Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf

Any time an independent movie is written by and directed by and stars the producer that usually means the movie is a turd and this is no exception to that rule. The acting is laughably bad and the story is so damn stupid you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Basically a crazed serial killer is locked up with other lunatics but then somebody kills the asylum's power which somehow makes all the cells open and turns on the red emergency lighting, which is extra bad because one of the crazy serial killers turns into a bull creature whenever he sees the color red. Yep it really is that stupid. Nothing in this movie is right and everyone involved in the making of this should be embarrassed to have it on their resumes. Whatever this movie's budget is I guarantee 99% of it went into getting John Rhys Davies, Smoking Man from X Files and Mercedes McNab who was occasionally on Buffy to agree to be in this. They're in it for a total of about five minutes by the way. This movie is a huge dud so do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs.

This was a bad movie. Lots of decent actors in small cameo roles but all of them are completely wasted. The leads and most supporting actors are not good on a performance level but that could be the result of just having such a bad script to work with. Not much to recommend here other than seeing some good actors in very small, wasted roles.

The plot: When a system error releases all the prisoners in a high security psychiatric hospital, visitors and staff are hunted down by the most dangerous patients, including a newly arrived serial killer.

By any standard, this is a terrible movie. However, I reject the inevitable calls of "worst movie ever made". The acting and writing suck, but it's just not boring enough to qualify.

There are many scenes in this movie that defy common sense, but if you're watching low budget, independent, direct-to-video horror movies, I imagine that you're not all that concerned with such matters. If, however, you're expecting this ridiculous movie to make any kind of sense or exist in the real world, then I see why you'd be very disappointed. From the beginning, it seemed like this was a pretty big ripoff of Arkham Asylum, a fixture of Batman comic books. It even has a cheap Bane knockoff, a menacing head psychiatrist, and a tormented crime-fighter. I mean, really, how much more derivative can you get?

Still, despite the lack of originality, bad writing, bad acting, and iffy directing, I was able to sit through the entire movie. I think that should count for something. I've decided to be somewhat generous and award this movie a 4/10. It's bad, but it's nowhere near bad enough for some of the hyperbolic criticism that it has attracted.

Look from reading most of the reviews out their on the Internet one may drop the gun and think that this movie will turn out to be one of the worst movies ever. In all honesty it's nowhere near that level. All the movie is, is just a slasher thriller with a goofy sounding premise and quite surprisingly an affective one. From what I've seen in other reviews, they say that the acting is the biggest atrocity that's ever hit cinema. I can already name like 50 other movies with worst acting then this one. Sure sometimes the acting gets really hammy but really based on the dozens of other hammy horror films out their this shouldn't be close to an "Atrocity of acting." Editing wise it makes some rather weird turns but it's still smooth and unlike other bad movies I can tell what's going on. If your into shutting your brain off and just watch a thriller slasher flick then I think you can handle Medium Raw. I sure enjoyed it and going in I was already on the other side of my argument right now. So, definitely give it a watch sometime.

I've seen bad acting and I've seen terrible acting and I've seen the W.O.R.S.T. acting now that I've seen Andrew Cymek in a movie. To call his acting wooden would be an insult to wood which is far more interesting. He has a grand total of one facial expression. How did he get cast in this? I wondered too until I checked out the credits, not sure how I made it that far in the movie I must have been real tired, but he was also director, writer, producer, pretty much everything. So he obviously thinks he has acting chops but honey he doesn't. Let's be honest, nobody in this movie was a good actor at all. The wrestler who plays a maniac who snaps every time he sees the colour red, yes you read that right, was awful. The character of Mabel was OK and got a couple laughs in her gory comic relief role but I'm sure at least partly that was in comparison to the other actors. William Davis, Test, Reso, John Rhys Davies, Mercedes McNabb, they all look super embarrassed just to be in this. Co-star Brigitte Kingsley only looks decent in her scenes with Cymek, otherwise she is almost as wooden as him. What legitimate doctor dresses like that? These two hamriffic performances are so bad the movie should at least be funny to laugh at but it's too bad even for that. The climactic scene where she's in a cage going underwater and talking to Cymek literally resulted in laughter at the most inappropriate time at their awful performances. Let's not mince words, she has huge breasts so guys will like to look at her and that's about all either 'star' has to offer in this flick. Cymek's not much of a director or writer either with terrible, predictable plot points and dialogue. Here's hoping this movie flopped so bad he'll never get money to make another one.