aronharde

Before watching this, I watched the 1987 original Street Trash for the first time and even though I admit I am not a complete fan, it was a unique and fun experience with its plotless and absurd style. After reading the synopsis for this remake, I thought the idea seemed pretty good and I was excited to see what they would do with a movie like this nowadays and was looking forward to the effects. And I have to say the effects were definitely the best thing this movie had to offer. It is gory, splattery, and gooey, which was fun and nice to look at, especially since I am a huge fan of practical effects which are everywhere here.

Sadly, apart from that, the movie falls apart in some points. Even though this movie has much more of a plot than the original, it felt pointless and uninteresting. The premise sounded promising, but they did not really do much with it and filled this remake with uninteresting characters and weird little puppets that brought in some jokes but overall felt pointless. The humor also tries too hard to be funny and absurd in the same way the original was, as if the movie wanted to stay true to its roots a little too much, which ends up working against it. The only character that stood out was 2-Bit, played by Gary Green (Fried Barry). With his unique look and expressions throughout, he stole the show in most scenes he was in.

One thing that is noticeably different is that this remake is nowhere near as offensive as the original, which is understandable because that level of shock value would probably not have worked in 2024 anyway. But most importantly, this movie lacked the charm of the original. I am not quite sure what it is, but this just did not work for me, which was disappointing since I had high hopes. It is not a terrible movie by any means, but it does not have the heart this sort of movie would need, which makes it overall forgettable. [4,8/10]

For some reason I was pretty intrigued to watch this movie since the premise sounded fun despite being everything but original. Jackie Earle Haley as the villain was probably another factor that made me excited for this movie, however sadly there are only a few positive aspects here, overshadowed by many flaws and bumps in the general premise. We follow four friends who want to spend some time together and immediately start going at each other's throats verbally because it seems like they do not even like each other. One of the characters obviously has a troubled past and another has a rich father and therefore behaves terribly toward his friends. Shortly after, they are all captured by a mysterious person and set up in a room that strongly resembles Saw, and so does the premise, with the little twist that the man who captured them is acting like he is hosting a game show with a big audience watching. However this is obviously not an ordinary game since the stakes are very high and if you lose, you die.

Even though the setup of this movie is not very original, it still could have been a decently fun time while waiting for the next Saw movie. Unfortunately, the movie immediately introduces us to absolutely unlikeable characters and it does not get better as the story progresses. None of them are really relatable or have any characteristics that make you root for them, especially not the main protagonist. This creates a strange shift where you are almost rooting for the villain, and that is probably the best way to have fun with this movie. The gore is pretty decent at times and there is one kill featuring a hydraulic press that looked really impressive. The gorehounds will absolutely love that one, but apart from that there is not much to enjoy here. The movie introduces one twist that I think was an interesting element that might have worked better if used for a different character, but it was still at least an effort to try something a little different, which I respect.

Overall this movie was not very entertaining or memorable. It is a pretty average torture porn film with decent effects, mostly poor acting, terrible characters and a somewhat enjoyable villain with an interesting motive. If you are into these kinds of movies and really enjoy gore on screen, this one might do something for you, but I doubt that many viewers will truly enjoy this flick. [5,1/10]

On the surface "Ick" is exactly the kind of movie that I would absolutely love. It is a creature feature with a college setting reminiscent of many 2000s comedies. There are elements of Stranger Things, The Faculty, and Slither to be found here, which are all great pieces of media. I am also a huge fan of movies that feature monsters, creatures, aliens, or any similar threat. Sadly this movie also has quite a few flaws that really decreased the viewing experience.

First of all, the pacing is extremely fast and it feels like the movie rushes through every scene without much effort to let some of the moments sink in more. That gives the movie a very agitated and adrenaline filled atmosphere which might attract younger audiences but can get exhausting quickly. The movie features lots of comedic moments and honestly the comedy did not really work for me most of the time because it was trying too hard and almost felt like a parody of itself. Even though the comedic element did not harm the movie, I think it should have been limited and gone with a darker tone instead of so many throwaway jokes. Many of the jokes felt forced and were simply trying too hard, and the constant interval of simple one liners got tiring after some time.

When it comes to the effects they were solid at times, but at other times they looked really poor and more practical solutions would have helped a lot. Instead we get many cheap CGI shots of the Ick spreading insanely fast, which looked really cheap and non threatening. In other instances the effects looked overall decent considering the limited budget, especially when it came to the makeup effects.

That being said, there are quite a few things to criticize here, but I still had a decent amount of fun with this supposedly simple premise, even though there are some metaphors hidden within the story about how the Ick represents cultural rot and how it lingers everywhere without anyone seeming to care, spreading and overtaking modern society. It's a nice touch but easily overshadowed by all the things going on constantly.

The performances were overall good, even though a little cheesy at times, but Brandon Routh as the lead and Malina Pauli Weissmann as one of the teenagers stood out the most. It is a very cheesy flick and makes use of many familiar genre tropes, even going so far as exploiting them for the fun of it. It is definitely not a movie for everyone, especially considering the really action packed and fast ADHD pacing, but if you get over that there are still lots of things to enjoy. Even if you do not enjoy the movie, at least you are presented with one banger after another with this movie's crazy soundtrack, which also felt very rushed and a little out of place at times. However I still had an overall good time with this, despite being a little disappointed since this movie could have gone into absolute classic territory like the previously mentioned titles at the beginning of the review. [6,4/10]