Pariah

People talk about pariah as it is the worst film ever. But in reality it is a hard hitting movie. The cast and Crew are not exactly famous as of yet but still they put together a good performance. Many people say this film is cheaply made, Which it is, But if you think that check out Surf Nazis must Die. When i first Saw Pariah, I thought it was good, the second time brilliant and the third time it became my fave film. If you like this type of film i totally reccomend it!

This movie has to be the worst film ever seen by mankind! I looked up the people that quote on the box and they don't seem to exist (I was already wondering what idiot said "A Clockwork Orange for the Nineties") The Story is simply not there; there is absolutely ZERO storyline and the acting is incredibly bad, amazingly bad, so baadd. Next to that, it doesn't make sense!

All in all, go see it and redefine "bad movie" for yourself.

While Pariah is indeed a great film, I have to say that it is also simply one more in a line of films which choose to depict neo nazi skinheads as being aggressive and violent. While I'm not insinuating that they're not, these films don't seem to ever delve into their actual belief system and thus we as the audience are made to feel threatened by the characters. Sure, this may be an effective way to catch an audiences attention, but it further segregates the skin heads and leads to a more wide spread misinterpretation of them. I don't support Nazism, however I would like to see a film that explores the fact that neo nazis have lost their freedom of speech, rather than one that tells me everything I already know about the worst kind of skin heads around. There are various kinds of skins - some of whom don't believe in drunkeness which is often a key element to their behaviour in these films. That said, Pariah is a very powerful film, following along much the same path as Romper Stomper started out on without delving into a silly love triangle conclusion as the latter film did. Very down to earth performances from a relatively unknown cast.

I saw Pariah on television and I thought it was a TV-movie made in the early 90s. I was quite shocked to then discover that it had been made a recently as 1998, after both American History X (AHX) and Romper Stomper. Had it have been made earlier I would have forgiven its amateurish feel and, to be frank, embarrassing handling of the plot and story line.

A good way of seeing how ineffective this movie is, is to compare it with the things it is trying to emulate. The story itself (for those unaware) is lifted directly from The Crow by J O'Barr. If you want to see the same plot idea handled in an incredibly powerful, subtle and truly masterful way then read the comic (not the film). I'd class Pariah's handling of the neo-Nazi aspect as being more like Romper Stomper in the way it superficially deals with the matter. However Romper Stomper does it so much better.

To focus on the movie itself, it's all very poor. The acting is poor, the scripts are poor, the directing poor....the whole thing is just poor. Some scenes had me flinching with embarrassment they were so bad. Despite the fact that I'm slating it, I still gave it 4/10. If it's on television and you have nothing better to do then watch it, it'll pass the time, it's not *that* bad. But if you enjoy the violent neo-Nazi romanticising movie then watch Romper Stomper as it's better. If you enjoy the revenge theme then read (or, to a lesser extent, watch) The Crow. I don't really want to draw any comparisons with AHX as that movie is in a different league and is one of my all-time favourite movies. AHX is the thinking man's Romper Stomper....I wouldn't even want to say what AHX is in relation to Pariah.

Pariah is not a bad film. It has as its main good points a nice set of strong performances and an interesting plot. On the other hand, it is a very low budget, bad directed film with a very cheapish look and fell. Watch it at your own risk.