Playroom

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!

"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 was surprised to see that the other user reviews for this were so completely positive. I will say that the look of the film was great, the direction well observed and the sets and locations effective. The problems with this film, however, are mainly in the characters--none of them are really likeable(the main characters girlfriend, played by Lisa Aliff is alright) with the annoying award going to the lead actor(Christopher McDonald) who is too over the top for you to have ANY sympathy for him. The main character's "playmate" that appears to him at the old monastery is another annoying character you'd just like to slap. The playmates "real" self is just as bad coming across as a cheap Yoda clone that spouts incredibly lame wisecracks that quickly grows stale. Vincent Schiavelli(who played the weird biology teacher in Fast Times At Ridgemont High), who has ties to the past at the monastery, is somewhat amusing in his whacked out role but when all is said and done this could have been a better movie. Maybe if the characters were a little more likeable or sympathetic the other shortcomings would have been overshadowed but as it stands it's mainly worth checking out for the overall look of the monastery, as well as location shots and a couple of imaginative kills. OK, but not all that special.

The feature length directorial debut of Manny Coto, the man who gave us the entertaining Dr. Giggles, Playroom starts off slow and rather dull. Archeologist Chris (Christopher McDonald) returns to the Yugoslavian ruins where his parents were murdered when he was a child; Chris is accompanied by his girlfriend Jenny (Lisa Aliff) and colleagues Paul and Marcy (James Purcell and Jamie Rose), who help him to try and find the hidden tomb and torture chamber of 10-year-old Prince Ilok, who - as legend has it - was granted eternal life by a Slavic demon.

Much of the first half of the film is taken up by scenes of Chris exploring the old ruin and laboriously digging his way through to a hidden chamber using a pick axe; it's as frustrating for the viewer as it is for Chris, whose slow, tedious task ultimately proves pointless, for when he does finally break through, all he finds is an empty room. Gah! Thankfully, after this, the film gets progressively more unhinged, and much more entertaining as a result. Chris proves to be quite crazy (hence the film's alternative title Schizo), the man holding conversations with his imaginary childhood friend, Daniel, who turns out to be none other than Ilok, still alive and as twisted and sadistic as ever. Egged on by Daniel/Ilok, Chris kills off Paul and Marcy and attempts to do the same to Jenny.

The death scenes are entertaining, although a little too 'dry' for my liking (the rotary saw chair should have been a lot gorier), and Ilok -- a hilarious zombie-like puppet creation -- is pure '90s cheese. The film also features a brief sex scene, Aliff going topless, and a fun performance from Vincent Schiavelli (the subway spook in Ghost) as Roman Hart, the man wrongly convicted for the murder of Chris's parents.

6/10, plus a bonus point for Ilok - he's worth waiting for!

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.