Exploited

I'm not at all sure that I even know what this is about. Sort of a gay slasher film?! Some cute guys, but I can't think of any other reason to recommend it. For something that is both violent and sexual, it is never scary, suspenseful or erotic. I've seen worse, though not much worse. I do not believe the many positive reviews on here are real. They've got to be written by those connected with the film or friends.

To the one review saying that only homophobes will dislike this movie, I am gay, and neither me nor my husband liked this movie.

With that out of the way, there is one positive I have, the directing. Director Jon Abrahams (yes, the guy from Scary Movie and the House of Wax remake), showed a lot of potential here, and was easily the best part of the film. Really solid panning shots, and not any particularly bad shots either. He could easily direct some great films with the right script.

Onto the bad. The acting and script are both mediocre at best. No one turns in a particularly great performance, and some are downright bad (granted, the dialogue doesn't help them any). The script is the main offender, which has a LOT of problems.

First off, this is hardly a horror/slasher, it's basically a mystery with slight (and I mean slight) horror elements for about 80% of its runtime, which an really low body count. As a result, it's kinda just boring up until the over the top crazy finale. I expected this to be bad, but in a fun so bad it's good type of way, which it didn't become until the end (at least those sweet panning shots looked nice though).

The whodunnit aspect was incredibly predictable. If you've ever seen a whodunnit before, you should have absolutely no problem figuring this one out. It's possibly the easiest to figure out of any movie/show/game/book I've ever witnessed.

All that said, there is quite a bit of nudity/sex in this. So that may be a positive for some (although I didn't personally enjoy these scenes, to each their own).

Overall, it's pretty bad, but by no means the worst gay film I've seen. Probably not even in the bottom 20 worst gay films I've seen. So while I wouldn't recommend this, there are worse films out there, and this is arguably the best "gay slasher" since there's little competition. The main takeaway is that Jon Abrahams should direct more films. He's really quite good.

Usually gay movies (not Oscar-bait bs) are terrible. Really terrible. Usually they're romantic comedies. This is not that. This is a very nicely-produced movie and it even features good actors. There should be more movies like this: it's sexy, fun, stupid, suspenseful, and campy. Either you like that combination of things or you don't. I do.

These filmmakers by the way should have made Cold Moon Over Babylon. The villain in this, although he doesn't have an exposed hairy chest, conjured up in my mind what I imagined Michael McDowell's villain to look like. Unfortunately that book was made into a film sans McDowell's gay sensibilities and completely blew chunks.

Exploited's user rating definitely should not be hovering around the 3.5 territory. If you ever wanted to like David DeCoteau's gay genre flicks but couldn't, this movie is a giant step up from those. And while I'm beyond sick to death of gay coming out stories, this one doesn't count because it has so much else going on. Worth a watch.

Bad acting aside, i thought the movie was enjoyable. The plot overall is more than okay IMO. Did suck me into the who's-the-real-killer mystery which drived me to finish the movie.

I've sat through many a big budget horror film that was far, far worse. Here's what I'll say. The film held my attention throughout. The characters were interesting, and the acting strong. The film has a polished and professional look and feel -- certainly as professional as any mainstream Hollywood horror genre film. The film also kept me guessing about the killer and it did not have that typical "third act letdown" that so many horror films have.