Crazy Eights

Between 1954 and 1976, a large number of children were submitted to behavior studies in the South of the USA. When Brax Young dies, his childhood friends Jennifer Jones (Dina Meyer), Gina Conte (Traci Lords), Father Lyle Dey (George Newbern), Wayne Morrison (Dan DeLuca), Brent Sykes (Frank Whaley) and Beth Patterson (Gabrielle Anwar) reunite after twenty years. While in Brax's house, they discover a letter asking them to search a time capsule from their childhood and map indicating its location. They travel to Entonsburg and find a trunk with some objects and a skeleton hidden inside. Their discovery triggers traumatic recollections from their childhood with tragic consequences.

"Crazy Eights" is a messy collection of clichés, with a confused story about a government study that affects the subjects, proving that it was no harmless as promised to the families. The characters and situations are awfully developed, and the circumstances why the group becomes trapped in the abandoned house are ridiculous. Why should six people in a truck stop the car during the daylight to break in an abandoned house to seek directions? Further, the soundtrack is annoying. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Lembranças Macabras" ("Macabre Recollections")

Think session 9 meets the big chill but not as good as either. The film is pretty good however a little slow in bits but rather creepy and involving. Lords and Meyers give two great performances and the film making is original if not terribly creative. It centers on a group of friends who discover a secret when one of them passes. Haunted by ghostly visions they decide to confront it at the place where it all started. It has some nice jump out scares but ewarns it's spooky mood modeslty. A decent film and definitely worth a look. A nice additon to horrorfest library. My one big problem with this film is the questionable villain and unpolished look the film carries besides that it's pretty good.

I got sucked into this by people who said it was scary and a good psychological thriller.

I must have missed the scary parts because it just didn't have any. I heard screaming, but there wasn't anything there.

The background music was very good and helped to set the tone, but nothing else delivered on that setting.

None of the actors did any work to impress me. It seems as if they were just collecting a check for a weekend of work.

I love the After dark films, but this is probably the worst one I have seen.

I had higher hopes for Crazy Eights than previous films I had seen from the Afterdark Horrorfests' 8 Films to Die For lines, because after seeing a few, I thought I had acquired the ability to pick out the ones that would be good by then. That incident just goes to show you can never be too sure about a movie. Do not get me wrong, this movie was indeed entertaining, but only so because of how much you are wishing it will pick up at any moment, and it does not do so.

To start off, the main premise is interesting. "Circumstance brings six childhood friends together to face their past, and a secret they share." The performances are not bad; not Oscar-worthy, but worthy of being deemed tolerable. The film itself is watchable, in a sense, but that's all it really is and all that should be expected. It's the way the actual story/plot is played out that makes it so frustrating. There is little to no suspense, and that is only because the pace is so abrupt and confusing at times. The premise as I said is interesting, but the plot ultimately defeats this plus-side, never giving us anything short of excitement or empathy for the characters. It's like the director and writer were drunk on the job, but had potential.

I barely remember the climax/ending because I was put off by that moment, and just ready for the film to be over. I might sound a little harsh, seeing as how I did say I was entertained, but I was expecting a lot more than I got, even if this is a B-movie and much can rarely ever be expected from a wide variety of them. Maybe it is time for me to give this film another watch, but it is only for the fact that I am willing to give it another chance, as I give any film I do not enjoy that much on a first watch another chance so long as I did not hate it, and not because I am ready to watch it again out of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, the next movie in my After Dark alphabetical lineup was not quite as good. With a cast that has had a somewhat undeserved amount of attention placed on it, "Crazy Eights" is a story of 6 friends, reunited by another friend's funeral, who in following out said friend's last wishes, find themselves trapped in an abandoned medical facility, that as it turns out, holds the key to an event they all shared, but had blocked out of their memories. Despite the somewhat promising premise, the film turns out to be about as well written as my last sentence (can anyone say "run-on"?). The dialogue is generally bad, the plot developments are easily figured out way in advance, and some events come off as just silly. When one character manages to severely break his leg, one can't help but wonder just how clumsy he is to have done all THAT in a little tumble. There are some scenes that seem a bit creepy, but they are all to often ruined by an obnoxious synth-string theme that keeps popping up and/or very sloppy editing. While not exactly awful, this film is not really recommendable. So far, I'm saying this is this year's equivalent of "The Gravedancers" in the first 'fest. And in case you're wondering, that's bad.