Necromentia

The plot: A man seeking to resurrect his dead lover runs into a shady occultist who claims to be able to help him.

Necromentia is clearly one huge homage toward the works of Clive Barker -- Hellraiser, in particular. As a huge Barker fan, I was both excited and a little disappointed. The film is grotesque, gory, and beautiful, but almost everything in it is directly "inspired" by Clive Barker, making it a bit less original than I might like. Still, it has some truly striking visuals, and some scenes that you might remember long after the movie ends.

Necromentia is slow-paced and atmospheric, and people who are more used to modern, MTV-style filmmaking might end up being bored. The budget is clearly very low, but I thought they did an excellent job with what they had. Sure, some of the set design was a little underwhelming at times, but I was not nearly as disappointed as many other people seem to have been. There are many twisted and disturbing scenes, some of which end up with a very absurd, surreal vibe. Although not really a candidate for "most disturbing movie ever", it still deserves an honorable mention.

There some original ideas here, but the themes are as old as dirt, and, admittedly, becoming a bit clichéd in horror movies. If you're looking for something more than a Hellraiser clone, I can understand how you'd dislike this movie. Despite its issues, I still enjoyed it, and I think that other Barker fans may, as well.

An off-world look at the superstitious repercussions of tattooing an Ouija Board on your body. Hagen, who has a dead wife believes that he can revive her from the dead. Travis, a man who lost his brother and wants to join him in the afterlife. Morbius, a bartender who is betrayed by those he loves comes back from the dead to take revenge. And a strange man only known as Mr. Skinny protects the secrets of the Ouija Board and how the stories weave and affect each other. (summary taken from the director)

Let me begin by praising this film before I explain why I gave it a mediocre rating. The best thing I can say is that this film has strong visuals, some appearing too quick to really analyze... but this works well, allowing the imagination to fill in the gaps. If there's a single redeeming part, it's the Mr. Skinny Show, especially the bouncing ball suicide song... who else can sing about the Easter bunny and sodomy? Also, there is a really nice score and soundtrack with a steady beat, and some industrial influences (not unlike Charlie Clouser's "Saw" work). I'm unclear who was responsible for this, or I would single them out... the music here deserves to be heard and be known.

But yet, despite the great visuals, other parts come across as shot with home video, with too much shadow and realism. The first ten minutes drags on... the barbershop janitor, Hagen (Santiago Craig), is quite boring, and his droning on is simply blah. On the other hand, the character of Travis (Chad Grimes) is interesting, talks smoothly and he has the look -- if anyone knows how to open the gates of Hell, it's him. His side business is fascinating. But one good character does not make up for a bad one.

The influences seem to be "Saw" and the work of Clive Barker. The skin map is kind of like Clive Barker's "Book of Blood" in a way, and others have compared this film to "Hellraiser". The plot is a bit sketchy, with the film focusing more on scenes of torture than much else... it seems heavily influenced by "Saw" with its traps (and the aforementioned music). While more artistic, it's not necessarily more disturbing -- a finger cutting scene did not faze me at all.

Can you really use ketamine (Special K) to get off heroin? I suppose it's an improvement, but a ketamine addiction is nothing to sneeze at, either.

While the visuals were great, the story was messy and dragged at times... I wonder if this could be fixed with the right editor? I would have to give this film a second viewing to properly review it, since I didn't grasp everything the first time through. But, unless my opinion radically changes, I think viewers would be perfectly safe in avoiding this title.

I love the idea of this movie but the logistics don't work and that kills the final product for me. Told in a Pulp Fiction piece-it-together style, it tells the story of love, betrayal and resurrection but leaves out some fairly important information. How did the parents die? Why does their will not provide for adequate care of their children? And even *if* you're a junkie, how, when you run an underground scarification business, do you NOT charge your clients enough to survive on? Seriously. That ran through my head throughout the whole movie. Also - how do you cut off a client's finger and just continue on as if nothing happens? For me, this shows that no matter how much thought went into the movie (and it's an interesting premise), in the end Reginald choose cheap gore-points over an actual vision. The movie just...ends without a major plot point resolved.

The performances work well and the direction is decent. The pacing needs tweaking so as not to allow the viewer to actually think about the plot holes. While consistently a little too dark, the movie looks fantastic which is why I kept watching after the questions started popping up.

The pay off isn't worth the time invested. Worse, you really need to pay attention and that makes the ending even more disappointing.

Woow.!!!The Funniest movie i have seen..Its so funny that @ the end you feel like throwing away the monitor.The horror stuff was real funny,a ghost or a monster with metal equipments who sometimes suddenly starts eating human flesh.I think it is a movie for high thinkers as it was no where near my head.The pig head man seemed to be a suicidal ghost. I had to fast forward in the middle,so i am not sure if i missed something real good..

Sorry folks(for those who liked it).I found it funny rather than scary.Specially those inspired glimpse and scenes from Grudge,Ring etc.Anyway you can watch and laugh for a while before you break the TV Set.I am rating is 3 because it made me laugh for sometime..

Gotta admit, I was pretty excited to check this movie out. Combine the weird cover with a positive user comment here that said it's one of the sickest flicks he's seen, plus seeing a couple stylish screens of the film....I was ready for some Necromentia. Son of a bitch.

The story plays out as this anthology dealy, with basically three characters all interweaving with one another in some way. And to be honest with you bozos, it's nothing special. I'm already forgetting how they did connect, and I must say, that's a good thing. Instead of describing each character and his dilemma I'll just say the film revolved around revenge, love, redemption, and some silly nilly torture and necromancy.

Thinking about the flick I really can't think of anything truly memorable. The film even though wasn't my cup of tea, I can see that it was a labor of love. It's camera-work was stylish, the make-up alright, and hell, even during the credits they had cool symbols scrolling with the names. The acting and writing was all very mediocre, and at times boring. Not a good thing for only an 82 minute flick.

I'm a sucker for sing-a-longs, so that scene with the suicidal pig man....that was some good entertainment. Instead of going down this silly necromancy, demon realm (in a dumb tunnel) thingy, they should have maintained the focus on the truly bizarre. As that pig man scene was something altogether different and well-done.

Necromentia isn't anything I'm recing out anytime soon. The story was kinda dull, the characters unlikeable, the writing weak, but the flick had a touch of love, a splash of style and a sprinkle of originality that shows that the film-makers do have some promise.