Laid to Rest starts as a young woman (Bobbi Sue Luther) suddenly wakes up inside a locked coffin, she struggles & finally manages to open the coffin & finds herself inside a funeral home. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there but instinctively know's to try & call for help but she soon discovers that a brutal killer who calls himself Chromeskull (NIck Principle) likes nothing more than stalking & killing people while he films it with his shoulder mounted camera, Chromeskull wants to kill this woman & will seemingly stop at nothing to do so. As the terrified woman flees from Chromeskull & tries to stay alive she meets up with various other people who try to help her but usually end up dead as Chromeskull isn't picky about who he kills...
Written & directed by Robert Hall this is your typical slasher horror film in the vein of Wrong Turn (2003), Friday the 13th (2009) & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) although one does have to say at this point that while Laid to Rest is nothing particularly original or thought-provoking it certainly delivers on the gore. I suppose the basic idea behind Laid to Rest is quite good, the script revolves around this central mystery of a woman with no memory of who she is or what has happened to her being stalked by some maniac killer & as the mystery unfolds the pieces all come together in a satisfying twist ending. Right? Well, no actually because nothing is ever really explained to any great degree & even though we rather randomly discover that the woman was a prostitute there's no reason behind why Chromeskull picked her or why he just didn't kill her straight away or why this whole stalking thing is going on. Chromeskull himself is an OK killer, he never speaks & we never see his real face & he has absolutely zero background or motivation for anything he does except he's just a sick killer. At least he know's how to kill people in spectacularly gory ways & for that I salute the guy. At just under 90 odd minutes the pace is decent enough & the action & story kicks in straight away but it can get a bit repetitive & with an almost total lack of explanation behind anything that is happening Laid to Rest feels empty & must be considered a bit of a wasted opportunity. The annoying aspect that none of the character's in danger of bing horribly murdered by Chromeskull take any of the opportunities they have to just escape to safety, I mean there are plenty of occasions when they could just drive or run away somewhere totally random as far from Chromesjull as possible but they always hesitate or find something to stay behind for or come up with some strange reason why they can't just leave. Laid to rest is a decent enough & pleasantly gory slasher horror thriller but a bit more work on the central story to make it actually end up meaning something & this could have been so much better, as it stands laid to Rest is perfectly acceptable thanks to a quick pace & some impressive gore but it's not going to go down as any sort of classic.
As I have already mentioned the real highlight of Laid to Rest is the gore which is impressive, there are gory slit throats, severed heads, cut open torso's, dead mutilated bodies, someone's stomach is sliced open & their guts slide out, a man's face is literally sliced off, people are stabbed, a guy's head is blown off with a shotgun, eye's pop open & a guy rips his own face off exposing his skull underneath all shown in loving detail with plenty of blood splatter. There's a little bit of nudity as well. While Laid to Rest has the look of a modern low budget horror film there's not much machine gun editing or shaky hand-held camcorder crap going on which is appreciated, two modern techniques that are overused these days that I personally can't stand.
Filmed in Annapolis in Maryland this probably had a low budget but looks alright with decent production values, I am pleased to say that the use of CGI computer effects is kept to a minimum & the majority of the gore scenes are good old fashioned on-set prosthetics & fake blood. Leading lady Bobbi Sue Luther is alright if forgettable while none of the other cast members feature that much before they are gorily killed.
Laid to Rest isn't a terrible film but neither is it a great film, it just sort of sit between the two camps as it has good gore & a good pace but nothing else & does get a bit dull after a while. I thought it was OK, worth watching if you get the opportunity & like slasher films.
Written & directed by Robert Hall this is your typical slasher horror film in the vein of Wrong Turn (2003), Friday the 13th (2009) & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) although one does have to say at this point that while Laid to Rest is nothing particularly original or thought-provoking it certainly delivers on the gore. I suppose the basic idea behind Laid to Rest is quite good, the script revolves around this central mystery of a woman with no memory of who she is or what has happened to her being stalked by some maniac killer & as the mystery unfolds the pieces all come together in a satisfying twist ending. Right? Well, no actually because nothing is ever really explained to any great degree & even though we rather randomly discover that the woman was a prostitute there's no reason behind why Chromeskull picked her or why he just didn't kill her straight away or why this whole stalking thing is going on. Chromeskull himself is an OK killer, he never speaks & we never see his real face & he has absolutely zero background or motivation for anything he does except he's just a sick killer. At least he know's how to kill people in spectacularly gory ways & for that I salute the guy. At just under 90 odd minutes the pace is decent enough & the action & story kicks in straight away but it can get a bit repetitive & with an almost total lack of explanation behind anything that is happening Laid to Rest feels empty & must be considered a bit of a wasted opportunity. The annoying aspect that none of the character's in danger of bing horribly murdered by Chromeskull take any of the opportunities they have to just escape to safety, I mean there are plenty of occasions when they could just drive or run away somewhere totally random as far from Chromesjull as possible but they always hesitate or find something to stay behind for or come up with some strange reason why they can't just leave. Laid to rest is a decent enough & pleasantly gory slasher horror thriller but a bit more work on the central story to make it actually end up meaning something & this could have been so much better, as it stands laid to Rest is perfectly acceptable thanks to a quick pace & some impressive gore but it's not going to go down as any sort of classic.
As I have already mentioned the real highlight of Laid to Rest is the gore which is impressive, there are gory slit throats, severed heads, cut open torso's, dead mutilated bodies, someone's stomach is sliced open & their guts slide out, a man's face is literally sliced off, people are stabbed, a guy's head is blown off with a shotgun, eye's pop open & a guy rips his own face off exposing his skull underneath all shown in loving detail with plenty of blood splatter. There's a little bit of nudity as well. While Laid to Rest has the look of a modern low budget horror film there's not much machine gun editing or shaky hand-held camcorder crap going on which is appreciated, two modern techniques that are overused these days that I personally can't stand.
Filmed in Annapolis in Maryland this probably had a low budget but looks alright with decent production values, I am pleased to say that the use of CGI computer effects is kept to a minimum & the majority of the gore scenes are good old fashioned on-set prosthetics & fake blood. Leading lady Bobbi Sue Luther is alright if forgettable while none of the other cast members feature that much before they are gorily killed.
Laid to Rest isn't a terrible film but neither is it a great film, it just sort of sit between the two camps as it has good gore & a good pace but nothing else & does get a bit dull after a while. I thought it was OK, worth watching if you get the opportunity & like slasher films.