Dark Memories

After seeing the trailer for this on a DVD, it looked like a pretty promising movie. I was led to believe it was a supernatural thriller, which it was... or at least I think it was.

"Ring Around the Rosie" is about a woman named Karen (played be Gina Phillips from "Jeepers Creepers") who goes to clean out her grandparent's secluded old summerhouse after her grandmother passes away. She spends the weekend there with her boyfriend, and he leaves to go back to work while she spends a few more days there to finish up packing. She has some strange visions and dreams about the house, and some odd occurrences take place. While staying there, she is introduced to the caretaker of the place, Pierce (played by Tom Sizemore), who seems nice enough, if not a little strange. Her sister Wendy shows up to help, and as time progresses, Pierce begins to become violent, threatening the girl's lives.

The main problem with this movie is that it can't decide whether or not it's a supernatural horror film or a dramatic thriller. Or maybe it is one of the two, but I just didn't pick up on it. I thought it was some sort of supernatural story for the first 45 minutes or so, and then it turned into a thriller from there. Then when the dream-like twist ending wrapped things up, it seemed to combine the supernatural and thriller elements together - leaving the viewer very, very confused. On the plus side, the acting was pretty good, and it had some good moments. But it doesn't make up for the tangled, confusing plot.

I still don't exactly know what happened, it makes no sense to me. If you watch this film, you will see how many questions are left unanswered, leaving the viewer with the attitude like "What in the hell was that!?". This movie could have been decent, but as it progressed, things got too confusing and it ruined the movie. Perhaps someone else may understand the plot better than I, but it just didn't work for me. 4/10.

The plot is rather stupid and raw. A few questions arise after watching, and if it had been a good, solid horror film, it would hint, give a clue where to find the answers. But, unfortunately, it is not. I bought this film because of Tom Sizemore in a lead. I really love this guy! He is the most smashing dude I have ever seen, especially when he plays bad guys and freaky military men. But I this flick, hmmm... Tom! Were you really so short of cash to agree to "star" in this sh...! I was really disappointed by this movie! It turned to be worse than "Ticker"! Peope,if you really care for Mr. Sizemore, don't watch this film, he will be grateful!

This has to be the stupidest, incoherent bunch of crap ever to waste 90 minutes of my life! Absolutely worthless! Obviously, Tom Sizemore was hired as a "name", which after his problems with Heidi Fleiss and drugs, he hardly is anymore. But, this drivel needed every chance it could get.

It's like the six, yes that's six, writers really couldn't agree on a plot, so they just kind of threw everything together.

Don't waste your time. Trust me, when it is over, you will be scratching your head saying, "What the f***?" If you want a really scary, atmospheric movie, just rent "The Ring" again! And as someone pointed out in the forums, this movie actually ripped off music from "The Ring" and "The Grudge" - Two completely superior movies.

Boy, I must be unlucky. Two banal and pointless movies in one week (the other being the extremely bland "Shallow Ground", for reference). I don't think I've been this unfortunate in a long time. Anyway, this is the story of a woman, Karen, who moves back into her grandparents' home after her grandmother dies, following her last wish. She's going to clean up the house and then sell it and marry her boyfriend. But what happens when she starts reliving the horrors of her past every single night?

This seemed promising, like some kind of Amityville Horror or The Shining-type of film. It had the lead actress from Jeepers Creepers, which I thought was a good movie overall. So this one was a good pick for me, and I didn't bother reading reviews or anything. But ehh...it's just mediocre at best, if not flat out awful. The acting is...terrible...especially from Gina Phillips, who was nowhere near this horrible back in Jeepers Creepers. Maybe it's the awful script. She screams way too much and they go on for too long. The caretaker is meant to 'become increasingly more violent', but it's actually more like one moment he's nice and kind and the next moment he's a freak. Doesn't make much sense. By the end it's barely even a horror movie. I don't know what to call it, but this was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

I did give it a point or two extra for making me think, because there is a really intriguing idea buried here if you look hard enough. The ending of the movie seemed trite and lame to me, until I thought about it, and realized exactly what the whole thing meant. All the hazy, distorted flashbacks, the missing pages in the kids' book, and Pierce's sexually violent nature...all of it leads up to something that I think I'll let you figure out yourself. This may be a terrible film, but I had to give it a point for making me think and realize the meaning behind some stuff here.

When the grandmother of the publicist Karin (Gina Phillips) dies, she inherits her property in the fields. She travels with her boyfriend Jeff (Randall Batinkoff) for the weekend, but she decides to stay along the week cleaning up the place and packing the stuffs. Karin has horrible nightmares and visions of ghosts of her past, while she stays in the house with the creepy housekeeper Pierce (Tom Sizemore) and her younger sister Wendy (Jenny Mollen).

"Ring Around the Rosie" has a non-sense, absurd, confused and unintelligible screenplay. The motives and actions of Karin, who behaves like a moron in spite of being a successful publicist, are never well explained. It seems that she had a traumatic experience in the house many years ago, and when she returned, she recalled and lived it again, blending nightmares with reality, but the director Rubi Zack was never able to explain the story. It seems also that each one of the four writers wrote one part of the story, but they forgot to interact and put the ideas together. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "O Mistério de Rosie" ("The Mystery of Rosie")