Parlor

I watched this film for one reason only... Robert Lasardo. I usually don't do horror flicks like this, but again Robert drew me in LOL. I thought the story could have been executed better, it could have been a bigger and better backstory. Robert even said in an interview prior to the movie release that he was hoping they would do a part 2 so you can find out more about the artist and the backstory. "The Artist" by the way is the name Robert went by in the movie. I found the history of tattoo art very interesting, it's sad how today so many young and old people are getting tattoos because it's the in thing... as a point Robert made in the movie, there use to be a place and time when to be extensively tattooed meant you lived outside the box and came from a very unique perspective. Nowadays tattoos is so common place, it's disgusting at times. So I really liked where he was going with the whole tattoo knowledge. Yes some of the characters were annoying, some of the characters were working my nerves and they could'nt die quick enough! LOL but it's one like that in every movie !. On another note, it ended with one of the new girls that he tattooed became his Protege, I would have liked to have seen that part executed better, as well as to why he chose her to be his protege. As you see in the movie Amy was her name, he was drawn to her from day one. It would have been nice to learn why. For some reason they just left that out there in the Wind. This is why I gave it a 7.

A very simple 'lure tourists into a dodgy place in order to do despicable things to them' type of horror.

Overall the acting is poor but Robert LaSado is the saving grace here (you might not recognise his name but you've most likely recognise his face).

I mean he can't make you care for the other characters fate of course (being that most of them are such poor actors and very duchy you kind of feel like they deserve to die... in the movie that is) and it doesn't ever really get scary for the same reason (and plot and directing etc of course as well) but Robert LaSado is an effective bad guy and with any lesser actor this could have flunked completely.

But the Gothic atmosphere is pretty cool as well, and plenty of eye-candy (the women most likely got their roles for their willingness to appear nude more than their acting-abilities... but then they are no worse than the other guys).

So yeah definitely nothing you need to see but nothing you have to absolutely avoid either, if it's on TV one late night or so.

I'm a gore hound, I have and will always love graphic horror films. So I pretty much knew what I was getting when I went into this film. Wasn't expecting a good story, good acting, etc but I was still a little disappointed.

So right off the bat you can tell this is pretty much a lower budget version of hostel, just replace the "Hostel" with a tattoo parlor. It really does copy a lot of aspects of Hostel, even has a group of misfit local kids that don't have much to do with the story just like in Hostel. So I'll try to focus on the things that this does different. One is that we actually have a killer, played by Robert LaSardo, he does a decent job but I just didn't find him creepy or intimating. In fact in the film he comes off as a pretty nice guy and the parts where is suppose to be sinister just seem forced.

So outside of LaSardo there isn't really much to say about the cast, all the actors who played the victims were pretty meh but it didn't really matter since the whole point of the film is to watch them die not watch them talk. I think my biggest complaint when it comes to the cast would have to be the character of Uta, played by Sara Fabel. She is just a really corny and unrealistic character, they take the whole "Tough Chick" thing way too far and it really takes from the grittiness of the film.

OK so now lets focus on the one good aspect of this flick, and that is the gore. Like I said I am a massive gore hound, and this movie did deliver when it came to that. The kill scenes are pretty brutal and they really don't hold back from showing you everything. The only bad thing is that there really isn't a lot of variety in the killing so it gets kind of dull.

Overall this isn't a horrible horror film. It has it's moments but if you are not a fan of gore than this film really won't have much to offer you unless you really want to see some soft-core sex scenes, in which case you would probably be better off watch some skinemax.

Not the worst but still not very good 4/10

This film had quite a lot going for it. Essentially the same plot as Hostel but with much more believable gore. It also benefits from a quite unnerving main character, excellently portrayed by the actor.

Sadly, the writer and director clearly didn't believe enough in their own movie as they felt it required one fairly graphic sex scene and many scenes set in a strip club that were completely pointless and added nothing to the film.

There are no major plot twists that you can't see coming but it's all put together pretty well. It's just a shame the writer/director didn't have as much conviction in what they were doing as the SFX people, who really did do some top notch work on the gore.

This movie has poor IMDb ratings. However, it is actually much better than it's rating might suggest. If your a horror movie watcher, you'll probably rate this movie higher than the general viewing public. No it isn't anything stellar but it held my attention the whole time and entertained me. This is what many people consider Torture porn and is definitely not for the squeamish. Much like the Hostel movies, most can take only so much of movies like this. This movie isn't without some merits though and a decent plot and ending. It is also an under-watched movie which perhaps merits more notice.

If you liked Hostel and can watch/stomach a couple scenes that definitely qualify as torture, you might give it a watch. The story isn't bad.