Spike

The cover for 'Spike' looked really appetising. The premise sounded great, being apparently indebted to 'Beauty and the Beast' (a favourite, story and the 1946 and Disney films). It looked good, this was not something that looked cheap. There are quite a number of good and more first-time director films, so there is certainly no bias against debut directors. These outweighed the low rating and mixed to negative (on here) reviews here.

Seeing 'Spike for myself', am going to have to regrettably side, or should that be agree, with those that disliked it and am really sorry about that. Didn't think it was that bad to warrant the lowest possible number of stars, there are far worse films out there and didn't find it one of those beyond redemption films (have thankfully been seeing less of those now), but if there is one thing that really frustrates me when watching something it's when good potential is wasted when strictly speaking it shouldn't be. That applies with 'Spike'.

Lets begin with the saving graces. On the visual side, the advertising doesn't lie as 'Spike' does look good. Especially the photography which is both atmospheric and dreamlike, making for one of the best-looking modest-to-low budget films seen recently and in a while and that is me being serious.

Also thought the acting was better than average, with an initially intimidating but deeply felt performance from Edward Gusts worth singling out. 'Spike' starts off well, the first 10-15 minutes did intrigue and entice me.

However, 'Spike' is primarily let down by an often interminably sluggish pace and a story that after a promising start is far too stretched out (too little story content for a feature-length film) and not always easy to follow. The romantic element doesn't charm or move enough, although the actors were not bad at all on their own their chemistry didn't come to life for me. Didn't feel an awful lot of dark suspense and 'Spike' left me cold on an emotional level, a big problem because 'Beauty and the Beauty' is a very moving story.

While successful on the visual side of things, the direction showed inexperience on the momentum and character interaction. When there was dialogue it was pretty banal and awkward, while the music was completely inappropriate and like it was meant for a different film.

Summing up, disappointing but with a few merits. 3/10

With a running time of 80 minutes I suppose it's pretty damning to say that it was probably 65 minutes too long.

Judging by the audience reaction at the 'World Premiere' as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival, plenty were in agreement with me. It is never a good sign when you see people leaving the theatre early or sharing bemused looks.

It doesn't help when the marketing describes the film as "Angela Carter rewriting La Belle et la Bête as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Trust me, the artistic resemblance to any of these works is non-existent.

I saw Spike this weekend at Shriekfest at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles. Having been peripherally involved in low budget movie productions, I know how difficult it can be to bring the collective creative efforts of writers, directors, actors and editors to fruition. While I applaud the apparent intent and ideas of the film-maker Mr. Beaucage, I found the finished movie to be awkward, tiresome and ultimately so frustratingly bad that I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone. I really wanted to like this film. On the positive side, the creature design and effects were very well done and the actual camera work was good. Unfortunately, this was not enough to make the movie work. Every so often there was a glimmer of non-awfulness, but mostly the wooden performances, asinine plot and the excruciating dialogue combined to make the movie very hard to sit through. It was neither fun nor involving. Some reviewers have compared Spike to a David Lynch or Guillermo del Toro movie. That is unfortunate, since it implies that Mr. Beaucage has created interesting characters and a plot worth contemplating. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Ultimately, Spike was so annoying, it wasn't even possible for me to enjoy it as a bad movie.

I was in the first audience to see this film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. As the film is still listed as being in post production I assume that it may not have been the final version that we saw.

There are some great ideas behind it, and there are things that have been done very well in this movie.

The editing did seem a bit clumsy at the start of the film, and I thought the pacing was maybe a bit slow, but these aren't huge complaints, mostly it was good once it got going. I think the main thing which did this film a disservice was the music. Totally the wrong music for the film in my opinion. Hopefully this is just because we saw an early version though and this will be sorted out before the film is distributed more widely!

I hate to criticise as they have made a film, which is more than I've done! So, well done! It's certainly original and worth a watch. I look forward to a more polished version appearing with improved music!

I LOVED IT! I really did. Started as a typical horror film with a small group of friends stranded then we meet Spike! I mean yes, it is a just another slasher film but one that surprised me. The characters were typical fodder and that's alright in my book.

So glad I bought the DVD! Wondering if it ever came out on blu ray.