Crazy Eights starts as six childhood friends who called themselves the Crazy Eights attend the funeral of a seventh mutual friend Brax, afterwards the six friends learn that Brax left them a map to an old barn & a note saying to find an old wooden chest there. The six travel to the isolated barn & find the chest & along with various childhood trinkets find the rotten skeletal remains of a young girl inside. Shocked they all decide to just go but end up driving round in circles, then they see a large house & decide to ask for directions. One of the friends hurts his leg & the other's take him inside the house which suddenly turns into a hospital where the vengeful spirit of the dead girl stalks the corridors seeking revenge on those who killed her & left her body in the chest...
One of the entries in that annual 8 Films to Die For After Dark Horrorfest festival thing Crazy Eights was co-edited, co-executive produced, co-produced, co-written & directed by James K. Jones & I have to say it's one of the most poorly written horror films I have seen in a while. For a start the title Crazy Eights is terrible from a marketing point of view, it doesn't tell you anything about the film & the words Crazy Eights will mean nothing to the majority of people. The film itself is no better, there are plot holes galore & a story which is just all over the place. The pace is pretty slow to begin with & the first forty odd minutes is sleep inducing stuff, then there's the almost total lack of exposition or explanation for anything that happens. There's no explanation as to why the six friends can remember each other but not the fact that they were orphans or the fact that they spent time in the hospital, we never really find out anything about the dead girl except that she was killed somehow & she blames the Crazy Eights, despite being trapped inside the hospital there are plenty of glass windows that the character's surely could have broke & climbed out of & there's no reason as to why the house suddenly turns into a hospital or why it's abandoned or where all the pictures & clues scattered throughout came from. The script is a mess, either that or the makers didn't shoot enough footage & merely had to use what they had whether it made sense or not which it most certainly doesn't. The ending is terrible too & doesn't make any sense, I was waiting for some sort of twist but it never comes & the whole film ends in a very blunt, abrupt & unsatisfying way. The set-up during the second half of the film feels very much like Saw II (2005) as a group of character's are trapped in a single location unaware of what's going on or why they are there & they begin to get killed off one by one, unfortunately Crazy Eights has nothing that made Saw II so good like the twist's & turns, the gore, the clever traps, the surprise ending & quick pacing. Throw in some nonsense about nightmares, some pointless flashbacks, the ghost of a young girl straight out of any Asain horror & you have a confusing mess that leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions as the end credits roll. Crazy Eights just doesn't feel like one coherent film, it's very bitty with a poor plot that is badly written & explained. Even the character's are standard stereotypes & the dialogue is forgettable, overall Crazy Eights is a bit of a mess from start to finish.
I must admit that Crazy Eights looks quite nice with one or two nicely lit & shot scenes, unfortunately it's not worth sitting through the rest of the film to see them & in isolation on their own don't add up to much anyway. I don't know if it's just me but this looks cut, whenever there's an opportunity to show some gore the makers either shied away from it or it was cut. This sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is going on in certain scenes, the bit when Gina suddenly clutches her face with blood streaking down her cheeks is a good example as we never see what has happened to her. I assume something has happened to her eyes but we never find out for sure. The only reason this would get an adult rating is because of the profanity rather than the violence or gore of which there is virtually zero. The ghost of the dead girls pops up occasionally but seemingly at random & we never really get a good look at her or even find out who she is or indeed was. The special effects are alright but there's hardly any anyway.
Probably shot on a pretty low budget somewhere in Maryland this actually has good production values & looks like a proper film. The experienced cast is pretty good here, to reinforce the Saw connections Dina Meyer who was in Saw (2003), Saw II, Saw III (2006) & Saw IV (2007) stars here while ex teenage porn star Traci Lords continues to try & make a career as a proper actress.
Crazy Eights is a mess of a film that feels like a cross between Saw II & a Asain ghost film but without any of the merits of either of them. No gore, no twist's, a mess of a plot & a slow pace makes Crazy Eights yet another one of the 8 Films to Die For that is quite frankly pants.
One of the entries in that annual 8 Films to Die For After Dark Horrorfest festival thing Crazy Eights was co-edited, co-executive produced, co-produced, co-written & directed by James K. Jones & I have to say it's one of the most poorly written horror films I have seen in a while. For a start the title Crazy Eights is terrible from a marketing point of view, it doesn't tell you anything about the film & the words Crazy Eights will mean nothing to the majority of people. The film itself is no better, there are plot holes galore & a story which is just all over the place. The pace is pretty slow to begin with & the first forty odd minutes is sleep inducing stuff, then there's the almost total lack of exposition or explanation for anything that happens. There's no explanation as to why the six friends can remember each other but not the fact that they were orphans or the fact that they spent time in the hospital, we never really find out anything about the dead girl except that she was killed somehow & she blames the Crazy Eights, despite being trapped inside the hospital there are plenty of glass windows that the character's surely could have broke & climbed out of & there's no reason as to why the house suddenly turns into a hospital or why it's abandoned or where all the pictures & clues scattered throughout came from. The script is a mess, either that or the makers didn't shoot enough footage & merely had to use what they had whether it made sense or not which it most certainly doesn't. The ending is terrible too & doesn't make any sense, I was waiting for some sort of twist but it never comes & the whole film ends in a very blunt, abrupt & unsatisfying way. The set-up during the second half of the film feels very much like Saw II (2005) as a group of character's are trapped in a single location unaware of what's going on or why they are there & they begin to get killed off one by one, unfortunately Crazy Eights has nothing that made Saw II so good like the twist's & turns, the gore, the clever traps, the surprise ending & quick pacing. Throw in some nonsense about nightmares, some pointless flashbacks, the ghost of a young girl straight out of any Asain horror & you have a confusing mess that leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions as the end credits roll. Crazy Eights just doesn't feel like one coherent film, it's very bitty with a poor plot that is badly written & explained. Even the character's are standard stereotypes & the dialogue is forgettable, overall Crazy Eights is a bit of a mess from start to finish.
I must admit that Crazy Eights looks quite nice with one or two nicely lit & shot scenes, unfortunately it's not worth sitting through the rest of the film to see them & in isolation on their own don't add up to much anyway. I don't know if it's just me but this looks cut, whenever there's an opportunity to show some gore the makers either shied away from it or it was cut. This sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is going on in certain scenes, the bit when Gina suddenly clutches her face with blood streaking down her cheeks is a good example as we never see what has happened to her. I assume something has happened to her eyes but we never find out for sure. The only reason this would get an adult rating is because of the profanity rather than the violence or gore of which there is virtually zero. The ghost of the dead girls pops up occasionally but seemingly at random & we never really get a good look at her or even find out who she is or indeed was. The special effects are alright but there's hardly any anyway.
Probably shot on a pretty low budget somewhere in Maryland this actually has good production values & looks like a proper film. The experienced cast is pretty good here, to reinforce the Saw connections Dina Meyer who was in Saw (2003), Saw II, Saw III (2006) & Saw IV (2007) stars here while ex teenage porn star Traci Lords continues to try & make a career as a proper actress.
Crazy Eights is a mess of a film that feels like a cross between Saw II & a Asain ghost film but without any of the merits of either of them. No gore, no twist's, a mess of a plot & a slow pace makes Crazy Eights yet another one of the 8 Films to Die For that is quite frankly pants.