User reviews

Before we begin this race I want to give a shout-out to whoever came up with the name OBSTACLE CORPSE. It's such is a clever pun that accurately describes this film. This is one of the most violent indie horror films I've watched recently. It's sort of like, "Hunger Games" by way of Troma. In OBSTACLE CORPSE we follow a large group people as they complete in the world's most terrifying obstacle course.

That's description is a bit of a stretch, and I'll tell you why in a bit. In the movie we are introduced to Sunny, who signs up to compete in the obstacle course along with her best friend. After signing all the wavers and meeting the other contestants, the deadly games begin. As you would imagine, the obstacle course becomes a battleground, as friends fight with friends, and family members begin to turn on each other. All in the name of making it to the finish line.

This is the aspect of OBSTACLE CORPSE that stuck with me the most. It's a reflection of what the human race is capable of. I don't think there's anything scarier than that. The opening scene in OBSTACLE CORPSE is probably my favorite, because it has a "Charlie Brown" type of moment that made me laugh out loud. This particular bit was a great way to open the film, and perfectly sets up what you're about witness going further into it.

OBSTACLE CORPSE is the debut feature film from writer/director Hope Madden. Madden has previously directed some short films in the past, and if this film is any indicator of what Hope is capable of, we're in for a real treat. OBSTACLE CORPSE is a fun movie. On the surface, it's a well crafted horror comedy in the vein of TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL. If you look a little closer, you'll see that OBSTACLE CORPSE has a lot to say about the tribal nature of human beings. There's subtext here, and it's the kind of subtext that George Romero touched on in his "Dead" movies. It doesn't help that the group behind the course itself feels like a cult. People actually compete in events like this, so it kind of makes you wonder. Speaking of which, let's talk about the obstacle course itself.

Based on the description, I was expecting the courses to be very dangerous. Like something you would see in a SAW movie. That's not the case here. It's less like SAW and a little more like Stone Cold Steve Austin's BROKEN SKULL CHALLENGE (and that's the bottom line). The obstacle course is what you would expect to see at a summer camp. Then again OBSTACLE CORPSE feels sort of like a FRIDAY THE 13TH movie, just without the camp grounds and obnoxiously horny teenagers. And don't get me wrong, some parts of the course are dangerous. Most of the violence however comes from the participants themselves. Human beings will fight tooth and nail to cross the finish line, so go figure people will go out of their way to try and eliminate the competition. Playing dirty to be number one is the American way.

OBSTACLE CORPSE is a borderline slasher film with a terrific cast of characters. There's some standout performances here from Sylvie Mix, Tarik Woods, Gareth Tidball and Donovan Riley Wolfington. That's not to discredit all the other actors in the film, because everyone does a terrific job with their performances. 90% of the movie takes place outdoors, so I have a lot of respect for the actors having to endure these types of working conditions. The characters competing in the race are sort of an odd bunch. There's one character inOBSTACLE CORPSE that's sets himself apart from the rest of the group. Seemingly for the fun of it all. It's one of those horror tropes that I admire quite a bit.

The biggest complaint I have with OBSTACLE CORPSE is that there's never any tension or suspense. While it's not a gory movie, there is a high body count with plenty of stabbings a and an impressive amount of blood. These death scenes don't have much shock value, and I think some of that has to do with the lack of music. So many of the death scenes are oddly quiet; minus all the screaming anyway. The movie leans heavily on the comedy anyway, so that wasn't much of a deal breaker me.

With OBSTACLE CORPSE, you're just along for the ride. While the obstacles themselves are a bit of a letdown, there's plenty of character development to keep you focused and interested. I did enjoy my time with the movie, so I recommend checking it out once it becomes available to the public. If you're into horror comedies like TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL, then OBSTACLE CORPSE is an experience worth signing up for.

This is a movie that I was excited to check out. I've been to live recordings of the podcast, Fright Club, where Hope Madden is the writer/director and she is one of the hosts on that. One of my fraternity brothers was also in this movie, Shane Thompson. This was also the Midwest premiere for the film.

