Reeker - Tra la vita e la morte

As far as modern horrors go, this low budget effort – a kind of Outward Bound meets Final Destination – isn't that bad, and I'm surprised by how low its IMDb rating is. In fact the first half of the film – before anyone gets killed – is quite intriguing, although things go down the well-trodden stalk-and-slash path for the final couple of reels as the usual band of five dislikeable teens invite their own death by doing incredibly stupid things (I have never met a girl in my life who would sit on that gurgling loo).

Old pro Michael Ironside makes an appearance as a bewildered hubby looking for his wife in the wilderness – and the ending of the flick adds an unexpected touch of poignancy to his character's search. Ironside must be one of the few bad-guy actors whose features have actually mellowed as he's grown older. The other actors are the usual bland mix of young faces, most of whom will fade into obscurity or be consigned to TV soap hell within a couple of years. The nominal 'hero' is actually something of a jerk, and you're never really worried about anyone's fate, but the film doesn't hold itself out as anything other than a time-filling horror – a scan of the end credits will tell you that.

The manner in which the twist ending is handled goes some way towards redeeming the preceding twenty minutes, and the part where the blind guy falls off the top of one of those monstrous camper tank things had me laughing out loud - although I had sank a couple of beers. Anyway, If you're in an undemanding mood and enjoy this brand of teen horror then give this one a try

It's not bad for a supernatural slasher movie, but I have some issues. There's really not much to the story with just the characters' standard in the desert oasis. Most of the time, it's just the characters waiting for something or looking for a way to get help or leave. It's pretty predictable throughout, and it doesn't do anything interesting until the end. The movie takes a while to get going, and the killer comes much later in the movie. Also, it uses typical cliches like cheap jump scares and characters making stupid decisions throughout. The death scenes do have decent tension to it and are built up pretty decently on how they are killed off. Also, it's interesting how after someone killed, it shows a flashback from their memory. The movie has a decent atmosphere with it taking place in an isolated environment with no service and how the place looks abandoned.

"Reeker" didn't live up to my expectations at all. The film has really surprising turn in the end which, in contrast to "High Tension", is beneficial for this flick as it sheds a new light on a story which until this time has completely no sense. In fact, "Reeker" doesn't deliver anything new and even misuses certain patterns. In addition, the film is not frightening and evokes not much tension, which is significant shortcoming for this kind of flick. Not so frequent gory scenes are anything but original or imaginative. What's more, the flick drags incredibly and is illogical at times. Similarly to other movies of this genre, characters behaves very irrationally. For instance, the scene with a guy jumping out of the window was ridiculous. On the other hand, among virtues of this film I can rate good cinematography and beautiful desert settings. All in all, I regrettably cannot recommend this horror film.

I took a wild guess on this film to be honest.... front cover looked good, the synopsis on the back made the film sound good, but when push came to shove, it was just "alright". The characters were drab and boring and very cliché "horror teen victims", the script was quite funny with a few comedy moments and one-liners and on first impressions the storyline seemed very much "done before a million and one times". Reeker has its fair share of slight frights (if you're a girl), funny moments and half-decent gore special fx, but the twist at the end? What the hell? As much as it sort of tied the story together, it also left me thinking "OK, but.... why?" I think it tries to be too clever and whacky, and fails! An OK "no-brainer" to watch with a four pack and a takeaway, but please don't expect a genius horror film... you'll be disappointed!

"Reeker" from 2005 is not a particularly memorable or outstanding horror movie, despite it actually having originality to it. And the reason for this was that it was just too mundane. In fact, it was only the surprise twist to the storyline towards the end of the movie which was unique, but it really was a twist which wasn't predictable. And as such, then director Dave Payne managed to deliver a horror movie which was watchable, albeit mediocre.

I am not going to spoil anything regarding the twist of events, but I will say that it was a nice change of events to the storyline. Just a shame that it couldn't manage to lift up the rest of the movie.

The story is about a group of people heading out into the desert to participate in a big party. However, they find themselves stranded at a mysteriously deserted diner, and an even stranger being is stalking them, preying on them one by one.

The storyline itself was adequate, but it just didn't stand out in the horror genre. As such, it was a mediocre end result. There were some originality to certain aspects of the story and the mysterious 'reeker' which was hunting the people.

The acting in "Reeker" was quite alright, and people were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters. It was a nice treat to see Michael Ironside in the movie, despite not having that big of a role. Devon Gummersall (playing Jack) was really carrying the movie quite well.

Now, as for the creature design on the reeker creature, well I was impressed. The effects, prosthetics and make-up was quite good. And they managed to put together a rather unique design which helped lift up the movie experience a bit.

The special effects in the movie were also good, and that is a good thing for a horror movie. So thumbs up on this achievement.

All in all then "Reeker" is an entertaining enough movie for what it was, just don't expect to be blown away, as it is a generic and mediocre horror movie. But still worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.