davitalvitch

This is a terrible movie. It just sluggishly plods along, subjecting us to annoying characters, until it reaches its ridiculous end.

The story is insipid and the editing atrocious. (The scene with the Jeep and tree goes on far too long, extinguishing any tension or morbid humour the scene might have had otherwise.) There is an amusing bit, involving a hole in a floor; that scene, with the wonderful stupidity of the characters involved, is the closest the film ever gets to matching the original in terms of gore and humor.

Isaac Hayes seems to be cast only for the joke of being billed as "The Chef," and then disappears after three short scenes. His character serves no other function (unless we needed a black guy to say "motherf*cker" to liven things up a bit.) There is no mystery as to the killer's identity once all of the main characters are established. Alan, who for some unfathomable reason is the film's lead character, is so irritating that his quick death would have perhaps made the film tolerable. However, there he is, in scene after scene, in filthy clothing, telling people that their ass stinks, and then throwing himself pity parties because the other kids don't like him. (Think of Shelly from "Friday the 13th: Part III" but with none of his sympathetic aspects, only the annoying ones, multiplied by ten, and with body odor and a mean streak, and there is your Alan.) (I thought that at least his "your ass stinks" line would serve some purpose, some foreshadowing regarding his or another character's death - death by stinky ass! - but no, it's just his cringe-inducing recurring line, as lacking in purpose as Isaac Hayes' role.) Any fan of the original is going to want - to HAVE - to see this. Just don't blow $20 of your own money on it.

Wow, it's "Jeepers Creepers" and then "The Vanishing" and then everything derived from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" -- It's most every horror movie in one! If the attempt was to stuff as many horror movie clichés known to man into one gruesome parody then fine, enjoy it that way; then, it is similar to those films in which there are hundreds of pop culture references and the audience is supposed to spend its time trying to catch each one.

If the attempt was to make a truly scary, gory horror film, then its makers are delusional or simply have no respect for its intended audience. Those of us who love this genre tend to be pretty flexible when it comes to budget restraints, amateurish acting and such; however, don't give us yet another tired retread with a script that seems as if written while throwing darts at index cards pinned to a wall, with each card stating some well-worn horror theme/cliché. "Don't run into the woods as the truck approaches, keep running away in its direct path!" "Don't stay near or walk along the road and hope that a car passes, go hole up in the 'geez, I could certainly get trapped in here' restroom!" I fully gave up on this film during the very. long. restroom scene in which one characters lies bleeding and dying ... and talking ... and talking ... about (the person's) noble life and wonderful child and regretted last words. It was then that the whole thing tipped over into the ludicrous and I wondered if the film was meant to be a joke.

Under different circumstances, I would watch the film again but in a different mindset, and see if it works as satire. However, I have no interest in wasting time on this film again, and doubt its satiric intent after the (again clichéd) scene with the creepy family (wacko religious nuts -- who'd expect it??), filmed in a style that screams "We're ripping off-- 'paying HOMAGE' -- to David Lynch!"

What a surprise this film is! It's a quiet, get-absorbed-in-it sort of horror film, and properly light on gore. The story is similar to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, whereas life is created from death in the name of science. The acting is solid and moving; there is no mugging, no sly popular culture wink-winks. The focus is on the story, not special effects, not body count, and there's a steady sense of sadness and madness that made me not want to watch the bonus features afterward; I got so drawn into the characters that I did not want their effect on me altered by watching the actors goof around or discuss the film.

The actor who played Adam, the loner medical student, was wonderful -- and very handsome, to boot. He conveyed very well the pain and isolation that Adam felt, and it made sense why Adam would take part in Dr. Vick's experiment for, in part, he'd finally have a connection with another person, regardless of any personal consequences.

Any faults I found with the film were too minor for me to give them much consideration. It's too nice to finally see a low-budget film that obviously was a work of love and is dedicated to its story, not to getting its talent noticed by making yet another indistinguishable gorefest that is a checklist of a dozen other horror films.

And not once does a screeching cat leap out from a closed cupboard door. Mad props for that, guys.