Cradle of Fear

Here's the whine. :)

I knew before viewing that this would be an over the top film. Between Danni Filth from Cradle Of Filth and the Hammeresque setting I expected a schlocky gory horror film. I was wrong, very, very, very, very wrong!!! To sum it up the film is terrible and a let down in many ways.

First and foremost have to be the splatter effects. You don't need a huge budget or powerful CGI systems to create convincing effects. Look at several low budget productions like Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond', Dario Argento's 'Suspiria', or George A. Romero's 'Dawn Of The Dead'. All three of those films were low budget productions staring either low rent or no name actors. Yet all three manage to set up a tense atmosphere, gross us out with exploding heads, ripped out intestines, and a multitude of grisly slashed throats, and allow us to suspend our disbelief for 90-120 minutes.

Now lets look at Cradle Of Fear (Or low budget wanna-be music video as I call it). Danni Filth can't act to save his life. I knew within the first 5 minutes of watching the film that it was going to be bad. This mans acting is brutally stiff and devoid of any emotion or believability. Id actually rate Tor's acting in Plan 9 From Outerspace above Danni Filth (and that's frightning). Unfortunately Danni's not the only hack in the film. I don't recall a single believable line of dialogue at any point during the movie. Characters deliver the lines like they're reading from a teleprompter. Worse yet the inspectors acting makes William Shatner's acting seem lucid and elegant.

What this film reminds me of the most are not the Hammer classics I grew up with. This tragedy reminds me of the films Troma puts out. Only I enjoy Troma films because they're supposed to be cheap and outrageously funny. Cradle Of Fear is supposed to be a dark and frightning film. Unfortunately it's not scary but laughable. Worst of all the film is far too long for its own good. At over 2 hours it's about 30-45 minutes too long for a movie with no major plot or story behind it.

Summary----

The film is low budget (not a crime as I like quite a few low budget flicks) and it shows.

The acting is stiff, unbelievable, and many times almost monotone.

The dialouge itself creates some of the poor acting. I could not imaging using the work Fu (you get the idea) as many times in one week as the inspector does in 15 minutes. As pointed out previously by another reviewer Tarintino this guy ain't. Hell Lloyd Kaufman of Troma films looks like a master compared to Chandon.

The effects are just plain bad. Prosthetics that look like they were bought at a nickel and dime store. Blood that appears black (are we killing humans or embalmed corpses), and over use of blood (the human body does not contain 50 gallons of blood, and unlike Shogun Assassin this effect is not used in an artistic manner). CGI that's reminiscent of The Last Starfighter (which looked great in it's day, but pales in comparrison to many PC games these days), and is used out of place in many instances.

Poor video quality. For a movie shot mostly at night and in the dark, it's important to use good film stock and a good low lite camera. I guess Chandon forgot that seeing the movie helps alot.

Too serious for it's own good. If I wanted to laugh I would have popped in Braindead (aka Dead Alive) or Toxic Avenger.

Rating 4/10 (and I'm being kind)

Suggestion, if you want a gore soaked movie laced with atmospheric elements of horror go out and buy the unrated edition of Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond'. While it's not heavy on plot, it's not the joke that Cradle Of Fear is. Should you want a more twisting gothic, yet bloody work check out some of Dario Argento's work. Suspiria, Tenebre, and Opera come to mind as some of Argentos better films, although I've yet to see one I did not like.

I didn't have very high-hopes going into CRADLE OF FEAR. The first scene shows some "scary" goth-kid killing some guys in an alley, with pretty poor gore FX and an insanely obvious SOV feel to it. Number one - people who dress up like vampires at an S&M party are about the most un-scary things humanly possible - and two - I typically don't care for extremely obvious SOV productions...so you can see as how from the first five minutes I didn't think I would be feelin' this one. I have to admit though, that as it went along, CRADLE OF FEAR ended up being quite entertaining, despite (and in some cases because of...) it's numerous flaws...

The film is made up of four vignettes that center around a mental patient who was a hypnotist and child rapist/murderer. In each vignette, one or more people die in different splattery ways, that are related to people that had to do with the hypnotist's incarceration. The stories themselves are all relatively entertaining: the first dealing with the same goth kid from the beginning (who is apparently mind-controlled by the hypnotist) who bones a semi-hot goth whore and some crazy baby/spider-thing busts out of her stomach. The next has two friends who rob an old man and the robbery goes seriously wrong. The next is about a one-legged guy who goes to seek a "donor" for his missing leg, and the last (and in my opinion, most interesting) story deals with a kid who becomes obsessed with a snuff web-site. The four stories are all semi-amusing excuses to show some tits and gore, and still stay within the context of the film...

CRADLE OF FEAR is a very disjointed film. The way it's shot makes it look like a bad UK soap-opera. There are some decent performances from some of the cast - others are atrocious. There are a few sets of decent goth-chick tits in this one, and that's never a bad thing. Some of the gore FX are convincing or at least decent - others suck completely. There are a few CGI special FX that are so bad they're absolutely hilarious (car-chase/crash, anyone???) - but somehow this mess of a film still works. It is a little long, clocking in at a solid two hours, and could probably use a little bit of a trim, but even so - it manages to stay pretty quick-paced and entertaining throughout. Not a great film by any stretch - but it's quirky and worth a look to splatter fans...8/10

Home video filmed (with what looks like they only had one camera to film with) crap. Truly appaling CG effects that are not going to convince anybody. 4 stories linked by a stupid looking goth murdering people for no apparent reason other than doing a favor for a jailed psycho.

Remember those dreadful american daytime soap opera with the worst acting ever?, well this makes them look like Oscar hopefuls. The gore is over the top but as mentioned in another posting, this film is so amateur, they are not going to be offended by it, and require cuts.

The back cover of the DVD, list the FX done by the team that did the FX for 'Black Hawk Down', well it must of been the runner who was the link, as there is no way in hell anybody involved in this peace of crap will ever have a any professional work on a "real" movie.

Avoid like the plague.

Cradle of Fear is an anthology of icky tales that revolves around a police detective, an imprisoned madman, and "The Man" (played by Dani Filth, frontman for Cradle of Filth). Although the stories are meant to tie in together by using wraparound characters, they don't. Some of the stories don't even make sense on their own. However, the first story is quite good and graphic, but it's all downhill from there. The remaining tales just fail to generate any feelings out of me because there is no logic. There's lots of gore throughout, just not enough real story. That's the film's downfall and that's why I'm giving it a negative review. I will say this for the movie, it is undeniably horror. The lengths London filmmaker Alex Chandon will go to shock you will, well, shock you. I like gore. I love gore when it serves the purpose of the story. But I hate mindless gore. That's what the majority of the film is, not to mention pretty disgusting. Cradle of Fear is a gorehound's wet dream, but I desire a little bit more.

I think for your own true opinions of this film you should ignore the comments and make your own verdict by actually going to watch it. In my opinion I think that it is a clever story line, being a fan of cradle of filth I like the soundtrack and the actor (the man.

Instead of ordinary horror films, cradle of fear has 4 different stories all linked by one theme, so f you don't like a part of it, there is a lot more in the film. I think some o the scenes are far-fetched but overall it's a film for someone who has an imagination

I think the film was designed for young horror fans and overall it delivers: bring you a sickening fear. fans of horror, gore and Danni filth will not be . disappointed so watch it and make up your own mind!