Stag Night

Already seen many times, predictable and without any imagination. The only reason it got 3 out of 10 from me is because of the pretty good acting and few scary scenes which I got to mention as a true horror fan. So, if you are the one, you would maybe like to see how is director of this film mixing movies "Creep" and "Hills have eyes" while trying to take the best out of them but without success in pretty cheep and stereotypic way. Also, most of the scenes were made in the dark but director insists on their speed which is pretty irritating as you see only blurry shadows instead of the picture. All in all, pretty bad and pretty generous rate from my side.

I never intended to watch Stag night – not this one anyway. I read on IMDb about a British film that was more or less a wannabe Shaun of the Dead entitled 'Stag Night of the Dead'. It was supposed to be reasonably amusing and with the action transpiring on a Stag Night you can't help but guess that a certain number of strippers might've been involved… I wasn't actively hunting SNotD but as things tend to do the title lodged itself in my subconscious. A few weeks later at the video shop I spy the cover for Stag Night and my mind does a quick double-take; was that supposed to be good and if so why?, as it was on the weekly shelf I threw caution to the wind and slapped down the $1 required to borrow Stag Night for an entire 7 day period.

Stag Night has no 'of the dead', no laughs and only a brief moment of nudity… But it isn't terrible.

Here's why; Predictably enough the movie is set during a Stag Night. Not a glamorous or large scale affair, just four guys having some beers in the city. When we meet the four guys they are being kicked out of a strip club and discussing whether to call it a night or kick on.

Kicking on wins.

Shortly after they are aboard the subway heading to the next destination with two of the strippers from the club who are done for the night. After some obnoxiousness from one of the quartet leads to mace being released, a door is forced open (somehow) and all 6 exit the train in a dark section of subway tunnel at 4 AM.

Let's fast forward only a few minutes: SUBWAY TUNNEL CANNIBALS!!! Yep it's that kinda film. The ensuing hour has the usual chaos, stupid decisions and unlikely events as the 6 mostly unlikable anti-heroes stumble about in the dark.

There is liberal use of F-Bombs even well before the Rob Zombie looking cannibals show up to slice and dice. The film has one good kill scene that is more entertaining than it is inexplicable – and it is quite inexplicable – and an hour of running from bad guys in a film most aptly described as Mimic Vs Wrong Turn.

I didn't hate Stag Night. It's just too reminiscent of so many other better movies to stand out from the pack. I like the fact that they played it straight and never winked to camera or made things too unbelievable… what am I saying? SUBWAY TUNNEL CANNIBALS!!! I'd like that last remark stricken from the record.

Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. If you want lotsa gore and minimal thought all wrapped up in a familiar package Stag Night isn't bad, how good Stag Night of the Dead is remains to be seen.

One last thing: How many movies feature monsters/killers or creatures that have apparently been prying their deadly trade for some time without anyone ever realising. Fine I can believe that they have a 100% kill rate once they target their prey, as unrealistic as that is. But no-one ever seems to ask about the missing or looks too hard into things.

And when cops do they are invariably killed… but who looks for them? (I know, I know. Just a movie.)

Think "Wrong Turn" set in subterranean Manhattan.

"Stag Night" follows a group of friends on a subway home from a bachelor party in NYC. After exiting their train too early at an abandoned station, the group along with two female strippers from the party look for a means of exit. Unfortunately for them, they've walked off the train and straight into the stomping grounds of a clan of subterranean cannibals. It's gonna be a long night.

"Stag Night" works with the cannibal killer formula that's been done for the past three decades, but, like the 1972 film "Raw Meat" (also known as "Death Line" in the UK), this one is set in abandoned subway tunnels. We saw a similar scenario in the 2004 flick "Creep" with Franka Potente, where she struggles to survive against a mad cannibal in London's subways. There's something eerie about being underground in the first place because it adds an increased sense of helplessness; you've literally got the weight of the earth against you, and means of escape are few and far between. Even creepier is the fact that these abandoned subway tunnels and platforms do actually exist far beneath the streets of New York and London, and the notion that people could be inhabiting these dark, old places is one that is extremely eerie.