Synopsis: a teen out to prove herself to her dad stumbles into the world's most terrifying obstacle course.

The character from the synopsis is Sunny (Sylvie Mix). Her and her friend Ezra (Alan Tyson) like to go on different excursions. Neither seem to be that thrilled with what they're doing here. From what they know, this is going to be like Warrior Dash or other obstacle courses. Sunny is also trying to live up to what her father wants. He tries to give her a knife which she declines. He does sneak it into her bag.

Sunny was invited by Stephanie (Gareth Tidball). They don't seem to be that good of friends, but they know each other. They are also joined by Stephanie's husband or boyfriend. Something along those lines. We see when they arrive to start this course, that we have people who have done it before and they invite a 'newbie'. They also get the rundown from Carl (Jason Tostevin). He is leaving things out though.

The point of this course is that you must complete all the stations and kill the person you invited. The returning players know the score. Sunny and Ezra learn this before it is too late. They escape into the woods to find a way out. They also join with a Sad Clown (Tony White). Making it more difficult are enforcers like Jarrell Pyro Johnson keeping them in. To make matters worse, there is Mason (Donovan Riley Wolfington) who is an ice cream man who knows more about this course than he lets on and participating.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to some of our characters. Where I want to start is that I'm normally not the biggest fan of horror/comedies when they're not done right. I prefer when they are done in that order. What I will give credit here is that there is a good balance between these elements. This goes places and doesn't pull its punches. I should come to expect that listening to Madden and getting to know a bit of her taste.

To start delving into this a bit more, I want to break down the premise. I love the idea of this obstacle course and people using it to kill people. There are rules here. That makes it feel in a way like the purge. Murder is allowed if you're using stations. You can't just kill someone by stabbing or shooting them. I bet it would be a fun brainstorming session to come up with different obstacles and how you can kill people with them. Examples are like ropes with water/mud under it. There are tunnels under the ground you need to go through and even logs held up by ropes. We get some interesting deaths that are used here. I love that this doesn't get away from this concept as it gets deeper into this.

Since I've brought up the deaths, this is a comedic take on the slasher film. It isn't one in the traditional sense though. We have multiple people who are killing others. I'm glad that this one went practical with the effects. The man who did most of them was in the audience which was cool and he's great. If there is CGI here, it was blended well and I didn't notice it. Overall, I'm impressed with what they did.

I want to shift back over to the story. Madden brought up that her original intent was not to make this about father's and not living up their expectations. When she noticed that theme running through it, she decided to lean into it which is great. We get that with Sunny, which is the most prevalent. There is another one with Mason that I thought was cool. I think that it is interesting that it wasn't originally planned but incorporated as things went and it doesn't feel forced. That is probably why it worked.

The only other thing that I wanted to bring up here is that I love this race has people dressing up in fun things to give them a bit of character. That makes it feel like the Color Run. My buddy Thompson is in a skeleton costume like his partner. There is a couple that are wrestlers that have character credits as Neon Blonde (Dani Mo) and Neon Ninja Façade (Michael Cichowicz). There are also the Sad Clown and Happy Clown (Eric Boso). I thought that was creative as well.

Since I've talked about the characters, I'll go to the acting. I thought that it was good to give these characters personality. Mix is good as our lead. I like Tyson as her friend. The best performance for me though was Wolfington followed by Tostevin. The latter's monologue is amazing. Other than that, I thought the rest of the supporting cast was good. I'll give credit to Johnson, Tidball, Ali Ferda, Cichowicz, Mo, George Wolf and White. There wasn't a bad performance to me and everyone fit for what was needed.

I'll then finish out with the filmmaking. I've said my piece on the effects so I'll go to the cinematography. I thought that it looked better than its budget. There are no issues there. They do some fun things with stations and setting up the deaths. This was shot well. The other part would be the soundtrack. That was something that I thought fit for what was needed without necessarily standing out to me.

