Phantom Brother

Arriving at an isolated cabin, a group of friends runs afoul of a demented family of psychos living in the house as well as the only sane member of the group living with another family wanting an inheritance of his and must try to keep everything in order to keep the different sides peaceful.

Although it has major flaws, this ended up being quite a decent enough slasher. One of the few fine parts of this one is the absolutely insane amount of cheesy antics on display throughout this one. The low- budget nature here gives this one a goofy start with the group playing around inside the house only to find the deranged group of psychopaths living inside which causes this one to launch into some rather fine low- budget material during the attack. Detailing the clean-up that takes place at the house afterward and their special relationship inside makes for some more goofy fun to occur here as the scenes of the group torturing their captive manage to provide some decent scenes. There's also some fun to be had with the family of psychos stalking those that come into the house, from the loner who breaks into the house to the assault on the film-crew that comes out of nowhere that adds to the cheesy overall charm on display. The finale is the big rush of action that manages to work in some decent attacks here, and based on the silly conclusion fits in with the rest of the film rather nicely as well as providing this with some nice purposeful laughs. While these manage to make the film enjoyable, there's still quite a lot of flaws on display. The main issue here which really hampers this one is the utterly incoherent and nonsensical storyline. This one manages to cram in way too many elements than what should be necessary, from the family of psychos still living in the house to the survivor living with the deceased father's best friend and his family to the film-shoot that shows up out of nowhere and the doctors arriving to reevaluate the released psychopath on the loose, among others also featured. Containing one or two of these story lines here would've made this one miles better with the streamlined focus here eliminating plenty of useless scenes that don't go anywhere. As well, that would've allowed time for the film to discuss some of the missing links in the story, as for how he managed to survive the actual incident to why she was there at the time and what the ghouls actually are based on the concept of the final twist that turns it all around. The most overwhelming flaw, though, is the utterly apparent low-budget look and quality to this one, from the location work to the costumes and just about everything here that makes this look so amateurish that very little can be done to overcome it. These hold it back so much.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and a sex scene.

There are so many things wrong with this movie that it's hard to know where to start. Here are the basics: it looks terrible, like it's filmed on a home camera, and it's not "The Blair Witch Project", the plot is stupid, the lead is ugly, it doesn't make any sense, and, worst of all, I spent two dollars on it. That is so not cool. Also, it's not funny and I could have been doing something constructive with my time, like diddling on the computer. Oh Father Time, will you ever forgive me for my indiscretion? Movies like this make for bad karma. Very bad karma.

This one has it all. Not really, but who's to say wherein true art lies? Not here. I mean, this is 'Phantom Brother' we are talking about. The veritable 'Citizen Kane' of the worst and most horribly gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, revolting pieces of irredeemable garbage ever made, but hey, who's counting? Other than that, it's a laugh a minute, or at least every fifteen? My recent comments for this little gem were apparently neglected, so I am re-submitting in the hopes that the 'Phantom Brother' will get its fair share of user comment by-lines. I mean, c'mon, last time I checked, 'Blood-Sucking Freaks' had fifty-two! If you are the kind of weirdo that would enjoy such a treat as this 'film,' and I mean that in the best possible way, then this is the one for you. It's so low-budget and mindlessly numbing to the higher orders of brain functioning, that I find it to be a combination of watching Grandpa Ralph's shaky home movies of drunk old people and accidentally getting your head stuck in the portable meat smoker. I liked it so much I went out and bought it and now I watch it every day. Not really, but just imagine it? I went to the best schools of higher education to write comments about 'Phantom Brother' at midnight. Just imagine that? The most touching scene in the film takes place when the split-personality plagued main character (for the life of me I can't think of his name at the moment) shares a meal with his 'Deliverance' foster family in their trailer that could either be a chicken coop or a bomb shelter. It will bring tears to your eyes. Rarely has cinema been so powerful. The acting and dialogue are so good that you can't understand a word the hillbilly family is saying. You just don't see quality or realism like that these days.

Two annoying long-haired teens who look like they belong on-stage with Warrant, and their two girlfriends (in stone washed jeans) are attacked when they travel to a "secluded" house out in the sticks. The place is home to a deranged, ghostly family (masked brother, giggling pale-faced Girl Scout sister and fat, twitching mother) that were killed in a car crash. A surviving human brother tends to the house, cleans up the bodies and blood and has an overacting, beer-guzzling, white trash adoptive family that want his inheritance to contend with. A movie crew shooting "Vampires on Valium on Valentine's Day" also become victims.

There's some gore (electric saw, butcher knife...), a topless scene, lots of juvenile humor and voice-over narration in this silly, very dumb shot-on-video effort with better lighting, music and sound than most similar effort. It's a very rare tape and only worth searching for if you're an 80s horror completist.

People who eat gourmet all their lives would mostly likely be put off by junk food, just as people who watch nothing but Bruckheimer films will be unsure of what to make of this (because they're stupid). Yes, this is shot on video. My God, no. How dare people make a movie within their means. Blasphemy. This is all very shocking stuff to the A-movie layman, I'll bet, but as someone who has seen a lot of super low-budget features, I liked it a lot. Most won't appreciate it, but the cinematography is above-par, in comparison to a lot of the pieces of crap out there. The acting is good by any standards. And the plot is funny, clever, and compelling. No, it doesn't look like Scream 7, but as far as slasher parodies go, you could do much worse. If you actually happen upon this somewhere, please rent it/buy it/take it out of the free bin. It's worth the time.