This is a very interesting movie being marketed in a non-traditional way. Amazon has the exclusive rights to it as I understand, and the DVDs are kind of made to order. Whatever the marketing and how it well it works for them, this horror movie with a wink of the eye, needs to be seen, especially by fans of Dario Argento and the old school slasher films. Filmed in 35MM 1.85 A/R, the movie looks amazing. The colors are brilliant and definitely an homage to Argento, as are other aspects of the movie. The first time I watched it, I wasn't sure what to think, because I had read too much hype, and was expecting a dumbed down horror comedy making fan of slasher movies. In other words, I had low expectations, and after the first viewing, it left me a little confused. That's why I wanted to listen to the commentary on the second viewing, and this time, I found it to be a very good horror film even if it doesn't take itself too serious. The story is about Aaron (Henry Thomas) who has a problem with his noisy upstairs neighbor Linda (Kelli Garner). He manages to watch through his keyhole and meet her at a laundromat, where he comes off as a big jerk of a neighbor. But he does manage to get her to have lunch with him, where she tells him she is mad because she was invited to a birthday party in a cabin by a lake, and her boyfriend won't take her. So Aaron decides to tell her a story about taking revenge on those friends with a goofy looking stalking killer, that has a Polaroid type camera on his head, and takes a picture of his victim before the slice and dice routine. Yea, the killer is pretty silly, but his killings in this story Aaron is telling, is not silly at all, and pretty gruesome. Linda gets a little fed up with creepy Aaron and leaves, but they both live in the same building, so they meet again, and then Aaron agrees to drive her to the cabin and the birthday party. That's probably as much of the story and plot I should tell, because this movie is basically a story within a story.
The technical aspects of the movie are brilliant with very vibrant colors and excellent camera work, and very good acting and direction. Listening to the commentary is important, because it is easy to miss all the homages on first viewing, and Joe Moe's producer commentary fills in all the blanks. On the gorehound level, there are two or maybe three good kills, and one excellent gore scene with a guy getting sawed in two head to belly. I definitely liked that one, and that along with at least one more would definitely eliminate an R rating, so it's good they didn't care about the rating. But outside of some pretty decent kills, I liked the whole idea of the setup and payoff, even though I pretty much had the whole thing figured out pretty early. It doesn't matter, because watching it all unfold is a lot of fun, especially with the excellent creepy performance by Henry Thomas. I would definitely recommend this movie, it delivers the goods, and is absolutely a delight to watch visually. You could say, it's a very pretty horror film, and even though it does make a little bit of fun of the slasher genre, it doesn't go too far and comes out being just plain silly. On second viewing, it came out much more to me as a good horror film, than a homage to the slasher genre. Give this one a try, it comes with some very good extras, and as I said, a very very good commentary. It's also the last time you'll see of the late Forrest J Ackerman in a brief cameo. Congrats to producer Joe Moe, and director Bruce Dickson for producing a rather unique horror film that is also a lot of fun.
