Nascido do Inferno

Having been a fan of the band Cradle of Filth for many years, I was inclined to watch this movie. Alex Chandon had previously done a video for the band (From the Cradle to Enslave) which is one of the most visually original music videos of all time. With this background information out of the way, here is a checklist to see if you will like this movie. 1. Can you tolerate bad special effects? The effects in this movie are about one step above crappy because it had a limited budget. It does take some work to get past the poor effects and get into the story, but it can be done. 2. Do you have ADD? One thing I did enjoy about the movie was that it weaves together 4 story lines which really helps to keep your focus during the movie. It's far from stagnant. 3. Are you offended by anything? Anything at all? If so, you will hate this movie and possibly feed the need to speak to a pastor after viewing it. The effects, as previously stated are poor, but the material the movie deals with is very intense and often satanic with references to Crowley. If you answered yes to 1 and 2 and no to number 3, you will probably enjoy this movie. In my opinion, it's worth at least one watch if you enjoy horror movies. One last time though, the special effects are weak and this movie is not for the faint of heart.

Cradle of Fear is an anthology of icky tales that revolves around a police detective, an imprisoned madman, and "The Man" (played by Dani Filth, frontman for Cradle of Filth). Although the stories are meant to tie in together by using wraparound characters, they don't. Some of the stories don't even make sense on their own. However, the first story is quite good and graphic, but it's all downhill from there. The remaining tales just fail to generate any feelings out of me because there is no logic. There's lots of gore throughout, just not enough real story. That's the film's downfall and that's why I'm giving it a negative review. I will say this for the movie, it is undeniably horror. The lengths London filmmaker Alex Chandon will go to shock you will, well, shock you. I like gore. I love gore when it serves the purpose of the story. But I hate mindless gore. That's what the majority of the film is, not to mention pretty disgusting. Cradle of Fear is a gorehound's wet dream, but I desire a little bit more.

Here's the whine. :)

I knew before viewing that this would be an over the top film. Between Danni Filth from Cradle Of Filth and the Hammeresque setting I expected a schlocky gory horror film. I was wrong, very, very, very, very wrong!!! To sum it up the film is terrible and a let down in many ways.

First and foremost have to be the splatter effects. You don't need a huge budget or powerful CGI systems to create convincing effects. Look at several low budget productions like Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond', Dario Argento's 'Suspiria', or George A. Romero's 'Dawn Of The Dead'. All three of those films were low budget productions staring either low rent or no name actors. Yet all three manage to set up a tense atmosphere, gross us out with exploding heads, ripped out intestines, and a multitude of grisly slashed throats, and allow us to suspend our disbelief for 90-120 minutes.

Now lets look at Cradle Of Fear (Or low budget wanna-be music video as I call it). Danni Filth can't act to save his life. I knew within the first 5 minutes of watching the film that it was going to be bad. This mans acting is brutally stiff and devoid of any emotion or believability. Id actually rate Tor's acting in Plan 9 From Outerspace above Danni Filth (and that's frightning). Unfortunately Danni's not the only hack in the film. I don't recall a single believable line of dialogue at any point during the movie. Characters deliver the lines like they're reading from a teleprompter. Worse yet the inspectors acting makes William Shatner's acting seem lucid and elegant.

What this film reminds me of the most are not the Hammer classics I grew up with. This tragedy reminds me of the films Troma puts out. Only I enjoy Troma films because they're supposed to be cheap and outrageously funny. Cradle Of Fear is supposed to be a dark and frightning film. Unfortunately it's not scary but laughable. Worst of all the film is far too long for its own good. At over 2 hours it's about 30-45 minutes too long for a movie with no major plot or story behind it.

Summary----

The film is low budget (not a crime as I like quite a few low budget flicks) and it shows.

The acting is stiff, unbelievable, and many times almost monotone.

The dialouge itself creates some of the poor acting. I could not imaging using the work Fu (you get the idea) as many times in one week as the inspector does in 15 minutes. As pointed out previously by another reviewer Tarintino this guy ain't. Hell Lloyd Kaufman of Troma films looks like a master compared to Chandon.

The effects are just plain bad. Prosthetics that look like they were bought at a nickel and dime store. Blood that appears black (are we killing humans or embalmed corpses), and over use of blood (the human body does not contain 50 gallons of blood, and unlike Shogun Assassin this effect is not used in an artistic manner). CGI that's reminiscent of The Last Starfighter (which looked great in it's day, but pales in comparrison to many PC games these days), and is used out of place in many instances.

Poor video quality. For a movie shot mostly at night and in the dark, it's important to use good film stock and a good low lite camera. I guess Chandon forgot that seeing the movie helps alot.

Too serious for it's own good. If I wanted to laugh I would have popped in Braindead (aka Dead Alive) or Toxic Avenger.

Rating 4/10 (and I'm being kind)

Suggestion, if you want a gore soaked movie laced with atmospheric elements of horror go out and buy the unrated edition of Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond'. While it's not heavy on plot, it's not the joke that Cradle Of Fear is. Should you want a more twisting gothic, yet bloody work check out some of Dario Argento's work. Suspiria, Tenebre, and Opera come to mind as some of Argentos better films, although I've yet to see one I did not like.

I think for your own true opinions of this film you should ignore the comments and make your own verdict by actually going to watch it. In my opinion I think that it is a clever story line, being a fan of cradle of filth I like the soundtrack and the actor (the man.

Instead of ordinary horror films, cradle of fear has 4 different stories all linked by one theme, so f you don't like a part of it, there is a lot more in the film. I think some o the scenes are far-fetched but overall it's a film for someone who has an imagination

I think the film was designed for young horror fans and overall it delivers: bring you a sickening fear. fans of horror, gore and Danni filth will not be . disappointed so watch it and make up your own mind!

The directors cut version, which was the one I saw, was very long for this type of movie. Almost two hours is way too long. If you have the choice, definitely go for the non-directors cut.

The main plot is almost not taken up at all, the movie consists to the main part of several murder scenes, which are connected but the feeling is that they're only shown in order to fill the movie with splatterish violence. The connection is not revealed until the latter part and the lack of context bored me out long before I was there.

As a horror movie it doesn't work. You never get the required feel for the characters due to mediocre acting and the general disposition (character is presented, 15 minutes later character is dead). This pictures strong side lies in the splatter part.