I'll admit, right from the beginning of this review, that I'm probably just not the right audience for this movie. I am fairly active in the horror community. I go to a lot of conventions. I participate in a lot of message boards. I know a lot of horror fans that would love this movie. I'm just not one of them. I'm trying to think of a way to put this review that won't come across so snobby, but I'll just say that it's a horror movie for people who don't want to think, at all. I usually prefer my horror with a little more intelligence behind it. That's not to say that I can't enjoy my share of mindless gore and scares, but this movie just seems so much to be aimed at an uncultured and uninformed younger audience.
I took a lot of writing classes in my life. There were always a few students in each class that just didn't seem to get it, at all. They had drive. They had interest in writing. They just didn't have a creative thought in their heads. Everything they wrote seemed to be crafted from others' ideas and that's the way this movie feels. It's horror created by Beavis and Butthead, as assemblage of ideas that have been done to death and done far better. The movie does seem to hint, now and then, that its' acknowledging its' use of generic tropes, but admitting that you're stealing someone's ideas doesn't forgive that you are doing so. Yes, there are movies like BEHIND THE MASK or SCREAM that have taken those ideas and twisted on them, while admitting they are doing so, but this movie doesn't come anywhere close to the level of writing in those classics.
We open with a scene at an asylum that feels far too much like the tour in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES. It's a scene by scene introduction to our cast of killers with no creativity or thought given to it, just this killer has a cutesy nickname and here's what he did, then this one, then this one, all guided by Robert Englund who is featured on the poster, but actually has about a 30 second role.
Our rogues gallery reads like the most generic gathering of horror clichés you'll ever see. The leader of the gang is a cult leader who's a cross between The Joker and Jim Jones. That joker comparison is apt because we meet his daughter who is a straight up rip off of Harley Quinn. The movie even goes so far as to name her "Ms Quinn". This is perhaps the ultimate lazy writing. It's like the writer thought "Hey, I love Harley Q. I'm gonna put a horror version of her in my movie. I'll go ahead and call her Ms. Quinn and act like I'm doing it with a wink and a nod and maybe nobody will notice that I'm done nothing but steal someone else's idea". She's not even a very good imitation. The actress is terrible and moves with odd, stilted movements throughout the film. I've seen a hundred cosplayers who could have done this better.
Our killers continue with Clint Howard as a human taxidermist (because that's original), we get a fat chef who likes to cook people, a deranged dentist and maybe the laziest of all the characters, an evil clown. Really?? An evil clown?? There are hundreds of other generic low budget horror flicks riddling Netflix and the internet that all seem to think this is a good idea. We get it, people think clowns are scary. The idea got stale about 20 years ago, people.
Of course, we need victims, so we get a cast of co-workers, who fit snugly into horror typecasts, but are all far too old to be working at a dive diner and going to a haunted house together acting as if they are seeking scares and thrills. The slut is annoying. The jock is a cardboard cutout. The stoner kids try to be funny and fail continually. The "final girl" is neither attractive or interesting enough for anyone to care. The one character who works, at all, is the true main character, who wear a Dr. Who costume throughout the movie. The characters are given horrible jokes and bad dialog. They actually pull out "That's what she said" jokes, as if that hadn't got old around the time your granddad caught on 3 years ago and started using it.
The only thing particularly interesting about the movie is, perhaps, the gore, which is just content to be full of ample amounts of fake blood. The effects and gags are never really good. That is not a budget limitation, either, because I've seen plenty of low budget horror do more with no more budget than this had. The effects never go for realism, in any way, and instead just settle for "look how much blood we can spill". There's a certain deranged fun in them, but even for a gorehound like myself, I want something more convincing.
This review ended up more harsh that I intended, but I often feel that the best way to get a true sense of your feelings on a movie is to start writing a review about it and see what flows out. The movie is fun in certain parts, but is aimed at the lowest common denominator, shooting squarely for those who don't want to have to put too much thought into their horror movie. If that's you, I'm not judging. It's just not my thing.
I took a lot of writing classes in my life. There were always a few students in each class that just didn't seem to get it, at all. They had drive. They had interest in writing. They just didn't have a creative thought in their heads. Everything they wrote seemed to be crafted from others' ideas and that's the way this movie feels. It's horror created by Beavis and Butthead, as assemblage of ideas that have been done to death and done far better. The movie does seem to hint, now and then, that its' acknowledging its' use of generic tropes, but admitting that you're stealing someone's ideas doesn't forgive that you are doing so. Yes, there are movies like BEHIND THE MASK or SCREAM that have taken those ideas and twisted on them, while admitting they are doing so, but this movie doesn't come anywhere close to the level of writing in those classics.
We open with a scene at an asylum that feels far too much like the tour in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES. It's a scene by scene introduction to our cast of killers with no creativity or thought given to it, just this killer has a cutesy nickname and here's what he did, then this one, then this one, all guided by Robert Englund who is featured on the poster, but actually has about a 30 second role.
Our rogues gallery reads like the most generic gathering of horror clichés you'll ever see. The leader of the gang is a cult leader who's a cross between The Joker and Jim Jones. That joker comparison is apt because we meet his daughter who is a straight up rip off of Harley Quinn. The movie even goes so far as to name her "Ms Quinn". This is perhaps the ultimate lazy writing. It's like the writer thought "Hey, I love Harley Q. I'm gonna put a horror version of her in my movie. I'll go ahead and call her Ms. Quinn and act like I'm doing it with a wink and a nod and maybe nobody will notice that I'm done nothing but steal someone else's idea". She's not even a very good imitation. The actress is terrible and moves with odd, stilted movements throughout the film. I've seen a hundred cosplayers who could have done this better.
Our killers continue with Clint Howard as a human taxidermist (because that's original), we get a fat chef who likes to cook people, a deranged dentist and maybe the laziest of all the characters, an evil clown. Really?? An evil clown?? There are hundreds of other generic low budget horror flicks riddling Netflix and the internet that all seem to think this is a good idea. We get it, people think clowns are scary. The idea got stale about 20 years ago, people.
Of course, we need victims, so we get a cast of co-workers, who fit snugly into horror typecasts, but are all far too old to be working at a dive diner and going to a haunted house together acting as if they are seeking scares and thrills. The slut is annoying. The jock is a cardboard cutout. The stoner kids try to be funny and fail continually. The "final girl" is neither attractive or interesting enough for anyone to care. The one character who works, at all, is the true main character, who wear a Dr. Who costume throughout the movie. The characters are given horrible jokes and bad dialog. They actually pull out "That's what she said" jokes, as if that hadn't got old around the time your granddad caught on 3 years ago and started using it.
The only thing particularly interesting about the movie is, perhaps, the gore, which is just content to be full of ample amounts of fake blood. The effects and gags are never really good. That is not a budget limitation, either, because I've seen plenty of low budget horror do more with no more budget than this had. The effects never go for realism, in any way, and instead just settle for "look how much blood we can spill". There's a certain deranged fun in them, but even for a gorehound like myself, I want something more convincing.
This review ended up more harsh that I intended, but I often feel that the best way to get a true sense of your feelings on a movie is to start writing a review about it and see what flows out. The movie is fun in certain parts, but is aimed at the lowest common denominator, shooting squarely for those who don't want to have to put too much thought into their horror movie. If that's you, I'm not judging. It's just not my thing.