Black Forest - Favole di sangue

So we settled in with our Chinese Delivery for SyFy Saturday its become a ritual of sorts sometimes it last less than 30 minutes as we lose interest and start channel surfing however this weekend was different they debuted two movies and of the two this was by far the best. We really enjoyed the movie it really tries to make the best of every cent of its miniscule budget with decent performances, interesting twists, and special FX which could of course have been better are not as bad as some. My partner is not much of a fan but he sat thru it all and I have to say I would watch it again since I missed some bits and pieces as I devoured my dinner and we talked about the storyline. Sadly the film that came after this one was so bad we both went about other activities. One other thing of note we enjoyed their use of flowers to add a fantasy like sense of color in contrast to the forest it was a nice touch considering the budget you can't have all these wonderful sets and cgi to enhance so it was great old style filmmaking making the best out of what you got and being inventive I can still see the colorful mushrooms growing in the forest.

Now this is more like it. The Syfy original "Black Forest" actually shows that these productions can surprise and what we got was passable entertainment. Asinine, but enjoyable. What it makes up for in its low- budget, is in its concept creativity. Sure the execution is quite so-so and the CGI can be flat and laughable, but the atmospherics do work because of its well-etched production designs. Creating a fairytale world brought up many possibilities to explore and these disjointed stories involving wolves, fairies, dwarfs, witches and trolls do come alive. These aren't your friendly childhood stories, as some unlucky tourists find themselves getting lost in a magical forest in Germany and trying to stay alive by not becoming apart of the story. How to keep that from happening; sticking to the tradition of the fairy-tales. The script might be cheesy, but the story stays intriguing and creates some amusing, off-the-wall scenarios. I do think that the first half setting up the fantastical predicament is much stronger than the second half where things get senseless as the tourists are trying to figure a way out. The performances are agreeable despite their leaden characters with abeyant Ben Cross being the name grabber. Humour can be a little self- knowing, but it's not a distraction. One thing I noticed was the music theme that was constantly played resembled that of the 1987 "Predator". Better than expected SyFy original.

"Let's hope there's no wicked witch inside".

If you like Scifi movies, then this is actually a fantastic movie to watch. For a free movie, with an attractive individual and a good story, what more do you really need. I suggest this movie to anyone who likes Grimmy type things. This is a movie that can either make you think, or that you can brainlessly watch. Beware though, there is some gore, but you know it is coming so it isn't shocky gore. If you are one of those people who get queasy or have their children watch movies with morals just be aware. If you can find this without commercials then it would be better as some of the commercial breaks are annoying. Overall a good movie to watch. Much better than some other Scfy movies.

A group of tourists take a 'mid-summers eve tour' to the Black Forest of Germany to experience the night of the year when the line between our reality and the spirit one is at it's thinnest. Once there they are seemingly transported to a mischievous parallel fairy-tale world in this original Syfy film.

What started off pretty well (term applied loosely as in 'pretty well for a Syfy original) soon became awash with mediocrity. The set up was interesting enough and the plot was intriguing, I liked the fractured fairy tale approach but somehow the film lost its footing as well as my interest.

My Grade: C-

Marathon of dubious horror movies that are coming out of Netflix, and I come across this wonderful copy, but only for lovers of good old cine trash, adorable mega special defects, little monsters out of children's books not at all cute, a half script mouth, poor performances, but the magic and charm of the B-movie in its purest essential, nostalgic and almost childlike, adorable...