Penny Dreadful

The first time I saw this movie I didn't really care for it at all. I re-watched it a second time and I absolutely loved it. This movie has great suspense, terror and kills. Penny is a likable character, she is traumatized from a car accident, and is trying to get over her fears and is trying to be a regular person. Her therapist, Orianna, is taking Penny on a road-trip. It's to "Complete the Circle" and have Penny end her fears where they first began. The Hitchhiker is really creepy. He then traumatizes Penny even more throughout the film. The reason I liked this film is because first of all, it's a really good movie - if you're into this kind of film. And second because it shows how you don't a HUGE budget and big name stars in a movie for it to be good.

PD misses a lot of opportunities to scare or even freak you out. It has a great set-up, a devilishly simple set (mostly one car) and a bad guy who likes people-ka-bobs... so the scares are a sure thing...right? Nope. Unfortunately for the stellar cast, the movie makes every necessary effort to ruin surprises, cut to the wrong camera shot at the climactic moment, and follow every scary movie cliché there is. We have the "anybody there" moments, the "is that you" line every time the character speaks, the lovers doing it in the back and the great supporting cast that has no use but to fill body bags. Horror for horror sake is a good thing, but this film doesn't capitalize on its confined claustrophobic space, nor does it keep the tension that it could have. Camera shots are cool, but over used and usually not in the right spaces. Even the final scary sequence fails to deliver, ending mid-scene as if the writer forgot to finish it. There is no bang. Mimi Rogers is wasted, as is most of the cast. The main character Penny does a good job, reacts wonderfully... even when there is nothing scary even going on. Without any offense to the actors, or movies in which are set in one location (I love those) this movie is not worth the full price. I saw it to support the Horror fest national film festival... a suggestion for next year... how about a group rate (all 8 movies for one admission?).

Now, this had all the elements of good horror - suspense, screams, breasts, and slashing. Not too bad for a film that takes place in the woods at night.

Penny (Rachel Miner) is traveling with her therapist (Mimi Rogers) to overcome her fear of cars after an auto accident as a child. Now, everyone knows not to pick up hitchhikers, and you should especially know not to take them into the woods, but hey, there wouldn't be a movie if they did the smart thing.

She, with a fear of cars, ends up stuck in a car with her dead therapist, and thus begins a night of horror. Dead bodies are piling up all over as she screams to get out.

I won't spoil it except to say that I really liked the ending.

And, I sure want to see some more of Tammy Filor.

Quite a large number of people recommended "Penny Dreadful" to me recently, and even though it's definitely not a terrible little film, I sure wished the descriptions of the story would have been a bit more accurate and the film itself would have been a tiny bit better. It's really not a horrific thriller in the tradition of "The Hitcher" simply because it features a maniacal hitch-hiker and it's definitely not reminiscent of "Wrong Turn" because it is set in the woods. "Penny Dreadful" is not much more than a simplistic backwoods slasher with a couple of ambitious themes (like the childhood traumas & phobias) and a couple clever and effective low-budget cinema tricks, like a minimum of filming locations. Adorable young Penny witnessed her parents dying in a car crash at young age. Ever since that day she's petrified of cars and that phobia prevents her from building up a normal life, for example dating the hunk in her apartment block. When the movie starts, she and her psychiatrist (Mimi Rogers) are driving towards the place where the accident happened, to get therapeutic closure once and for all. But Penny's fear for cars will get a lot worse before it gets better, because the two women pick up a sinister and uncanny hitch-hiker. The individual behaves odd but harmless at first, even offering the ladies a tasty-looking kebab, but pretty soon Penny is locked inside the car and trapped between two trees, and with her phobia of cars that is really not a nice place to hang out. "Penny Dreadful" benefices from an overall unsettling atmosphere and a couple of nail-biting suspense sequences, but the film is too long and it's impossible for director Richard Brandes to hold the viewer's attention throughout the entire playtime. Perhaps the film, and particularly the scares, would have worked better in a short format, like an episode of "Masters of Horror" or something. Now several scenes feel dragged and tedious. The denouement is rather stupid and only confirms that "Penny Dreadful" is just an average by-the-numbers slasher, because all the mystery surrounding the murderous hitcher has suddenly vanished. It's not a very gory movie, but the few make-up effects are competently achieved and quite freaky. The cinematography is probably the best aspect of the entire movie, as Joplin Wu's camera makes the ominous woods at night look even more menacing and inescapable than they already are.

This is the first time I summarized a movie. I thought that this may have gone under the radar and I would be the first. Still, the movie made enough of an impression so that I would write a review anyway.

I think the better horror movies are those that are closer to reality and Penny Dreadful is much more real than most in the genre. I really liked the tension and suspense and cat-and-mouse game. I ran into this on the Sci-Fi channel and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the run-of-the-mill shock schlock. I think the writer(s) should be applauded for a pretty original script rather than the pure gore we receive so much today. If you're a horror fan, I'm sure this would make your top 50 list, if not 40.