The Lonely Ones

It's hard to adequately describe what The Lonely Ones does without spoiling it. I was starting to regret choosing this film near the beginning with the cliche college students going off somewhere to get drunk and party. Somehow, and I won't say how, the film unexpectedly improves and becomes a tense but campy fun time. The acting ranged from good to over-the-top in a fun way. The practical effects were genuinely jarring considering the otherwise obvious low budget. I definitely rate movies higher than most since I've seen some truly awful ones to compare, but this is one case where I don't see why it would be given a 1 or 2 unless they turned it off early on.

I'm disappointed that the director barely did anything in the industry after this one, since he made a genuinely surprising and entertaining film that's miles above the trash I expect from the 20-film packs I buy for $5.

Lower-budget production is the only flaw that has me grade this film down to a B+. Starts out w/ many horror clichés: Sorority girls murdered in the 1980's; but no trace ever found. Today, city kids drive up to remote cabin in Northern Arizona forest for good time. This is the same area where the sorority disappeared. There are romantic and sexual tension in the air. They start partying, get drunk, and start to freak each other out w/scary stories. What's next is beyond unpredictable and is why this film stands out above your typical trash. Things turn out to be much more complex than they seem. No this is not a grade A film like Alien, The Grudge, The Dark Hours, Saw, The Exorcist or something. But it's not a C grade or worse film either.

Yes, the budget for THE LONELY ONES is obviously extremely tiny. Yes, the acting is stiff, and even comical in spots. Yes, the dialogue tends to be silly at times.

And yet...

The story is -very- innovative and the special effects are gruesome and believable. It's especially interesting to get the ghouls' perspective: What they think, what they say to each other, and what they're planning.

This movie pulls no punches in its graphic portrayal of murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism. Some of the splatter scenes may have you spewing your beverage! Gorehounds should get a warm feeling from this one!

THE LONELY ONES starts out rather slow and mediocre, builds up to an unpredictable middle, and finishes off with a dynamite ending...

Let me start of saying. The whole thing looks like it was shot through a web cam by nervous kindergarten students. Gotta give you haters that much. The camera and sound guys should be made to go through the gatherer trials as punishment for this or be made to watch their own work which is worse.

For you complaining about getting better for this budget? Let me see you try. You might be right but just try to get this many of your friends in one place long enough to shoot anything longer than a trailer. If you are not paying them you ain't getting much done. Even then try to get them to take it half as seriously as these actors tried. That location didn't look like they had a McDonald's near by either they definitely had to spend a little money here on food and lodging. I don't know about 100,000 though what they do buy the cabin? Probably the most expensive thing to get right was that HEADSHOT and even then I guarantee you that they overpaid for those effects. They definitely didn't spend it on equipment. And don't play me with that 20 days to shoot bull this did not take more than a week. With 14 days or more even Ed Wood could get better shots.

The story starts off slow (and ends a little slow) but I have to say the story was deep enough and it definitely had me. I think it was original and very well thought out very well written. Note to the editor. PACING... look it up trust me. The long dramatic pauses and scenes play out nice on paper but they where bad here.

Oh, yeah and I wouldn't mind taking a bite out of Devanny Pinn (Tifa)

As other reviewers have already pointed out, this is a low budget movie - the listed budget is $100,000 I've seen movies with a tenth of that budget and similar production value. With the grainy digital video, bad or non-existent lighting, bad acting, muddled sound, and cheap-looking FX in the first twenty minutes I figured I was in for yet another microbudget waste of time.

Then, an amazing thing happens, and the movie suddenly finds its stride about 1/2 way through. Right as I was getting ready to write this one off, the focus shifts from the melodramatic coeds (there's one giggle-inducing scene where the main girl shows her ex boyfriend the shirt of his that she's kept - LAME!) to the lonely ones - a group of creatures that live in the forest. The flat film-making suddenly steps up as the victims start getting picked off and from here on out there's actually some good camera-work throughout the rest of the movie. Even the performances and FX pick up, and as someone who has seen a lot of shot-on-video productions, I can safely say that the second half of the film carries it above most of its peers.

I won't ruin anything for the viewer, but there is a very well-built story here that is worth checking out. What I thought was a boring and drawn-out setup (honestly, it could have been trimmed down here and there) actually ties in to the film's payoff and unlike some other movies I've seen, the movie's loose ends are actually tied up very well in the finale. There are some twists I didn't see coming, and some of the characters' actions surprised me as well.

Unfortunately, the very good story is hampered by the low budget pitfalls described earlier. Also, one of fights between a lonely one and victim plays out like a lame backyard wrestling production, and some of the kills should have been more graphic. The main thing is that the monsters in the film aren't much more than people in fake blood and rubber teeth. I know that the movie was concentrating more on the creatures' personality and stuff (a novel concept for today's horror movies), but this would have been a better movie if the makeup effects had lived up to the descriptions we get of the monsters during the setups.

I wish the filmmakers would have tried to get a bigger budget before filming this because the potential is there for a really good movie, but it seems like they bit off more than they could chew with this one. Still, the story alone is worth the price of a rental so long as the viewer can get past the production value. One of the websites said this movie hits more often than it misses, and I agree there.