In conclusion, this is a fun movie. I'm not usually a fan of horror/comedies, but I think that this does well in blending the two elements. I like the idea of this obstacle course as it feels like what you'd get with Saw and mixing it with The Purge. There are rules and how people are killed at the stations is creative. The characters are fun. I might not know all their names, but they stick out when I see them. This is well-made which is good. I like the effects for the kills. I would recommend this if you're into independent cinema for sure.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

Heading out into the woods, a woman and her friend decide to participate in a gruesome obstacle course race where losers are killed by their respective partners instead of finishing everything, but when it finally turns to her she has to dig deep to find a means of surviving.

This was a rather enjoyable genre effort with a lot to like about it. One of the better features of this one stems from the way this one works the bizarre and generally off-kilter premise on display here. The central concept of the race being undertaken with the whole idea being to focus on the increasingly larger stages of difficulty present during this part of the film is a great way to set this up quite nicely with the interactions with everyone within the competition which makes for a rather fun setup. That goes along with the generally likable series of competitions that take place here which look like the kind of generally accessible features of this kind of story where it looks like a genuine setup without the kind of malicious articles expected here. With the special reveal that comes into play with the purpose behind the course and how it ties together between the various contestants and the course itself paints a special portrait of human desire that makes for a really fun setup to this one. That becomes quite enjoyable when it starts to deal with the expectations of being in this kind of situation which leads to a slew of impressive kill scenes. Relying mainly on the use of strange encounters featuring one of the contestants suddenly snapping and turning on their partner which is taken out with the snap requiring some rather impressive practical effects work to pull it off, these scenes focus heavily on the creative use of their environment to pull off a creative and bizarre setup to then get finished off with the resulting kill afterward that has as much emphasis on the sudden surprise of it all as it is about the creativity to pull it off. It leads to a zany series of encounters here where each of the various groups of contestants are given enough time to get something fun here with their partners which keeps this one going along at a frenetic clip so it's never really that dull. With some impressive characters also featured here to make this likable, these do manage to bring this one along rather nicely. There are some issues present here that do hold this back. The main feature of this one is the way the bizarre sense of humor might not always land with everyone as it tends to wear out rather quickly. The wacky concept is a unique one that provides the kind of setup that's ripe for this kind of comedy where the absurd nature is ratcheted up immeasurably by the contestants and their reactions to the scenarios present but those who are plagued by logic issues will have a difficult time getting into the humor presented here. How this whole thing carries on without anyone figuring out what's going on, and what's happening is hard to understand, and the ability to buy into the nonchalant nature of the situation is quite difficult to buy here without much explanation. Even worse, this all manages to drain the fear from this one quite readily with the lack of care given to the situation so it never once feels like there's any kind of stakes featured. With the low budget also shown off at points, these are what hold this one back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Ironically, the security code required for me to sign in offered, in part the lettering "omg" which is what I thought watching this flick (not to be confused with a movie which offers intelligent acting, a worthwhile story and characters we can care about. This..."thing"...lacks all of these. The acting is worse than most high school plays (which, at their worst, express the infectious enthusiasm of the cast). The humor is of the lowest brow, and the contempt it shows for the characters leaves one unable to appreciate their casual fates; they are no more than "things" to be slaughtered in the interest of this shallow, pathetic attempt at entertainment. This is the intellectual equivalent of chewing gum (not even bubble gum, with that you can blow bubbles - which are infinitely more entertaining than this "offering.") If you enjoy spinning around like a 5-year old until you get dizzy, or hammering your head with a 2 by 4 because it feels so good when you stop, you may want to watch a few minutes of this to see how not to write or act, or to know what those two activities are by seeing how they're not done here, but otherwise avoid this like you would a forest fire. I pray those involved never attempt anything on film again. If I knew how to contact those involved, I would create a "Go Fund Me" to pay them not to. You've been warned.