Berkshire County

This is a rather conventional home invasion horror story that fans of the genre will find familiar.

As horror goes, this has some thrills. The villains are scary, as is their pursuit of the inhabitants. And the house itself is a star, with rooms that are very visual and a plethora of corridors and hiding places. The lead character evolves from mousy and helpless to develop the grit to fight back.

The story follows a well-trodden path with a facade of originality. It gives no motivation to the villains, who take tremendous risks for little benefit. Law enforcement is laughably incompetent. Parents are predictably clueless. The kills aren't very gruesome and lack intensity and catharsis. Twists are predictable and unimpactful.

The story finishes predictably and satisfyingly enough--it's a journey, not a destination. But then, as if the filmmakers decided they wished they made the movie very differently, a whole separate scene is tacked onto the end that is completely over the top. Apparently the film found itself with an overabundance of casting extras and gory makeup to use up. Maybe the filmmakers are auditioning for a sequel.

My quick rating - 5,2/10. A slightly above average home invasion movie that delivers on the scares. After a girl agrees to babysit on Halloween, a trick or treater shows up to turn her night into a living nightmare. The cat and mouse game between the woman(Alysa King) and the killers is well drawn out and leads to a bit more plot then the usual. A decent attempt at trying something a little different in a genre that is stale and really doesn't give a whole lot of wiggle room for creativity. I guess the message so far in these movies is "Dont answer the door for trick or treaters" since they may end up being there to distract you for someone else to slaughter you. That should make you feel better in 18 days from now...(depending on what day your community allows trick or treating)

SPOOKTOBER chapter 8: A Halloween-set Horror

A House invasion horror taking place on October 31st gave "Berkshire County" a.k.a. "Tormented" plenty of appeal despite the lackluster ratings, but little did I know, it turned out to be a rather frustrating watch with little to none of the craved-for seasonal vibes.

It all starts out reasonably well, but with a muddy, mean spirit. Our main character is Kylie Winters, a terribly bullied introvert teen, who gets cornered into giving a blowjob, is secretly filmed, and neither the school, parents, friends, the guy or his girlfriend is happy about that.. Impressively enough, throughout the runtime, the writer fails to establish enough sympathy for a character that essentially continuously suffers. Script frustrates frequently, characters, of whom some or unlikable, at times do not make rational decisions, among other things that interfere with the much needed realism.

Amidst the turmoil Kylie goes to a remote "mansion" to babysit two 8 year olds, and this is where three scary piglets come in, and try to break in. Motivation? Still not certain, so that's not so good. Sure, there's a "reveal" sort of move at the end, but it's just void. Although bringing nothing new to the table, the house invasion portion of "Tormented" is the one that works best, and keeps one engaged. A bit of suspense, a bit of gore, and at the very least an average cat-and-mouse thriller.

Eventually Audrey Cummings's directional debut runs its due course without many surprises on the way. Overall, the vibe of "Berkshire County" feels muddy, and not in a good way. The script should've been well revised before being greenlit. Set on Halloween, but has a few mentions of the word and couple pumpkins, so only recommended to die-hard fans of house invasion thrillers. My rating: 4/10.

This movie was a chore to watch. I mean what was the premise? It's a shame too because the effects and budget were decent, and why was this movie all over the place that as no ryme not reason no plot ,and after all this 80 or so minutes your going to spend watching this your going to get some so called shock ending that makes no sense whatsoever. These endings are supposed to make the viewer think and hit Google for answers as to why this is what it is and so on. The ending was so bad that I don't even want to understand what the point of it was. Don't bother with this one because it's 84 minutes you won't get back.

Kylie Winters gives a blow job at a costume party. She is secretly filmed which is shared among her classmates. The guy is a douche and his girlfriend isn't happy either. Kylie reluctantly takes a babysitting job on Halloween night. People in pig masks come trick or treating. It's the start of a harrowing night.

The acting is relatively fine for a low budget indie horror. Kylie is pretty good. Marcus is too annoying as an idiot. He is so much better as a smarter scheming villain. His kill could have been done much better. The 911 call is an obvious twist. It would be better to accentuate the moment when she decides to save the kids instead of saving herself. The pig masks are great and the gore is functional. The filmmaking style is relatively flat. This is low value horror which isn't quite original enough, other than the pig masks. I do like the masks.