User reviews

I feel like there are occasional horror films that might make better prose stories than films. "The Rake" is one of them. Character relationships seem important, and the performances are actually pretty decent, but those relationships aren't well developed or really make much sense in the film itself. The deeper psychological issues the film wants to work with don't quite land because the film can't really get beyond the surface. What occurs is a fair to midland character drama with seemingly random additions (again, a novel would allow background to be explored) and a difficult pace. A fairly lackluster ending doesn't do it any good, either: a last showdown between protagonist and monster just gets shunted, which really seems like the filmmakers ran out of money. It's not bad, just...unfinished.

Some nice gore effects and interesting creature (nice breasts , shame about the face lol).

Problem is there is no story to back up the CGI/Special effects and the acting is purest of pants - where did the creature come from, why is it there - duh!!! Without any details its just another formulaeic stalk and slash creature feature movie. Oh and the end of the movie is just awwwwwful!!!!!

When are they going to make a decent horror like with a story and some scares and give us a break from this toxic tosh! It can be done you know; Sam Raimi proved it with DRAG ME TO HELL - We need more Sam Raimi's and less Tom Tits!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Absolutely horrible! Where the hell is the storyline? This film doesn't explain anything at all. Aside from the gore and cgi which is okay....everything about this film is just garbage! It makes asbolutely no sense at all! Just another pathetic attempt that basically became yet another failed slasher! Don't watch this whatever you do! Complete waste of time!

Prolific writer, director, producer Tony Walsh shows us once again how not to write a script, and why these three roles need to be three separate people for quality control purposes. Let me state in no uncertain terms, this is not a good movie. It had a $6M budget, there are no excuses for what we got.

The rake tells the story of a brother and sister, with their... other sister? Female friend? Long lost cousin? Figment of their imagination? We never really find out for sure. And you'd best be ok with that because literally every other character has the same treatment, zero introduction let alone any kind of character building.

This may sound like a world shattering flaw in the film, but worry not dear reader because in actual fact the completely inauthentic speech patterns of each character and their interactions will shatter any kind of illusion of world building long before you even realise you were never introduced to them.

Exposition monologues, unexplained aggression, unrealistic reactions, cheesy lines... just really below elementary writing that you might expect from a beginner writer who hasn't yet found their voice. The kind that traditionally was never in a position where they could make a movie until they developed more into their craft.

This was a movie made for the sake of saying the movie was made. A movie that mistakes gore for horror at the expense of any kind of real threat, suspense or audience participation. There is no theme, no message beneath the surface layer, no depth of story. What remains is a shallow film, where you won't really know who anyone is then some random gore take place. Why the random gore takes place? Well, don't worry we're never told that either so at least it's consistent. Don't watch this movie, seriously. It's a waste of your time and a complete insult to your intelligence.

What have i just watched? No story, makes absolutely no sense!

The Rake ranks among the most inept horror movies I've ever seen. There were entire chunks of dialogue (as well as everything that was on the tape in the movie) that are simply inaudible. There are no subtitles. So I'm sure I missed some key plot points about the creature and the scarred guy. Characters are introduced in this movie with ZERO context or background information.

The filmmakers have chosen to leave you with the puzzle of figuring out who is who, who is related to who (seemingly, the brother from the introduction is married to his sister's sister. WTF), and what the hell they're all doing at this house. I saw it as a plot convenience so The Rake could kill everyone in one place, probably the one place their budget would allow.

I believe I saw THREE writers credited for this crap. I was SHOCKED to see someone credited as Music Composer. This soundtrack is straight out of public domain, and old sound effects CD's. I don't think anyone "composed" anything. Oh, they throw in some pretty unpleasant gore, which did not sway my opinion of this film. The only positive thing I can say about this movie is that they kept it mercifully short, clocking in at 78 minutes. Zero stars (imdb makes me give it one).

Don't be fooled by the beginning. The movie makes no sense. nothing adds up. just random characters and an unknown monster with no direct aim or objective!

Whoever wrote this movie can go straight to h*ll. No context. Terrible acting. Like wtf?

Why is everyone giving it so much s*** yeah no story line but try looking stuff up just like slender man the rake came from creepy pasta and just like slender man this was a game as well and the next time a monster comes around make sure to stop it and ask for his back story before it kills you sometimes the monster needs no backstory they are just very unlucky to run into something they do not know or would ever believe is real yes be not be the highest budget film but the charm is not knowing which has always been scary for people critics take it to far these days show this to people in the 50s they would be terrified and think it's a great film but honestly it's hard to please anyone these days you need to look further into a movie before drawing a conclusion and most people don't do that most things to consider the angles the art known as cinematography

I enjoyed it. Not Oscar material obviously but from a guys who enjoys B monster/slasher style films I thought this was fun.

The Rake starts off showing shakey writing, but as it develops, it starts to grab your attention. It's predictable and has a head-scratcher of an ending, but it's a harmless venture with some interesting characters and concepts.

Bafd movie no story line no conclusion. If it had even ok actors then i would have gave it a 4 but 3 is just for a couple cool death scenes

This is an interesting folklore monster to base a film, and for that the movie has positive elements. The muddled plot of the script undoes some of this, leaving the eventual outcome somewhat dull given the lack of effective character development allowed by the script. Also, some of the rather flat and cringe inducing characters don't help with connection to the underlying horror of the general film concept. Too bad as there is something here that could have become a better indie horror film.

+1 Star for the Opening Hook. I liked it! No where to go but up, right????

-1 Star for over 2/3 of the way through the movie and still really not much of a clue as to what is going on. This could be because I'm dumb or because the movie is just not very well done. Either way that's minus a star.

-1 Star for The Ending. Really the movie ended and I failed to get an overall point.

But the 'story' or lack thereof held me to the end! Lots of gore and creepy moments made it watchable for me! But nothing to give it more than a subpar rating here.

For what it is, a low budget slasher film based on an internet urban legend, it could've been a lot worse. Honestly, it's good enough that I would watch it again if I was bored and it was all I had. All I can really say is it did better than certain "creepypasta" films. You know you're thinking what I'm thinking.

Quite spooky in parts - give it a go. There are a lot worse films out there !