Playroom

A while back I saw and greatly enjoyed the loopy medical themed slasher comedy Dr. Giggles, so with that in mind I was very much looking forward to hitting up an earlier horror from director Manny Coto. Playroom is a very different beast though, a serious minded and strange take on childhood imagination, archaeology and the supernatural. It gets off to a good start with a camera scroll over freaky wall carvings, strange figures and symbols, numerous people in various states of distress, it sets up an arcane atmosphere before entering a more visceral nightmare scenario via a child drawing. This is before we get to the main bulk of the film, which involves a reporter/explorer/archaeologist type (profession never specified) who gets a clue as the the hidden resting chamber of an ancient prince and so sets of with his editor, a camera man and his girlfriend in tow to find the tomb and thusly exorcise his personal demons (tragedy claimed his family when he was younger). Within an ancient monastery, the past comes alive, with deadly consequences…The main thing that sticks out about the is film is the setting. Leading up to the monastery in which the bulk of the film is set we get some great exteriors, but the monastery itself is where things come alive, it's a terrific place. Candles and cobwebs, skeletons and statues, nooks and crannies and strange carvings, shot with unearthly urinary hues for maximum atmosphere. Unfortunately other aspects here aren't up to the quality of the setting. The worst decision is having a bratty child as pivotal character, in regular children's garb he looks nothing more than a generic irritating kid and simply isn't scary, moreover he never gets to anything vicious enough to invest him with effective creep value. Basically he'll make most viewers want give him a good kicking, and not in a good way. The film is also slow, only really getting to the boil at around the hour mark, which leaves it up to the actors to keep things going. As the lead, Christopher McDonald isn't great, a one note performance that's compelling enough but goes from zero to crazy so quickly that he simply isn't too interesting. James Purcell does little of note as the washed up photographer while Lisa Allit is a competently likable but un-dynamic heroine. Fortunately Vincent Schiavelli appears in a side role and relishes it, burning up every moment of screen time he has as a wild eyed headcase. He has far too little screen time though, so can't quite keep the fun going. Director Manny Coto works well enough, but the film is quite dull in the first two thirds and even when things do get moving its never scary and mostly fun for trash geeks. The final half hour does get pretty mental though, moves at a belting pace with a cheerful disregard for sanity, there are a couple of decent tense scenes, a little meanness, some unfortunate cringe making silliness that's just about forgivable and even a few fun gore shots. Things really go out on a high note, but I cant bring myself to rate this one too highly, there are a few too many bad decisions and it disappoints with a great concept. For fans of the more dopey and unusual side of horror trash this one is worth a peek, but I suspect many will find it more frustrating than anything else. Still, I had a good enough time with it, more or less. A contented 5/10.

albeit an interesting start of a story, playhouse is just that, a start. In horror movies, every question you ask must be answered and playhouse just doesn't cut it. On the verge of being a really good horror classic, it faltered. and just because it bothers me! Why does the ten year old "prince of evil" wear modern-day street clothes?! He's supposed to be hundreds of years old! It doesn't make any sense!

After having seen the gory and over-the-top silly "Dr. Giggles" hundreds of times and loving it more with every viewing, it's rather difficult to accept that Manny Coto's debut film "Playroom" is such an ambitious and serious-minded psycho thriller. I surely wasn't expecting to see an attempt for intellectual horror, set in Eastern Europe and focusing on topics like archeology and child-psychology, so "Dr. Giggles"-fans beware!! It's not even an admirable attempt, as the screenplay is very uninteresting, tedious and a total bunch of nonsense. An obtrusive reporter convinces his girlfriend-editor to travel to Yugoslavia, more particularly to an ancient abbey where he and his archaeologist-father searched for the tomb of a fella named Ilok. After a couple of days of digging with no results, Chris goes completely nuts, has visions of his former imaginary childhood friend and kills the rest of the expedition crew. Big deal! "Playroom" is boring, mainly because you never care for Chris or his bad case of split personality syndrome. This is only the first time I see Christopher MacDonald in a lead role (he usually plays supportive characters) and he already fails to convince us of his acting capabilities. There's absolutely no tension, although Coto seemly tried hard to create some, and the supportive characters are all insufferable. Well, except for the great Vincent Schiavelli but his role is regretfully brief. There also is an irritating lack of gore and there seemly weren't enough budgets to buy a couple of extra light bulbs, as entire sequences are filmed in the dark. One final piece of advise for young scriptwriters: there's NOTHING even remotely scary about kids' imaginary friends! Especially not if these imaginary friends are ordinary looking kids as well.

"Schizo" or "Playroom" has a close and mystical atmosphere, but it is not the psychological thriller it claims and wants to be. The story twist is too fast moving concerning to what you know about the main character from the beginning of the movie.

Chris, played by Chris McDonnell of "Happy Gilmore", never has the sympathy of the viewer. McDonnell's acting is overdone. The other characters, Marcy (Jamie Rose) and Paul, seem to be only important for being killed by Chris, who turns into a murderer way to fast. But...nice ways to kill the others...!

Wonderful landscape, average story.

5 out of 10

I rented this just for the heck of it, hoping for some cheap thrills for the night. The story seemed pretty good, too. It's about this archaelogist, Chris, whose family was killed in a cave-like monastery in Serbia when he was a boy. Now, an adult, he wants to return to seek out the burial place of those murdered. He brings with him his girlfriend and editor, Jenny, a photographer, Paul, and Paul's girlfriend, Marcy. But things go awry when the spirit of the killer begins to haunt Chris, slowly changing him from the guy he was to someone quite evil....

On a scale of one-to-ten, I give this a seven. The story was quite good, and developed very well, though I was confused a bit in the middle. Luckily, all is cleared up and explained, but not too much, so that's good. The performances are all quite strong. Jenny was a very likable heroine. And the setting was great. Couldn't have been better. Plus, there are a couple of genuinely scary scenes, especially during the exciting climax where Jenny is forced to play their games, and fights to get away.

But there are some downsides. The movie takes a while to get going. It's not flat-out boring, but it doesn't get very exciting for a bit. And also, the villain, the spirit of the boy that killed Chris's family, is downright laughable. To Chris, he appears as a teenaged boy, and that's alright. But to Jenny--the only other person to see him--he is a very animated zombie, with a goofy face and constant one-liners. It was tough to be afraid of him. Chris was the better of the two, almost a reminder of Jack Nicholson's character in "The Shining," which some could say this film was a bit inspired by. He was much scarier, coming after Jenny through the monastery with a pickaxe.

In any event, this is worth seeing. It's actually an impressive film with some elements that should have boosted its popularity. I recommend it.