Playback

This is a low budget genre flick that has countless flaws but also a rather interesting story and a decent payoff. You could tell that the budget was not very high which honestly kind of drags the movies watching experience down. The acting is okayish and the effects are somewhere between good and pretty bad at times. The movie definitely borrows some material from other more famous flicks but never straight up copies anything and tries to be its own twisted little story. Overall it's decent and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy this, however don't expect something great out of this because it is not. [4,7/10]

First pet peeve with movies like this is 30 year olds playing teenagers. C'mon! Furthermore, don't get fooled by the reviews written by people of the production company or "friends of the director", this movie really isn't worth anything more than a 4 to 5.

A federal law should prevent any more Japanese style horror movies. It's done! Go sit in the corner with the found footage films and the creature features and if you ask me, the highschool road movie.

So here it goes again. Mundane, predictable, the copy of the copy of the copy. It might be nice as a background movie while you are cleaning your fridge don't spend a Saturday night on it.

Playback – TRASH IT (C) Playback is a horror film with very little potential. The whole story of devil transforming from generation to generation via screen is little too much even for this indie horror. First thing first I still cannot believe that Christian Slater will take a role of pedophile in a C graded movie. It's better to not do anything rather than shaming his name (whatever is left after "Alone in the Drak") into dirt. It stars some of the not very famous yet good looking tween stars Toby Hemingway, Jonahtan Keltz, Johnny Pacar, Jennifer Missoni, Luke Bonczyk, Alessandra Torresani and Ambyr Childers. Overall, it's a gruesome time passer but bad lighting and not very impressive story and performance makes you bore. Simply ignore this one.

If you read some of the reviews for Playback, you may notice it receives more than its fair share of negativity. In some ways it deserves it, in others it doesn't. A lot of the criticism comes from how it's been sold. If you read the blurb, you'll see it mentions an 'ex cop (played by Christian Slater) investigating a mysterious killer.' This is simply not true. For a start, Christian Slater's part in this film is little more than an extended cameo and it seems to be a blatant attempt by the studio/promoters to do their best at cashing in on the one and only (semi) big name attached to the project.

The film is actually about a group of teenagers who are trying to make their own horror film when they stumble on a particularly nasty supernatural force that links back to their town's past. In many ways, Playback is little more than a (supernatural) slasher film that loosely borrows from superior works like The Ring. You may even forget that Christian Slater is in the film because his character has so little to do.

Playback is okay. If you can ignore its miss-selling and are just looking for a run-of-the-mill horror to fill an hour and a half, then this one will probably do. Yes, there are a fair few unexplained bits that may leave you with a question mark or two over your head, but, like I say, it's far from perfect, but it just about makes the grade.

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I'm a humongous horror fan. Hostel and Saw are amazing. So when I saw this at family video, I thought why not? I absolutely love Johnny Pacar, so I knew it had to be decent, right?

Right I was! The acting is solid, the gore is realistic, and the plot twists are believable. I read all the reviews beforehand and expected a stinker, but do NOT read most of the reviews. They're either making fun or they were expecting something else.

Yes, there are plot holes. Yes, the ending is predictable. But it's fun, it made me jump a couple times, and the gore doesn't look ridiculously fake like most B movies!

Will I watch it again? Heck yeah! Will I buy it? Possibly. Do I recommend it? Absolutely.