The Violent Kind

I have to say after more and more mainstream crap Horror like Scream 4(Sorry Wes Craven, but Scream 3 and 4 were just monotonous and overbudgeted) and the flood of remakes, its very refreshing to see something new and semi-original come from the independent film industry. I know that the mainstream crowd will probably rate this horribly or say it has plot holes(What everyone says when they don't understand something), but don't buy what they're selling unless your in their category.

Premise: The movie starts off telling the violent story of a notorious biker gang that is into drugs, violence, and crime getting together for a party. Headlines of the gangs exploits are splashed across the screen in the form of newspaper articles of recent arrests. The party quickly comes and goes then some real weird things start to happen after everyone leaves the party house.

This movie definitely is a send up in the spirit of Evil Dead and the Exorcist thrown in with a few other genre Slasher flicks. The movie definitely stands out as a smashmouth, grindhouse Independent, supernatural slasher with a very decent twist at the end that is like the icing on the cake. I can already hear the argument that the film tries to be too much, but trust me, the movie handles everything, including the twist right down to the last minute. It kept me glued to the screen. Then again I love supernatural elements which this movie has a lot of.

I gave it a 9 because its already off to a bad start. It deserves a "solid" 7 rating. Acting is top notch, gore is above par, tense moments are everywhere, and an "I really didn't see it coming", twist. What can I say? I loved this movie and I highly recommend it to the REAL die-hard genre fans who can appreciate good REAL independent horror in the tradition of Evil Dead and The Exorcist.

Bravo!

Cody, Q, and Elroy are young bikers. They go to Cody's mother's birthday at her home with many other bikers. Q's girlfriend and Cody's cousin Shade joins them. There is Cody's ex Michelle with her sister Megan. As the party ends, the group is left at the house. Michelle becomes possessed and violent. As the situation deteriorates, a bright light flashes and a group seemingly from the 50s shows up taking everyone prisoner.

It's not the best acted or the best written. The first half is still a good solid reasonable bloodfest. I like the splatter horror in an isolated location. The second half becomes unintelligible. It stops making sense when the other group shows up. The audience is simply left with the blood splatter orgy with a weird light show.

The central characters in The Violent Kind sure don't conform to the 'ugly, burly, leather-clad, bandana-wearing thug with unkempt beard and long unwashed hair' biker stereotype: best friends Q and Cody (Cory Knauf), members of tough Northern Californian gang 'The Crew', look like aspiring Levi's models, sporting carefully tousled hair and designer stubble.

Q's hard living, heavy drinking and brawling clearly hasn't prevented him from maintaining a strict fitness regime at the local gym, giving him a chiselled physique that has helped him bag a model-standard girlfriend in the form of brunette hottie Shade (Taylor Cole). Most of the time, Q and his pals hang out in their nice suburban house, but when the guys like to party hearty, they do so at a cosy woodland retreat that belongs to Q's biker mum (not a bad property portfolio for a family with no visible means of support other than some petty drug-dealing).

While this easy-on-the-eye cast is obviously going to give The Violent Kind broader appeal than a bunch of fat men with walrus whiskers and some fugly biker chicks, I really wish that The Butcher Brothers, the guys behind this indie horror, hadn't succumbed to such a trite Hollywood-ism—in my opinion, the superficiality of the pretty boy bikers and their gorgeous girls robs the film of any credibility.

After lots of unconvincing guff that struggles but fails to prove to viewers just how ruthless and reckless Q and Cody can be despite their appearances (the guys get in a couple of scraps, Q has rough sex with Shade, and the guys attend a wild biker party), the film finally starts living up to the quotes on the box that claim it to be brutal, bloody and just a bit bonkers: Cody's slutty ex, Michelle (Tiffany Shepis), inexplicably becomes possessed, bringing her to the attention of some undead rockabillies from another dimension/outer space, who strip her naked for some kind of bizarre occult ritual—but only after a spot of torturing and killing.

While none of this really makes much sense, at least its a damn sight more entertaining than all that faux bad boy biker crap. 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

This is a film that could almost be broken into three differently toned parts along the lines of a format similar to "A.I." and "Martyrs." Likewise, the first half seems conventional enough, the second half more dangerous and the third is about as bleak as they come--by the time it finishes, how it began will be a distant memory.

"The Violent Kind" starts out as a cool and sleazy afternoon in Oakland, CA with a posse of three young biker buddies belonging to "The Crew" who are without a care or concern except living up their own impulsive behavior from rough sex, fights to drinking beer. They go to Cody's mother's 50th birthday at an isolated house and instead of finding a bunch of well-behaved and mature adults, everybody celebrates with loud rock 'n' roll, more drinking and strippers. After almost everybody leaves, the real party just gets started, one where their livers aren't going to be the only things on the line.

Cody's ex girlfriend returns a bloodied mess and asks for help. She's brought inside and placed in a bed until the remaining people left over--three guys, two gals--can figure out why their vehicles won't work and their cell phones act glitchy to get help as they're in the middle of nowhere. All the while the audience is shown mysterious others that hang outside in the shadows. They visit the only neighbor around and cryptic symbols are shown written on the walls in blood to allude to something ominous on the horizon. Soon enough things start to get really weird, as the woman on the bed turns Linda Blair-like possessed and with her bare hands mutilates one of the guys trying to get frisky and feel her up.

Soon enough, the mysterious outsiders show up to the house to collect something they need. Though it's like they stepped into another era or some kind of paranormal realm as there are unexplained flashes of light and these new strangers appear to be ripped out of a time warp from the '50s with their distinct attire, tunes and lingo. They've got a dark and condescending sense humor that includes torturing their hostages while playing theme music on the record player and all the while laughing sardonically like they know a big secret their captives don't. They put on a sadistic show and fit their eccentric parts like a glove, though it's a rather pointless game except to show what kind of people they're dealing with: the violent kind.

The first phase is more fleshed out and some perspective is gained of the young gang with some internal conflicts, though it's a different type of knowing as being familiar with their disregard for restraint sets a new bar for comfortable living at the expense of others as well as themselves. Everything is so rebellious, carefree and in-the-moment that it's hard to care of their safety or even their demise because they might have already had it coming. The next phase is going for mystery and cheap thrills by keeping the audience in the dark with only snippets of light to what, how or why these people are there. The ending gave a feeling of hopelessness as it left the audience as well as the characters out to dry. However, they made it too powerful and far reaching without actually showing the big picture and how these select people tie in, even if they seem incidental. It would be like watching "Night of the Living Dead," except where the TV and word of mouth by others are missing, which would leave the focus in one area but not effectively set up for how it all pans out or ties in to a global matter. Otherwise it feels exaggerated to stretch its importance.

"The Violent Kind" isn't going to be for everybody but it's definitely a different type of film which travels over a wide arc of genres and steps on any morals or taboos it can in the process. One of its setbacks is it felt like a condensed mini-series that gives assorted tastes of a little bit of here and there, but not enough to really appreciate and savor everything you just seen. It's entertaining to a degree, and with the change-ups I can't say it was boring, even if everything doesn't line up or is what it is anticipated to be. It gives some homage to other films and had some hiccups though all and all it did seem one of a kind. (Also submitted on http://fromblacktoredfilmreviews.blogspot.com/)

This movie is definitely interesting with some great practical gore effects. The story feels like that old game where someone starts a story and than some else takes over a third of the way through and then someone else does for the last third of it. If you are interested in this than watch for the great gore and the crazy story.