6 Plots

Horror films are a hard genre to please an audience. Since the SAW and HOSTEL torture porn 'revolution', there is a constant pursuit to up the ante. It's all been done before yadda yadda.

So I read the reviews here and went in with baited breath to a screening at Harbourtown Cinemas on the Gold Coast, not knowing much about the film apart from Facebook (did this film even get any advertising!?)

So the set-up of the relationship between the 7 friends is kind of cool, some interesting takes on teen stereotypes, and witty banter from a bunch of mostly newcomer actors. Some familiar faces such as Ryan Corr (soon to be seen in Wolf Creek 2) and Penelope Mitchell (Hemlock Grove), in fact this film seems to have been around for ages and a lot of the actors have moved on to bigger and better projects.

Anyway, I think the writing is commendable, with a touch of the Whedon-esque in the dialog, and establishes the likable group before things go awry.

When 6 of the 7 teens disappear, there is real tension here, which surprised me as some of the reviews here are a bit harsh. There is a real attempt to make the technology real, using phones and devices we all use (albeit a little outdated - a clue to the long gestation of the movie!) and Brie (Alice Darling) is convincingly terrified as she seeks to rescue her friends.

From what I have read this movie was made on a shoe-string budget, but it looks great. The screening I saw looked great, and far beyond the $2 million budget reported. The plot has some clichés, yes, and there are some references to other films of the genre, namely Buried and Saw, yes, but aren't most popcorn fodder movies a mix of movies past?

I got the sense that it had been somewhat watered down, with an almost deliberate avoidance of any real gore. Don't know if that is going to please everyone, especially the lovers of the fore-mentioned films, but not everything has to be blood, guts and gore. There is a vast history of films that work well by what you do NOT see...

I thought the action that ramped up in the second half was engaging and pacey, and look, at only 90 minutes, frankly I found it a nice change from movies that are 2-hours+ these days. It's a popcorn movie, largely forgettable, but a fun ride.

Anyway, I know it is fashionable to hang it on movies and be nasty, but I found 6 Plots to be a commendable effort, quite well directed, with a pretty good cast and a decent script.

I enjoyed the thrill, felt I got my $17.50 worth and had fun. Isn't that the point of movies like this? IMHO.

Australia does its best to mimic the slasher/Saw genre with this mishmash of different horror ideas.

Six of the most obnoxious teenagers in the country get abducted and locked in boxes. Sadly, their friend (who is named after a type of cheese, I believe) has to rescue them. By this point I was kind of hoping she'd just go home to bed and the film would end there and then.

Somewhere among the film is the spark of something quite good, but never really utilised to its full potential. The film exploits modern technology, i.e. Bluetooth, iphones, web-streaming, wifi and then generally shows how they can be perverted into tools for the gross satisfaction of others.

It's all not a bad idea, it's just most people won't really care about the 'victims,' plus it requires quite a few leaps of faith to believe that the police force of Australia consists of more than one rough-and-ready officer, plus his overweight call centre operator and deputy (who throws up at the first sign of anything vaguely creepy).

It's a nice try, but ultimately a missed opportunity. It leaves you thinking that all teenagers who get their kicks out of breaking into other peoples houses and filming their parties to show off to their peers deserve to be locked in boxes and burnt to death.

Essentially there was nothing thrilling or scary about this movie. "6 Plots" was more like an Australian daytime TV show prolonged and exposed to a Halloween theme.

The story is about a group of seven youngsters, all friends, who live life carefree and partying. One party goes awry, and six out of the seven wake up encased in boxes, unable to escape, while the seventh is free and given a chance to save her six friends before they meet their untimely demise. It is a race against time with a mysterious killer always being one step ahead.

There wasn't any real feeling of dread or fear throughout the movie, but still, director Leigh Sheehan did try hard enough.

Perhaps it was the utter lack of interest that mostly all characters in the movie were shrouded in that ultimately led me to stop trying to get into it. The characters were incredibly two-dimensional and weren't really showing characteristics, having any kind of personal quirks, or actually coming off as anything but hollow, wooden dummies put on display in a pseudo-horror movie.

I will say that the acting on most accounts was good enough, not great mind you, but good enough to make the movie watchable. Well, all except the teenager with the 'helmet-hair'. Wow, he was just atrocious.

"6 Plots" seems something like a horror movie for teenagers, who wants to watch something pseudo-scary without actually venturing into the proper horror genre. And as an avid fan of the horror genre for more than 25 years, then to me "6 Plots" was uneventful, boring, anything but scary, and basically just well below mediocrity.

This amounts to a mere 3 out of 10 stars rating here, and even then I feel like I am being generous.

To make a bad film is forgivable. To make a bad horror film is even more so, as films of that nature often find their niche at slumber parties and annual Halloween trashfests. But to make a film as indisputably terrible as 6 Plots- a spectacularly horrendous addition to the oversaturated torture porn thriller- carries no such leniency.

Alice Darling stars as Brie, a happy-go-lucky schoolgirl who attends a house party with her closest friends (the most recognisable of which is Packed to the Rafters' Ryan Corr). Things are progressing swimmingly, until she wakes to find that each of her friends have been buried alive in unique locations across the city, all of whom await a cruel and ironic fate if she doesn't stop the faceless killer in time.

Literally every scene is pierced by a blatantly inarticulate screenplay and even worse line delivery. Would-be moments of grief or suspense are rendered laughable by each character's reactions, while the generic baddie- who projects through a phone screen and unthreateningly calls himself The Emoticon- is a shameless rip-off of Saw's Jigsaw, albeit with a voice reminiscent of a Scooby-Doo swamp monster circa 1969. An inglorious, inexcusable disaster from start to finish.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*

Another reviewer called this movie "indisputably terrible". Well, I wish to strongly dispute his/her statement.

Yes, the movie is a mishmash of concepts borrowed from other films in the same genre - as are most movies which at least borrow some scenes/concepts/portions of the script from previous movies.

The purpose of creating a movie is not to create rocket science deep thought - it is to entertain. Viewers of the pseudo-horror genre already know before the start to watch the film what to expect. And this film does deliver at least a portion of what is expected, nay, demanded of a film of this type. There is tension, suspense, action, scenes of horror, etc. What the film does NOT do is create a thought-provoking environment where you are "deeply 'into' the film". It is entertainment. Only that, nothing more. And it delivers.

No, this is not "The Godfather" or "Inception". It is a mock horror film that will entertain you - once. I give it a 6.5/10.