Resurrection County

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was not about torture, but an unusually deranged family who were violent in some original and creative ways inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. The film is an incomparable and timeless cinematic masterpiece which culminates in a terrifyingly bizarre dinner party.

This film conversely, is the typical overdone torture porn movie - the only similarity being the kids encounter rednecks in the country - with that empty don't-need-a-reason attitude. A perfect demonstration of how torture flicks don't belong in the horror genre due to their general omission of anything scary or creative - only unimaginative meaningless torture.

I couldn't finish watching Resurrection County. Mainly because it was disturbing in a most unoriginal way. And also because the script and interaction between characters was shallow and unbelievable. And it was just too boring.

The first thing I noticed about the film was its promo image. It's effective: it's both brutal and spooky. Turns out is not an image from the film. The film's two female stars are a long-haired brunette and a short-haired redhead (the latter seems to be channeling Susan Ruttan for some bizarre reason... maybe someone was a huge fan of LA Law?). There are scenes that are highly similar to the image, though.

The major premise of this movie is that the main characters go off to the woods to ride their ATVs. They are going mudding, basically. It's a movie about rural people who happen to have some disposable income versus rural folks who are dirt poor and insanely violent from extreme politics. They are the type of bad guy that actually exists in this world, unlike ghosts and werewolves and genius serial killers and so forth. Normal rural people are also included in this movie, most dramatically in a law enforcement officer who demonstrates professionalism and tolerance. There are also some morally ambiguous characters to varying degrees. But the people who are villains are hardcore evil. For example, there are at least three attempted victims of nonconsensual sexual activity. But the filmmakers avoid showing anything except the violence,

The biggest problem with the film is that there's something off about the pacing. Most films have something to hook you and then a lead up to a flurry of activity. This one has big things happen, a conspicuously long gap in the middle where they added characters and nothing is really happening, and finally things happening again.

In all, it was maybe a slightly above average film, but it has nothing that's a must-see.

When it comes to bad horror films, "Resurrection County" is slightly above average. Winner of Best Horror Film at the Bare Bones Festival (whatever that is), it's a low budget, straight-to-DVD slasher flick that entices you with its R18+ rating. I can't really see the need for it myself. Most of the gore is left to your imagination.

The plot owes heavily to the likes of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Wrong Turn"... to name a few. Two couples set up camp a little too close to a clan of Rednecks who "don't much like them city folk". Nothing new here. Fortunately it boasts a few genuinely intense moments and the acting isn't too bad. It sags a bit in the middle and it suffers from a few classic horror movie mistakes. Don't leave shotguns behind, don't waste bullets and don't stop for a quick smooch when you're surrounded by psychos.

If you enjoy the occasional bad horror movie, you could do much worse than RESURRECTION COUNTY.

Check out my IMDb List for some better suggestions. "HORROR/THRILLER: Obscure, Overlooked & Underrated" http://www.imdb.com/list/8QFZ78e4Ar8/

Going through rural Arkansas for a camping trip, a group of friends inadvertently offend the locals with their disregard for local laws and are forced to defend themselves from their murderous intentions as they try to get away alive.

This is about as cliché and predictable as it can get in the genre, and there's really no surprises at all in this one. It goes through the predictable notion of the civilized city people running afoul of the inbred rednecks and then getting turned on for their actions, which makes sense in some regard about whether or not to mess with the locals, but the fact that it's been done so much and so often really doesn't leave any room for originality left in this particular scene and that puts this one through the motions of ignoring their warnings, getting caught in the fray, getting captured and tortured only to fight back in the end as the survivors try to escape, and this has been done so many times recently it's rather hard to get interested in this one due to being so close to a lot of other types of films. What also hurts this one is the fact that, regardless of the familiarity here, it's nearly impossible to get invested when the people here are gigantic, colossal morons who really have no business surviving for the blatant, utterly nonsensical scenes which start off the furor against everyone as that tends to be so cliché and lifeless that making us want to be around them is really hard to accomplish. That said, there's a nice level of brutality that runs throughout this one as the tortures inflicted are shockingly brutal and twisted, all the more so for the fact that it seems entirely possible people like them came up with such a series of scenes to accomplish this, and that leaves a high blood-splatter throughout which is quite fun. As well, the final half is easily the best with a strong series of chases and encounters that tends to really get some involvement going in their quest for survival and race to escape, and that makes for some intense times there. It's enough to rise it up slightly, but there's still too much wrong on a philosophical standpoint to help this one.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and attempted rape.

Two urban couples head to the countryside for some downtime; however, they're quickly introduced to the other side of 'roughing it' in the wilderness when the men's ATV excursion makes a collision course straight for hell, where the locals aren't keen to strangers. After a standoff with a couple of ill-tempered hillbillies, the residents of Resurrection County go from hostile to downright murderous, out to avenge the death of one of their own.

It's your run-of-the-mill redneck torture flick - city folks wander off into no man's land for some fresh air, only to end up being stalked (sometimes devoured, but not in this case) by a group of inbred loonies who possess the strength of Hercules and the Hulk combined. Lo and behold, the actors and actresses, a bunch of no-names, do a pretty damn decent job. The make-up department and special effects crew deserve a round of applause for creating very realistic blood and gore on a limited budget.

It falters midway through, courtesy of some slow-moving and unnecessary scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor, as well as succumbing to the stereo-typical errors that characters in horror movies make. There is a shotgun scene in the beginning that will satisfy sadists but, while gory throughout, there really isn't much on-screen torture or anything that qualifies as extreme, not to veteran horror fans anyway.

Although predictable, it's still intense with genuine performances, but lacks anything fresh or remarkable.