either. The film is pretty good however a little slow in bits but rather creepy and involving. Lords and Meyers give two great performances and the film making is original if not terribly creative. It centers on a group of friends who discover a secret when one of them passes. Haunted by ghostly visions they decide to confront it at the place where it all started. It has some nice jump out scares but ewarns it's spooky mood modeslty. A decent film and definitely worth a look. A nice additon to horrorfest library. My one big problem with this film is the questionable villain and unpolished look the film carries besides that it's pretty good.

A gaggle of attractive, familiar actors & actresses get together for this would-be psychological horror flick. They play the title characters, who act upon the final wishes of a dearly departed childhood friend of theirs. This involves going to a ghost town and digging out personal artifacts. However, the characters get stuck in the area, specifically in the now VERY run down clinic where they were taken as children, and subjected to what we can easily assume were extremely dubious experiments. Then, it's open season on these unlucky chumps.

At the very least, this viewer liked the location that the filmmakers found. It looked appropriately sinister and forlorn. But most everything about "Crazy Eights" is no more than adequate, from the widescreen photography to the score to the editing. It's all pretty familiar body count type stuff, despite the filmmakers' attempts to touch upon larger issues that are largely not explored enough (such as guilt and redemption). The story & characters are not exactly fleshed out a lot, and the usually capable cast (Dina Meyer, Frank Whaley, Gabrielle Anwar, George Newbern, Traci Lords) have definitely been better utilized in other things. (Co-star Dan De Luca, who plays Wayne, presumably got his role because he also co-wrote the story & screenplay.) Some viewers might wish to watch just to see these performers meet various gory ends. But it's all very familiar material that just doesn't work all that well, and leads to a "What? That's it?" type of ending.

"Crazy Eights" is not the kind of thing that comes highly recommended, unless the prospective viewer is easy to please and not too judgmental.

Five out of 10.

How long these people behind Horrorfest can go on pretending that they are releasing anything but below average horror movies by marketing them as extreme, one can only guess. Crazy Eights is an awful waste of time.

Six adults end up investigating their past for no good reason. They end up in some hold house and keep digging further and further until they realize they can't get out and that they are unconsciously familiar with the old house. Thanks to a misplaced intro we know everything about these people and what happened to them as kids. They don't know it. So the audience has to put up with an hour and a half of these clowns making stupid decisions that will get them in trouble so they can find out a past that we already know. Usually in these kinds of movies, they hire teens to play the characters. The difference here is that they are adults, but they still act unbelievably dumb. No one makes a single rational decision at any point.

Eventually, they end up getting hurt and dying- thankfully. The movie is well filmed, with a decent cast making the most of a script that should never ever have been approved for production. Technically the movie is also well done. But what can you do if you have nothing resembling a decent story? There is near zero character development. At times this movie wants to be a ghost story with a creepy girl, at other times it wants to be one of those lame psychothrillers where the characters are screaming at each other for hours. It doesn't succeed at either. This movie has no humor, very little in terms of violence, gore, thrills. Not worth even a rental.