Cruel World

I don't get why so many hate this film. It's a very creative premise (a spawned reality tv show contestant creates his own reality tv show and kills off the contestants one by one). Edward Furlong is electric and plays the psychotic killer exceptionally well, and the acting of the supporting cast is superb, exactly how you'd expect to react in the horrific situations they are put in. Laura Ramsey is stunning and plays the final girl very well, and the dynamic between her and Furlong is very interesting. The movie does a good job developing the characters while they think nothing is amiss, and each character then gets a devoted death scene. The challenges were fun to watch and the murder scenes were all unique acted out well. It was a fun watch and I was on the edge of my seat the whole movie.

First off I've watched a LOT of badly made cheap 'horror' films and this is not the worst I've seen. In fact, the plot is interesting, the acting reasonable and the dialogue could be worse. However, there are a number of faults with this movie that would prompt me to dissuade anyone from watching it. My biggest issue comes in the form of characterisation. The group of would be reality show stars starts off as a mixed bag of people with seemingly good representation of various ethnic/cultural groups, but, they are horrendously stereotypical e.g. the Asian contestant is the shy, intelligent one whilst the gay character generally fits in with many other movies' portrayal of the token joke character (whom we later find is also backstabbing and generally less decent than any other male character...figures). Furthermore, the story is often lacking in structure, the so-called tasks that contestants must face are not well thought through and this generally leads to boredom throughout. Overall I'd say this film started relatively well and ended much the same as any other cheap and tacky horror movie, I wouldn't bother with this one again and to be honest wish I hadn't in the first place.

I saw this at Screamfest where it was playing as the opening night movie. Having not heard anything about it before, I was surprised by how cool it was. Totally unpredictable from start to finish. The crowd went crazy from laughing, to gasping, to yelling at the screen. I told some friends about it who are way into Ed Furlong. He was awesome. Scary fun. A total trip. Let's face it, reality television is totally played out. I recommend it for anyone who loves to hate reality TV! I'm a girl, but have to admit that Jaime Pressly looked hot ;) I'm trying to find out who did the music at the end, because it sounded like someone famous. No spoilers, but the ending made me wonder if they're gonna do part two.

This is what needs to happen on most reality shows.. then they might actually be watchable. Eddie Furlong captured the essence of a lunatic with great passion and enthusiasm. I've seen this movie about a hundred times now, and will probably watch it 100 more; its just one of those movies that never gets old. I don't think they could have hired a more perfect cast to fulfill this original heartwarming film. This movie is full of quotes that will be remembered throughout film history. Quotes such as "You win some, you lose some." and "Im the bad boy your mother warned you about.", and who could forget "I want Jenny.". If it was possible I would rate this movie an 11 out of 10, and would nominate Cruel World for BEST MOVIE EVER MADE.

Two brothers somehow sucker a bunch of young people into believing they're part of a reality game show in which they do whatever challenge the mastermind comes up with. Eventually it becomes apparent that the stakes are life and death, and the contestants start getting killed off, sometimes by each other.

Perhaps the craziest part of this movie is Edward Furlong as the lead, Philip Markham, who overacts at every turn as he screams at the contestants from his control room, where he chain smokes and eats gas station food. His performance is not one of his finest, but given that he appears to be past his prime at this point, he does deliver something that is, at very least, entertaining (not always for the right reasons, though).

As others have pointed out, Markham is a fairly lazy killer. Mostly he just yells a lot. It is often up to his simpleton brother, Claude, to carry out the dirty work for him.

The big question is whether or not the flick is worth seeing. Well, for me, the movie came with four others in a small package that was located at the bottom of a bargain bin. Given what I paid for it, it wasn't too bad.