The Rage

When I rented Robert Kurtzman's The Rage, I relatively knew what I was getting into. The DVD box art and description on the back detailed the plot summary that seemed as familiar to someone like me that watches horror films as a favorite pair of slippers.

A mad scientist infects subjects with a virus that will induce rage. The human experiments go mad and morph into zombie flesh eating monsters. The contamination soon spreads outside of the laboratory when a bunch of vultures start to eat away at the rotting remains of one of the infected turning them into ravenous creatures in search of human prey.

These vultures take the spotlight for a good third of the film as they much and terrorize a group of partiers that are traveling in their RV through a dense forest. Unfortunately, it is also the weakest part of the film thanks to special effects that sometimes look CGI, sometimes look Frank Oz Muppets and sometimes look like a Ray Harryhausen nightmare. As these winged beasts of prey peck, prod and puncture their victims, you will be more prone to snicker than to scare.

When the birds are finally given a peaceful break, the remaining members of the troop find themselves in the abandoned farmhouse/laboratory where these creatures were resurrected. Unlucky for them, there are creatures around every corner (including a midget rage-induced man that I christened Mini-Rage as I poured myself another whiskey) and their survival looks about as bleak as Britney Spears' child custody case.

By the time The Rage finally came to a conclusion, I had sore cheekbones from the amount of times I yawned during the production. The premise was nothing new. The make-up effects looked like they just borrowed the rejects from The Hills Have Eyes 2 and the special effects in total were just plain awful in scenes. Although the film started off very promising with the battle between the scientist and his experiments, the segment was soon overshadowed by the ridiculousness of the dialogue the sixth-rate actors were given to work with. Too bad, for the film had all the elements to make it a better than average DVD pick up. The gore was definitely there with severed heads, intestines and ripped off limbs all being park of the directors Things-To-Do Checklist. But all the gore in the world couldn't save the film from falling into the pitfalls of providing us nothing new or interesting that would have us give the film a higher recommendation.

www.robertsreviews.com www.killerreviews.com

Fans of trashy horror rejoice, for Robert Kurtzman, the 'K' from awesome effects team KNB, has given us The Rage: a demented, dumb gore-soaked film that manages to go from simply mad in the first half, to completely insane towards the end.

Featuring terrible acting, dodgy CGI effects, and bucket-loads of cheesy gore, this film sure isn't going to be to everyone's taste, but those who dig crazy schlock horror will have a blast: Kurtzman throws in everything but the kitchen sink to guarantee an enjoyable ride for gore-hounds.

Andrew Divoff (who also starred in Kurtzman's The Wishmaster) stars as Dr. Viktor Vasilienko, a Russian scientist who decides to punish capitalist society after a money-hungry drugs conglomerate steals his cure for cancer (because their 'preventative' medicine is far more profitable than a cure), discredits him, and sends him to an insane asylum. Vasilienko eventually escapes and plots revenge, creating a virus called The Rage, which turns victims into uncontrollable bloodthirsty maniacs; only when his cancer cure is publicly acknowledged will he release the antidote.

Things go awry, however, when one of the mad scientist's test subjects escapes into the woods, dies and become vulture fodder: the birds also contract The Rage, and become airborne killers, which is not good news for a bunch of 'twenty-somethings' (including Erin Brown AKA Misty Mundae, star of many a soft-core sex flick) who are travelling through the area in their RV.

With shonky vomiting mad-vulture puppets, a death-during-sex scene (always a winner), a killer hunchback dwarf wearing the face and hair of a little girl (and grunting silly phrases such as 'kiss the monkey'!), giant leech attacks, and CGI feces (seen as a pole is rammed into the ass of a bald, blind 'zombie' called Gor!), The Rage is sheer low-budget lunacy from a film-maker who is obviously having loads of fun entertaining us.

Seriously demented. Love it! I think those were maybe giant mutated zombie leeches cause they came out of the water? When she pulled it off and looked at it, that totally made me think of the leeches from the movie Slither. Kind of similar to that film in the way that there are different types of threats. The mad doctor was probably the best actor, he was great. His character seemed the most developed also, he had the most background story -complete with flashbacks! Decent cinema-tech. Cool gore. Zombie vultures that throw peoples heads around. Igor and Frankenstein's Monster. The main heroes seemed to have either had a very bad script or a director who thought it was alright for them to say "Come on, we have to keep going" so many times that I lost count, but the good parts of the movie made up for the super cheesy lines. It seemed that most of the budget for this movie was spent on the gore and computer animated effects? Lots of blood. I recommend this movie! The part where the uncle sees the little girl all messed up and then you see him take out his nephew with a large branch was up to snuff as far as horrific goes I think. Who wouldn't be creeped out by the kid scene? There were definitely a few shout outs to more than a few horror films and classics.

A crazed Russian doctor (Andrew Divoff of Wishmaster) experiments with a deadly new virus that turns people (and birds) into bloodthirsty mutants gets in hot water when the virus gets loose and starts infecting those in the surrounding area creating havoc for a group of teens who were out partying at an outdoor Mushroomhead concert in the nearby woods. Woodenly acted from an awfully stupefying script. The movie quite knowingly seems to be a homage to '80's cult films (mainly Evil Dead & Re-animator), but lacks the wit to pull it off as a good movie itself, despite the presence of otherwise talented Divoff, Erin Brown, and Reggie Bannister (the latter in more or less a cameo). May be perfectly acceptable fodder for 2:15 AM after a night of bar-hopping, but watching it unintoxicated is not really recommended.

Eye Candy: Angela Gasparec gets topless

DVD Extras: Commentary by Director/Writer Robert Kurtzman and writer John Bisson; an 80-minute Making-of featurette; photo stills gallery; 2 music videos by Mushroomhead;and Trailers for "Trailer Park Boys: the movie" & "Big bad Wolf"

If you are a fan of the more splatter-rich film experience, then THE RAGE is the perfect choice. It's filled with nearly nonstop gushy action, when a secret serum turns normal, law-abiding citizens into slobbering, gore-craving insaniacs!

THIS INCLUDES: #1- Flesh-devouring mutant maniacs! #2- Axes, hammers, and screwdrivers stuck in various craniums! #3- Mad-mad science! #4- Flocks of puppet / CGI turkey vultures! #5- A raving, raging Reggie Bannister!

Yep, this is a rip-roaring masterwork of messy mayhem...