Pink Eye

There are a few names in this flick that attracted me, I already had contact with Alan Rowe Kelly and I knew Raine Brown via Joe Zaso. So I thought this was going to be good. It starts of pretty well and in fact even a bit gory with the self removal of eyes. But then the opening credits come in and after that it's downhill. The killer's face is never shown even not when his mask is removed but also his one liners didn't work. It reminded me of Freddy or Pinhead but here as I said it just didn't work. There are a few bloody shots involved but mostly the effects are so cheaply done or some killings are off screen. Some girls do show their juggs but it was all to late. Nothing really happens and for me their wasn't any suspense. It's sad knowing that so many famous names in the genre were involved in it.

Release: Premier January 8, 2008 Directed by: James Tucker Written by: Joshua Nelson

Starring: Melissa Bacelar as Delilah Joshua Nelson as Brandon Joshua James as Edgar Emma Hinz as Daisy Bridget Megan Clark as Holly

Savage Rose Pictures and Lost Angeles Films have teamed up before, notably on the project Eat Your Heart Out starring the ravishing Melissa Bacelar. The projects coming from this team keep getting better in terms of gore, story and effective use of limited resources.

Pink Eye is the story of an insane asylum where ghastly drug experiments are conducted. There are other things going on in this nut house as well that include orderlies wearing shrunken-head masks while they rape the female patients - Remember those machines that would dry out a carved apple to make a prunie little head with a face on it? You could get them from the huge Sears catalogue when I was a kid – and I think director James Tucker got one for Christmas one year and based the mask on the memory.

The visual of the prune-face mask becomes relevant when one of the crazies, Edgar, escapes and dons the mask before embarking on a murderous and pillaging rampage that ends in an abduction of Delilah (Bacelar) and the quest for her rescue by boyfriend Brandon (Joshua Nelson).

There are several notables to Pink Eye, and most of them are amplified considerably by the fact that the budget for this one was extremely low. First is the gore. I already knew after watching Eat Your Heart Out that there was a love of over– the– top gore inherent in this film-making team, but a few scenes in Pink Eye took this to a new level. You haven't lived until you've seen a young woman graphically rip her eyeballs out because she thinks there are ants behind them…AWESOME!!

The acting is very good, especially the performances of boyfriend Joshua Nelson and the two child actors Emma Hinz and Bridget Megan Clark. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough Melissa Bacelar. She is set up as the romantic interest and child caregiver early on, but ultimately her part is pretty minor until the end. I would have liked to have her character developed more so that the impact of her abduction packs a bit more punch. Still, the scenes of Melissa tied up and screaming while surrounded by mutilated bodies just about makes up for it. I could have done without a few of the ancillary characters, especially the stoner dude…he was fine, but ultimately pointless. Less stoner dude, more Melissa…that's what I say, but my crush on Melissa Bacelar is well documented so who am I?

The villain in Pink Eye is a complete drama queen, which I like. A skin disease that makes him a monster, the vicious way that he rips rats apart, the shrunken apple head mask and the James Earl Jones voice work together to create a credible monster worthy of nightmares.

Tons of punch on a shoestring budget is the beauty of Pink Eye. This independent horror creation proves that tons of money and big studios cannot eclipse real movie-making passion. Questions or comments about Pink Eye? Contact us!

Update: I spoke with Melissa Bacelar today and voiced my concerns regarding her lack of screen time. She told me that the filming location was so cold that the cameras were freezing, requiring that many of her outdoor scenes be cut. I reminded her that "cold girls in tube tops make good cinema" according to Kaufman of Troma, but unfortunately there was nary a tube top in the house.

Take me to Independent Horror Reviews!

I should have known from the title screen onward that this was a bad movie. Come on... this cheap public domain horror font is used on amateur Halloween cards but not in the opening title of a horror movie. The best in this movie is the beginning of a girl in an asylum that goes nuts and rips out her eyes. You won't see any equally gory scenes for the rest of the movie. Basically it starts out with an asylum and some strange experiments and misuse of the inmates, one of them a tall guy with a deformed face (you never see it anyway) who soon escapes and goes on a ridiculous revenge ride.

The first part with the asylum and the experiments is the central idea of the movie which gets picked up at the end again. In between you got a real lame take on the Halloween/Friday the 13th theme with a masked tall killer stalking victims and then killing some. No suspense here, the killer gets an uninteresting back story (which is the only link to the movies title) and talks some poetic gibberish and stalks a woman that you never quite understand why he is around her.

It just is a really lame movie with some ideas thrown in a pot that just don't fit. The psycho killer character must be one of the most ridiculous in movie history and the acting is most of the time pretty bad. The only good scene in this movie is in the beginning, so basically you can save a lot of wasted time if you stop before the opening title appears.

If you enjoy horror movies, this movie wasn't scary at all, so pass on it if scary moments are the main reason you like horror films. There also wasn't much gore so again, if that's why you like horror movies, pass on this one.

The film was short, and 2 characters entered briefly, one to talk about a main character's pink eye as a kid, and the other to talk about his painting (which as it turned out resembled the killer). The killer was annoying. He wasn't scary, and every line of his was quoting poetry and speaking with an accent to make him sound snooty. It didn't really make him seem more deranged and interesting. It was just annoying.

The first few minutes really had me thinking the movie was going to be worth watching, but I couldn't believe I actually finished the movie because it really just had very little to offer as far as keeping me interested. It was clearly low-budget and a good effort, but it's not a movie I would strongly recommend in any way.

Within the first five minutes, your jaw will hit the floor.

I write for a major horror review publication and see them all. Pink Eye is not for Hollywood buffs. But its the froth of the horror indie slaughterhouse floor, and its reminiscent of the 80's when horror was low budget and raw, without trying to be.

The combination of director James Tucker and writer Joshua Nelson has hit the monkey for dinner on the head before - Aunt Rose, Addiction, and Skinned Alive are titles you cant go wrong with on a blind purchase. Also, Melissa Bacelar frequents these parts. Although she's not nude in any of them (DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!!) there are ample alternatives in the T&A department. On top of it, Melissa can act, and can carry your eyes through 90 minutes of ANYTHING.

If you can appreciate good low budget horror, don't pass this one up.