Crazy Eights

Think session 9 meets the big chill but not as good as either. The film is pretty good however a little slow in bits but rather creepy and involving. Lords and Meyers give two great performances and the film making is original if not terribly creative. It centers on a group of friends who discover a secret when one of them passes. Haunted by ghostly visions they decide to confront it at the place where it all started. It has some nice jump out scares but ewarns it's spooky mood modeslty. A decent film and definitely worth a look. A nice additon to horrorfest library. My one big problem with this film is the questionable villain and unpolished look the film carries besides that it's pretty good.

Unfortunately, the next movie in my After Dark alphabetical lineup was not quite as good. With a cast that has had a somewhat undeserved amount of attention placed on it, "Crazy Eights" is a story of 6 friends, reunited by another friend's funeral, who in following out said friend's last wishes, find themselves trapped in an abandoned medical facility, that as it turns out, holds the key to an event they all shared, but had blocked out of their memories. Despite the somewhat promising premise, the film turns out to be about as well written as my last sentence (can anyone say "run-on"?). The dialogue is generally bad, the plot developments are easily figured out way in advance, and some events come off as just silly. When one character manages to severely break his leg, one can't help but wonder just how clumsy he is to have done all THAT in a little tumble. There are some scenes that seem a bit creepy, but they are all to often ruined by an obnoxious synth-string theme that keeps popping up and/or very sloppy editing. While not exactly awful, this film is not really recommendable. So far, I'm saying this is this year's equivalent of "The Gravedancers" in the first 'fest. And in case you're wondering, that's bad.

To describe the plot of Crazy Eights would be a waste of time because there wasn't one. This movie was a big bomb that would've found a home on Mystery Science Theater 3000. While watching it with friends, all we did was crack on it.

My opinion of "8 Films to Die For" is steadily lowering after seeing a few really bad movies in their line up. Previously, they had some great picks like "Grave Dancers" or "Unrest." But lately, I think they've been taking bribes to include films like "Crazy Eights" or "Tooth and Nail" (even worse than Crazy Eights). Do not bother renting this movie. I did so at RedBox and was so p----d off for wasting even a buck on this pile of dreck, that RedBox gave me a free rental.

p.s. Traci Lords sucked too (no pun intended.)

Jennifer Jones (Dina Meyer), Father Lyle Dey (George Newbern), Gina Conte (Traci Lords), Wayne Morrison (Dan De Luca), Brent Sykes (Frank Whaley), and Beth Patterson (Gabrielle Anwar) are childhood friends. The opening text reveals a past private behavioral study used some 600 children in its experiments. The six friends are reunited after the death of another friend. Their group called themselves the Crazy Eights.

There are a few familiar faces from the 90's and early 2000's. That's the main reason to check this out. The premise is concocted simplicity. It's bare-bones and constructed only to bring these people to an isolated place. It's a low budget horror. It's a bunch of actors running around in one place. The scares are not that scary. The story isn't much. The actors are who they are. It's nice to see them again, but this is not anything.

Another one of the After Dark, Horrorfest movies, that is kind of a Big Chill horror movie with a very angry ghost. The death of a childhood friend of six others, bring them all together at the funeral. The deceased has outlined something he wants his friends to do, and that's follow a map that leads them to a spooky building, that they get trapped inside with a little girl ghost that takes them out one by one. Not a lot of action in the first half of the movie, mostly dialogue between the six which is pretty interesting, but might not sit well with a lot of horror fans. After the ghost comes into the story, it becomes a survival against all odds, and with a very strong cast, they pull it off pretty well. I kind of liked the movie myself, but I can see why other genre fans may not be too fond of it.