Stitches

Another surprisingly good effort from Full Moon Pictures and specifically director Neal Stevens and producer J.R. Bookwalter, who is the creator of the classic horror movie "The Dead Next Door."

Elizabeth Ince is very funny and scary as Mrs. Albright and newcomer Maggie Rose Fleck is very good as the mysterious Kathryn. It will be interesting to see what projects will come her way after this juicy role.

A good time all around.

A movie by Full Moon Studios so everyone who knows their work will know what will take place and that is a film that is short, a film that tries to be funny at times and a film that is usually bad, but still entertaining too. We get that from this film as it does not quite do enough to be good, but it still does not fail to entertain. That is why I never mind watching a film that is done by Full Moon because once and a while you get a good film, but if not, there is no loss because the film can still be enjoyable.

The story of this one is an evil demon in hell takes the guise of an elderly lady and becomes a guest at a bed and breakfast full of people discussing philosophy. She observes the guests and plans on her course of attack as she begins to take their souls one by one. One man is suspicious, the only halfway smart person of the bunch, but is he smart enough to leave the house with his soul intact?

The characters are all quite stupid as the demon does not really had what she is all that well. One person could have easily turned her down and just left the room because all she offered was a chance to discover if demons were real. Then there is the stupid girl who seems like she is innocent, but she has a seething hatred for anyone she thinks is smart. The married couple where the husband hates the wife yet she loves him. The strange woman with a secret and the owner of the bed and breakfast. Interesting enough characters, but not really a likable one in the bunch.

So, the film passed the time and so it is fun enough to watch, just not very good. Just could have used a better ending, yet I was glad what happened to the stupid girl. The film takes place in the past I guess, but it is a bit hard to pinpoint what year it is supposed to, I am going to guess 1930's maybe? Though I guess it does not matter because the lesson of a film like this is do not bargain with the devil or it will cost you!

This is the last thing from Full Moon that I thought was worth a damn. Previously, "Vampire Journals" stood out,not so much because of its run-of-the-mill story, but for its beautiful location settings, photography and fine Gothic atmosphere. I also enjoyed the better entries in the Subspecies series. But "Stitches" surpasses them and is arguably the finest feature ever from Full Moon. An omnipresent atmosphere of lurking doom and dread hovers over the hapless characters like a dark storm cloud. Mrs. Albright is a truly sinister harbinger of evil who preys on people's weaknesses, exploits their inner longings, and strips away their surface vaneer of moral rectitude. Setting the story in some undefined point in the early 20th century, when people were more repressed, was a masterstroke. This is a taut psychological chiller, subtly crafted, and not for those in search of cheap thrills, gore, or manic action.

My friends and I watch a lot of movies, good and bad. Stitches is one of the diamonds in the rough kinda films. I thought it was surprisingly good. Obviously not the highest budget film, but I think the makers did a really great job with what they had. The movie had a really nice old school creepiness that I haven't seen since the computer game: The Seventh Guest. Honestly, I think this is a nice film to have in ones collection. Would make a very good Halloween party movie among friends.

Patrick

Well, it isn't high art, but I'm surprised by the low rating this one has, as I thought it was pretty good. Cheap? Yes. A little slow? I suppose for the low attention span phone-gazers and mouse-clickers, yes. The acting is a little weak in some spots, but I liked this story, reminding me more of an episode of Tales From The Darkside or Twilight Zone than a full-length feature. It isn't gory, probably could have used a bit of nudity, no jumps and scares and it isn't action-packed, either, relying on a solid story and a timeless morality tale to carry it along and it worked for me. Elizabeth Ince did a good job as a demon, using skin as a thin veneer and a fake personality of a sweet old lady with and equally thin veneer, scarcely covering her contempt and cynicism. The concept as a whole is pretty fantastic, although I find the idea that someone would be fool enough to consign himself to hell for some dumb girl he barely knows to be even more fantastic, although it served the purpose of a nice, ironic ending. This sort of movie was a little old-fashioned in 2001, but that doesn't make it bad and it's worth watching if you like a nice story.