The Butterfly Room

The Butterfly Room: Ann, a nasty anti-social who has an obsession with pinning butterflies decides to move on to larger prey. A line of dark humour runs through the film leavening the worse moments as she sprays people with acid and kicks ladders from under them. But there are still quite a few disturbing scenes and this is not a film for the squeamish. Various people who cross her come to a gruesome end. Confusing at times as there are flashbacks within flashbacks but the disjointed timeline adds to the tension. Barbara Steele is great as the irritable Ann with Julia Putnam as Alice a grifter schoolgirl. A couple of interesting plot twists will make you reconsider parts of the jumbled narrative. Directed and Co-Written by Jonathan Zarantonello, based on Zarantonello's short filml Alice dalle 4 alle 5 (Alice from 4 to 5). 7/10.

Showing again on Friday 8th April at 10.50 PM on the Horror Channel.

I had no idea what to expect with this movie. An insane and homicidal woman pays a teenaged girl so she can pretend she is her mother. Well, I'll give it credit for a storyline I've never seen before. The cast really shines well here, by the way. I can't say I'm a good judge of acting, but I can say that I was held captive by the principal actors performance. The movie lost a few marks at the end though. Mostly for some character actions and sequences that didn't exactly make sense, but overall it was still an enjoyable movie.

Although this movie has a to-die-for cast including Barbara Steele (Black Sunday), Adrienne King (Friday The 13th), Heather Lagenkamp (Nightmare On Elm Street), Camille Keaton (I Spit On Your Grave), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Erica Leerhsen (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) AND is shot with a very stylish flair - the story is just not there to hold up its end of the deal.

When a little girl who uses lonely older women as ATM machines tries to make Ann (Steele) her next victim, the tables get turned. And the secret lies inside the Butterfly Room. The premise is interesting enough but unfortunately the movie is just not very engrossing. Steele is as great as she always was, captivating and consuming. She deserves to be popping up in lots more, and lots better, horror flicks.

Horror aficionados will still want the check this out for the cool cast and the updated Bava/Giallo-ish style. Just don't expect too much!

"The Butterfly Room" is a curiosity for the extraordinary casting it features of actresses from famous horror movies. There's Heather Langenkamp, from "Nightmare of Elm St", Adrienne King from "Friday the 13th", P.J. Soles from "Halloween", Camille Keaton from "I Spit on Your Grave". But of course, the real star of the show is Barbara Steele, who is famous for her roles in gothic horror films such as Mario Bava's "Black Sunday".

Other than that, it doesn't have much going for it. The story is undercut by liberal flashbacks that don't really add a whole lot, and a plot that is pretty badly told besides.

I kept watching basically for Steele's performance. Here, in her mid-seventies, she is still a magnetic performer.

Butterflies are so delicate, yet so strong to endure their long migrations around the world. In the Butterfly Room, the story hinges on Ann (Barbara Steele) who is a strong, elegant, reclusive and centers her life around her butterfly collection. She captures and mounts them in her "butterfly room". During her days, she has flashbacks to her daughter and all the while she befriends a little girl to fill her empty nest syndrome. The Butterfly Room is a spooky tale where all is not what it seems. This psychological thriller keeps you glued to a shifting dynamics of this gentile collector. It is sure to make you think twice the next time you see a flawless butterfly.