Cry Havoc

Right, so this LOW - go lower than that - budget slasher with a Most Dangerous Game twist does the most it can with what it's got, you gotta give it that much. Lack of funds result in some seriously risible Halloween Store moments, especially in the design of unstoppable, possibly non-human killer Havoc, but those can be overlooked if there's enough cheap thrills to go around. Having a plucky reporter interview the eccentric billionaire who created the murder park (really a clump of bare trees) that Havoc runs amuck in was a wily way to get the backstory told without having to pay for much, too. Said reporter is essayed by Emily Sweet, and she's iffy at best in this, kind of a completely charmless Samara Weaving. Anyway, she eventually teams up with a rogue cop that's wandering around shooting everybody. Robert Bronzi (with a dub job) is the cop and if you've never seen the dude before, the reports are true - he's an astonishing deadringer for late 60's era Charles Bronson. I mean, it's wild. So the vigilante and the Final Girl take on the kooky billionaire and the undead killer and it basically goes how you think it might. It would've been nice to have a more Bronzi-centric story, as he is by far the most intriguing aspect of this whole operation, but I'll take what Bronzi I can get.

The script is loosy goosey and again, it's really cheap. But Bronzi is so weirdly compelling that it's worth it just to gaze upon him. As far as exploitation type kicks go, I can at least report that every female actor in the film under 50 shows their boobs and there are a few solid gore gags (top of head ripped off, jaw removal, manual drill through the throat, etc). Not a great film by any stretch, but if you squint just a little, it's got some good stuff.

Director Rene Perez - who churns this stuff out at an alarming pace - really did put every penny on the screen. It was only like 17 pennies, but still.

There is a lot that's actually good here so let's do that.

The good:

The Gore: It's good and there's a lot of it.

The Plot: What you do get isn't bad.

The Acting: Minus dubbed Bronzi it's fine

The Bad:

The Plot: Remember how I said what is there is good?

Well there is so little of it that it becomes a massive negative.

It starts with a random kill and the random kills happen at random and do not stop throughout the movie.

You don't get any plot until you finally follow the reporter and then she's immediately thrown away for dubbed porn action scenes.

The Action: So the gore is impressive, but the action is so unserious (especially in comparison to everything else) that it just looks and feels wrong all of the time.

Ultimately the gore is good. But if the plot of your movie is just more meat for your grinder your movie is bad.

There are no characters. Just annoyance that the one the plot centers around isn't one.

The movie might not have a good story, but on the other hand it has endless running around in the woods, a ridiculously edgy villain, and a really de-saturated look that gets old quick.

While the slasher parts are good, the backstory of It or Havoc could be built better. Actors and actresses seem to be amateurs. Very horrible acting. Also can we talk about the motorcycle scene? Like wtf? Dont watch. I give this movie a one cause i made it painfully through the whole thing

This film is shot well, has the expected level of B-movie gore and nudity, and the plot itself is not bad. The acting is pretty terrible from all sides other than Robert Bronzi and Richard Tyson. In the version I watched, it seemed like they stuck a voice-over on Bronzi which really takes away from the film and feels stiff and fake. Bronzi has a nice voice and can act, why did they do this? If you like gore and modern sploitation films, this is passable. Cinematic gold it ain't.