Xangadix

As a huge fan of b-movies, horror and especially non-Hollywood horror, this movie shocked with just how badly a movie can be acted. I feel confident that the people who did the english dub had never actually witnessed human beings speaking to each other. This is the way space aliens might imagine dialog if they found a script. Seriously, compared to this your sister's second-grade Xmas play was Oscar-worthy.

Also several really stupid plot techniques were used. The main characters father would be the stupidest of all, with a performance that has to be seen to be disbelieved. I spent the better part of the movie hoping his son would bash him on the noggin with something evil.

Again, I have serious suspicions that this movie isn't really Dutch, but from another planet. The sad thing is it really quite an original storyline and could have been a great flick. There were several sequences that were downright chilling, but not enough to make up for the chicken suit.

I have watched a lot of movies in my time, but this, by far, is the single most HORRIBLE movie I have EVER watched. The Audio is not in synch with the lip movements in the LEAST. It's like a bad Godzilla movie! Not to mention the fact that the "gore" is not realistic, and the main villains whole course of action is to dress as potatoes. I watched this with a group of friends at a party and we, as a group, made so much fun of this movie it seemed to be an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000! Without "spoiling" the movie for anyone reading this--and if you consider seeing it, do yourself a favor and watch it in a group so you can laugh together--the entire movie centers around men dressed as potatoes. Save yourself the two hours and stay FAR, FAR away from this movie!!!!

This Dutch variation on the Native American legend also used in the William Girdler film, 'The Manitou', is very often better, and in a few spots worse. Never marketed as in any way related to or inspired by Manitou, nonetheless several involved in the film have stated that the Girdler film was partly inspirational for 'The Johnsons', yet the films are different enough to maintain a distance.

If you see both, you will see the similarities easily enough, such as the names Manitou vs Manixou, and the whole Native American legend of the demonic god who initially appears as a fetus.

This variation is extremely promising most of the way through the film. There's a very nicely developed plot line with a mystery involving 7 brothers who are mute psychopathic murderers. They are under some sort of spell to search for a sister with the end result being the birth of the demonic god. I won't give away more to the story, except to say it is a well-done sequence of suspenseful events.

Up to the ending, this variation is better than Girdler's Manitou, yet the ending here deflates all of the great buildup. It's the weakest moment in the whole film, and ends in a abrupt and rather silly manner. It's too bad, for everything up to this point is fine. In this respect, the ending to Girdler's Manitou is much better and if I had to choose between the two, the nod goes to Girdler by a very small margin.

The first half of this Dutch horror movie is great. A 14-year old girl begins having horrific dreams about a group of strange children in a deserted building smearing blood on the walls. Meanwhile, a professor of anthropology is consulted by an FBI-type police organization about seven maniacs who, when they were children, slaughtered their schoolmates. The government doesn't know what to do with them & wants to know why they went crazy.

This first half of the film is great. The dream sequences are creepy & frightening & you are led to wonder what is the connection between the girl & her dreams & the maniacs in the prison. The fact that the film was made in Holland adds to the eeriness since everything is just a little bit "off"--it's not a standard formula Hollywood scare film & anything is likely to happen. Watching this part of the film at night, alone in the dark is guaranteed to terrify anyone.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film isn't nearly as good. As the secrets are revealed, they turn out to be fairly pedestrian & even silly. The addition of some foolish comic relief (in the form of the anthropologist's father, a voodoo priest) and some unlikely coincidences lead the film astray & throw away all of the spookiness that the early part of the film had created. The maniacs, so frightening and intimidating in the beginning, become laughably easy to kill as the film becomes just another cheap-o "slasher" film.

The film is a little different in that the leads are two women (the girl and her mother) and a black anthropologist. The guy playing the professor is good, the young woman is also good but her mother is kind of annoying.

This film is worth a try, but expect to be disappointed.

Probably the first dutch horror movie I've ever seen, and I didn't even feel cheated or annoyed. The title revers to the 7 unknown brothers Emalee Lucas has. These brothers are being kept in a mental institution after having killed several other kids when they were 7 years old. One day they escape (probably the most stupid part of the movie) as they have to impregnate their sister according to some old myth...

Pretty cheap as you would expect, but not as bad as it sounds. A gutsy attempt by the director of Evenings to make it work and decent acting by Herdigein, Van de Ven and in particular by the young De la Bretoniere, who hasn't really been showing up the last couple of years.

6/10.