Serum

Oh. My. God. This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen. And I mean EVER. (For reference, I have seen: "In Memorium", whose writer and editing was so bad that the title itself is a massive typo; Lifetime Movie Network's "The Unquiet;" "Death of a Ghost Hunter," which I considered to be the worst movie in the universe before I witnessed THIS crime against film; "Hell's Highway", by which I mean Jeff Leroy's 2001 atrocity, not the 1932 classic with Richard Dix; "Psycho Ward," another misspelled disaster; and both "Tomie" and "Uzumaki," which were made all the more abysmal by the fact that their names and concepts were attached to works by Japanese horror maestro Junji Ito. I have also seen segments of "Hard Rock Zombies", the Sci Fi channel's "Piranha" entries, and I just finished "The House By the Cemetery" and "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave".) Like "Uzumaki" and "Tomie," a huge part of the reason this movie sucked so very badly was the massive letdown of the movie itself compared to the movie that was advertised. The synopsis on the jacket is promising. I wasn't expecting miracles, but I figured that the plot would make up for whatever failures of acting or direction might present themselves. Boy was I wrong.

The acting isn't just bad, it's atrocious. If you were to select a random group of 10-year-olds and give them the script, the performance you would get would be more energetic and believable than what this movie subjects its audience to. The costumes are all wrong--the corporate executive that is supposed to be pressuring the doctor to push on with his experiments regardless of the risks is wearing a polo shirt and khakis on the helicopter pad as he circles the doc, half-mumbling badly written bully lines. The performances of the female cast are only marginally better than the male, and unlike most bad horror where the women at least give the impression that on some level they are TRYING to be that god-awful, the performances here are so flat that it doesn't appear they are trying anything at all.

The worst part about the movie, however, is that it becomes apparent after the first fifteen minutes that the two main characters are supposed to be about twenty years younger than the actors portraying them. When they go home for a family dinner the "boys'" father looks about 3 years older than they are. One gets the impression that they are friends or relatives of the people on the production staff who never had a day of acting class in their lives but thought it would be cool to appear in a movie. Given that, I can't even complain about the flat climax and lame ending.

In short, even if bad is your thing, skip this one. My friend, who is a connoisseur of horrid horror, was begging me to turn it off after less than half an hour. It's just that awful.

Serum is about a crazy doctor that finds a serum that is supposed to cure all diseases through the power of the mind. Instead it creates some kind of monster that needs to eat human flesh and brains. The mad doc creates some zombies out of cadavers and has some problems. There is a very long lead into all the action with many scenes getting you acquainted with the characters. The mad doctor's nephew gets into a car accident and the mad doc tries to use his new serum on the boy. The results are not good. This is a class C film with OK acting but some troubles directing and some continuity errors. There isn't much zombie action in this one and the effects, while adequate, are nothing special. You can fast forward through the slow parts and get some enjoyment out of the action scenes. Watch out for some nudity and bad language.

I liked this movie. It was fun to watch but it wasn't something you take too seriously. Basically you had two guys who like to party and spy on a topless sunbather, a crazy doctor who performs creepy experiments on corpses with his drug-addicted assistant, a hooker (who isn't hired for what you might think) and a monster who eats peoples brains! What more do you need! It was a bit corny and over the top but that's what I liked about it. A low budget horror movie for sure, but I thought it looked and sounded good. The dialogue was funny and it had some great action scenes. Bottom line – even if it was a low budget film - it was entertaining.

This was Steve Franke's first attempt to make a full feature. It shows that it was clearly a low budget because frankly, the effects are a bit laughable. In fact, they just changed one's face with a bladder.

The acting was a bit wooden too and the overall quality of the reel, on my copy was a bit blurry, looked like a VHS copy. Maybe that was the intention to create a eighties look. Of course the director teased use in the first minutes with a voluptuous naked chick laying in the sun and when the stepmother came into the picture she was loaded too but tits doesn't make a flick. After that part the flick turns into a lot of blah blah. It's until the end that the brain eating guy appears.

No gore or too much red stuff was used. It's just a cheesy flick with not that much to offer.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I rented this years ago when it came out & I thought it was great. It's 2020 & while browsing IMDB I stumbled across this & boy did it bring back memories! I thought I'd write a review to counter the low ratings & bad reviews. First of all any movie deserves some credit if it sticks favorably in your memory so long, right? What stuck with me all this time is how different it is. I still haven't seen a movie like this. It's like a sci-fi/medical experiment drama. A slow sinister psychological medical horror kinda film with a touch of zombie. The story evolves around two guys in a cabin that's miles from civilization. They're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees & deep in snow. The isolation adds to the creepiness. If you like this genre type then I think it'll fascinate you.