Chaos

One day, a wrestler (count the number of the letters in his name and you will still come up with a higher number than his IQ) decided to plagiarize Wes Craven's mediocre debut from the 70s... and in less than a year he vomitted out this "film", a horrifyingly dull attempt at offending and probably "shocking" everyone. A very failed attempt, needless to say. Wrestler, keep this in your "mind" (if you had one): one can only offend and shock when one represents something. A mosquito won't offend me, a worm won't shock me... why should I react any differently to a sad attempt by a pathetic subhuman wrestler? Just ignore him and in time he will die, alone and forgotten, and hopefully with "Chaos" being the only "film" he'll ever have made.

I viewed Chaos at the 2005 Flashback Weekend horror convention in Chicago. The Q&A session with the writer/director David DeFalco, producer Steven Jay Bernheim, and actor Sage Stallone was, strangely enough, before the film. After seeing the movie, I have a hunch as to why. DeFalco and Bernheim were very adamant at pushing this film as the "scariest and most brutal film ever," one of seemingly hundreds per year that reaches for that title. They then proceeded to bash the film they openly admitted influenced Chaos, Wes Craven's horror classic The Last House on the Left, calling it "unrealistic" and "hard to watch," to the point where there was an obvious change in the dynamic of the audience. Because DeFalco, who considers himself a "true horror fan," pushed so hard for people to like this film, I feel obliged to push the other way.

Chaos is by no means an original film. I've seen this movie made countless times with only slight variations on the plot. It does, however, have a few brutal, almost redeeming scenes that do make it worth seeing if you are a true "grindcore" or exploitation movie fan. Both of these, the first in particular, are what the movie will most likely be remembered by. They are both particularly well done, especially with the realistic looking blood and gore effects and the reactions of the female leads. This is, however, my last positive comment on the film.

Each character has been given a set of stereotypes that they must stick to, and none of them transcends their limitations. The girls in Chaos are as mindless as the girls in any other slasher or horror film, which is disappointing after hearing for half an hour about the "realism" of the movie. The police are the most generic characters in the movie, and the Sheriff's racism is extremely played out. Even the parents, an inter-racial couple that you'd think would be the least definable, stick to their stereotypes.

Chaos (the main "bad guy") and company are introduced in a completely unnecessary opening scene that does nothing but establish their characters as low-grade criminals. For a character that is supposed to come across as an example of the ultimate evil (he calls himself the devil at least once), Chaos is shown as a petty thief.

There are a couple inconsistencies in the plot, specifically timing issues. At one point, what seems to be a several minute walk for one group turns into a ten minute car ride for another.

Additionally, the ending feels entirely tacked on. I know that I wasn't the only person in the audience who laughed at the audacity of the director, after placing so much emphasis on realism, to include such a slapstick, somewhat comedic, ending.

In the end, I left the theater bewildered, but for all the wrong reasons. I usually am not so picky about "realism" in horror movies, but after hearing the director make such a point about it, I felt compelled to judge Chaos on it. I really want to believe that DeFalco has what it takes to make a good, original movie, because I saw potential in a few short moments. Unfortunately, after hearing the director speak so openly about this film as not only being his masterpiece, but set to trump The Last House on the Left, a film that has become a staple in any horror fan's collection... well, I'm not too hopeful that we're going to see anything too original from him.

Later this year will see the release of Eli Roth's Hostel, another film billed as the most brutal movie ever captured on film. Maybe a truly original "grindcore" film really is around the corner, but I'm not holding my breath.

There is no reason for anybody to see this film if they have seen LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. This film sucks! It starts with careless sensitivity to the characters and degenerates into a brutal and disgusting film with no real reason and no real point. The bulk of the dialog is misogynist or racist, the violence is way overdone, the torture is constant beyond the point of just being sickening and disgusting, and the long sequences where the victims try to get away are done with such a complete lack of a stance toward the value of human life and integrity or attention to detail that I really feel completely sorry for all the actors for having taken part in this film.

To call this a horror film would be a huge lie since the aspect of horror or suspense is lost within it's destructive scenes of two girls just begging to live. The girls' deaths are done in such a sickly, rough, and over-the-top style that the process of them dying is made overly complicated and egotistically unbalanced for the two girl's hope of living. By the time they are in the process of being killed, the thought of them still being alive leads to too many conflicts with the other characters watching as to whether they deserve to stay alive.

It is not an accomplishment for a film to do this. This destroys what "apparently" was the original supposed intention of the film was to be. A cautionary tale. It not only fails in these violet scenes, but also in changing the ending, the notion of revenge being successful or good is turned back on the characters.

This film is nothing but a wannabe shock film that fails because it doesn't have any interest in showing us what is shocking but rather telling us that it is shocking. Not recommended.

I saw this movie for a free at a screening, I wouldn't see it again if you paid me. This film has the worst acting, the worst dialogue, and the most senseless plot I've ever seen. The premise of the film makes a piece of garbage like House of Wax look like a masterpiece. The movie aims to shock and teach with it's brutal "true to life" story of two girls looking to score "E" at a rave in the woods. The obvious abduction, rape, torture ensues, including a nipple being caught off and fed to it's original owner (at which time at least half the viewers got up and left the theater). Personally though I was not as offended by the grotesque senseless violence as I was by the fact that I felt my intelligence was being insulted by the film maker who claimed the film had some sort of message and redeeming value. It was the quality of a subpar B horror film and an after school special mixed. Without an ounce of reality included it was sick, twisted and pointless all together, without ever making an ounce of sense either. Movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Ichi the Killer contain more blood and guts than this film but don't strain to make it over the hour mark while offending everyone in the audience. Not that they are quality films either, but at least they don't claim to teach me anything! OK, I'm rambling, but I'm upset that free passes were given out for such a horrible film and that a major chain of theaters like Emagine would show this garbage, AVOID THIS FILM AT ALL COSTS!

While I must admit that the scenes of violence in this film are shocking and downright repulsive, it in no way makes up for the fact that, not only does David Defalco Blatantly rip-off Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" with this HORRIBLE waste of film, but he then adds to this atrocity by openly and blatantly denying it and by actually slamming the original. Forget the fact that this film not only uses the same exact "It's only a movie" ad campaign and most of the scenes are almost frame for frame and word for word rip offs but then you can also add to it the fact that one of it's producers is Marc Sheffler, the man who played Junior in "Last House". AVOID THIS FILM AT ALL COSTS!