This film makes ample use of its setting, which is ultimately the hook, line and sinker for this one. Transplant this story to the woods, and you've got "Wrong Turn". Transplant it to a nuclear California desert, and you've got "The Hills Have Eyes". It's familiar, yes, but who said familiar cannot be fun? This is an extremely violent film, so modern gorehounds will get their money's worth here. For those who prefer slowburn suspense, this one may be a pass. I like both ends of the spectrum, and this one delivers on action. I've read some complaints about the cinematography in the film and the shaky camera-work, which are understandable complaints, but I will say that it does give the film a visceral texture. I could, however, have down without the corny slow-motion shots during scenes of high drama though.

The production quality is actually really great, and the subterranean atmosphere is well-used. The villains in the film are also surprisingly scary looking, and, where films like the aforementioned "Raw Meat" gave a humanity to the villains, this film rather presents them as outright murderous animals. Acting-wise, there's a solid cast here that make up the core characters. Kip Pardue and Breckin Meyer are both pleasures to watch, and Vinessa Shaw (you may recognize her from "The Hills Have Eyes" remake or Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut"— or, if you're a '90s kid, Disney's "Hocus Pocus") plays a sassy Columbia student by day and stripper by night. There is some particularly funny dialogue between her and Meyer, that is, until things get serious.

I felt the ending of the film was abrupt and the last-second surprise was a "c'mon" moment for me, but I can forgive it since I was glued to the screen for the 80 minutes prior. Standout scene: the group's first sighting of the killers as they dismember a security guard, and the train track beheading.

Overall, "Stag Night" is all in good fun. It's not high art, but I tuned into it right at the beginning around 1am, and I was taken by it enough that I finished it to the end. Genre fans will likely enjoy it, while most others will not. As far as indie horror goes, this one is fairly high up there. 6/10.

First off, let me say i love my horror films.

The story is nothing special, 6 people get them selves stuck in an underground train yard, they are confronted by a group of crazy cannibals, Can they survive? Maybe, Can we survive the bad camera work and sub par direction of the movie? maybe...

All around the acting was decent, all the actors held up there own in this movie, i have to say they actually did a good job with the script they had to work with.

Let me get to the camera work, it was bad, really bad for most part of the movie, i think i got a bit of a headache after watching the movie.

This is not a bad movie, but it's not good either, it's watchable (if u can stomach the camera views that the director chooses to use), The death scenes were OK, the actors did well, the only problem is when a movie of any genre takes it self seriously, then i would expect some kind of logic from the script, there was little logic here, but I've seen worst. deducting 3 points for the camera work and 2 for the poor script. 5/10

This movie is quite all right for its kind (Creep, The Midnight Meat Train etc). It's gorgeously shot and you can actually "feel" the action and all those fast-moving running scenes and bloody fights add to the action. The film is barely scary if you have already seen movies of this kind. The only thing that distinguishes this film from others is that here you're not dealing with one or two savage creatures but many.

The characters, their dialog lines and their reactions are quite natural and the music score fits the scenes perfectly well. If you decide to go watch this film, be prepared to see a lot of repetitive actions; running in endless dark tunnels while being followed by a horde of savage creatures. The savage men are believable at least they don't look like monsters.

The characters are not well developed but you can get a glimpse into their real selves through some of their actions like sacrificing themselves for the sake of others. At certain places in the film (especially towards the end) the film desperately tries to get you sympathize with the dying characters and feel their pain through the background music, because in these kinds of movies we rarely care if any of the characters dies due to the fact that character development is absent from a lot of horror movies and this one is no exception.

The only "effective" scenes in the movie are those where the victims look into the eyes of their killers for a few seconds before they die a slow death. The movie as a whole is not scary, but the last scene startled me. They should've used more of this "startling" technique throughout the film instead of showing the creatures approaching their victims from miles away which made the film very predictable, although the ending was not a cliché and that's what I liked most about this film.