Dr. Rage

STRAUN HOUSE Starring: Denice Duff, Andrew Divoff, Karen Black and John Kassir. "So, You think you're ANGRY now !,Wait till THE DOCTOR sees YOU !"We wish they had used one of the original titles, Dr. Rage or The Last Patient, The public would have loved this 'Reanimator-esque' Mad Doctor romp. Denice Duff is gorgeous and has some wonderful scenes. Andrew Divoff seems over the top, Until you are privy to whole plot. Karen Black as a lawyer, No really ! John Kassir is a rubber face henchman, Brings new meaning to the word "Lackey". Theasylum has a good scare here and seems to let it breath with gusto. The beginning and the middle set up a fantastic finale with multiple gore effects

I bought the DVD of this simply because of the cover stating the movie was full of gore, sex and was totally gruesome. It is a blatant lie and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

Gore. This is as tame as hell. A little bit of special effects near the end but gory? Not in the least.

Sex. A couple of scenes that aren't sexy at all. The woman is a hottie but everything is covered up here.

Gruesome. Not at all especially if you expect something like 'Hostel.

So basically this movie is built on lies BUT there are some moments to enjoy and I did manage to sit through all of it. I would never watch it again though and have learnt a lesson here. Don't always believe the DVD hype and this is one example where action should be taken under the trade descriptions act.

The Asylum is a movie studio that has a reputation of making cheap B-movies. Sometimes mock-busters (cheap knock-offs of more known movies made for fooling the viewers in seeing their crap-fests) and sometimes really cheap movies. And DR. RAGE is no exception.

The movie is about a doctor that tries to uncover the mysteries behind the Straun Foundation with the help of his female partner. In the meanwhile he also discovers that the foundation's director is plotting against them. But in the meanwhile the viewer is bored by shoddy editing, bad acting performances (including from once respected actress Karen Black in one of her more recent movies to date), some scenes that doesn't make sense (like the scene of the hobo assaulting the lead across the street) and some creepy special effects towards the end.

However this movie is so badly made and dull that even bad movie fans (like myself) would avoid. And I have to confess that the more I watched it the more I wasn't caring about the characters and prone to falling asleep!!

A friend of mine put this on as he had bought it for £1, personally after seeing it the film was not worth it. The acting was poor the story was very formulaic and quite dull and there were no scares. The actress Denice Duff playing Dr Verger was reasonably sexy and there were a couple of reasonably steamy scenes with her in (she looked a little like Carla Gugino who I saw in Nic Cage vehicle "Snake Eyes") The lead actor Stephen Polk reminded me of John Glover most well known as the father of Lex Luthor in Smallville. Andrew Divoff who I have seen in a few low budget flicks was easily the best actor in this as Dr Straun a crippled psycho who likes to watch his patients treatments and reactions on CCTV in a straight Jacket. Even the most devoted horror fans would have little to enjoy here. 1.5/10

The film is being sold in the U.S. as a Haunted House movie, even the menu designs show a house with burning windows and people with straight razors. Well none of that is in this movie! Shot in 2002 finally seeing a video shelf in 2006! Written originally like 20 years before that this is a film that escaped, briefly, not released. Was the only way to sell it to sell it as something it wasn't to this degree!?! Given the "quality" of the film, perhaps would be a cynical answer and the answer the producers must have decided was their only option to get the film off the shelf. But this is really shameful.

The film almost entirely takes place in rather poorly decorated warehouse interiors trying to be some sort of hospital. Lots and lots of talk, the medical machinery when it's shown is very shoddy indeed. Brief nudity sort of in one love scene with Denise Duff should be mentioned as one of the few reasons anyone may not be totally angry to waste time and money watching this. She plays with her glasses a lot, that's as much character development as she explores.

However, there is a mutant sort of two headed retard character/monster that is pretty well done and during the final 5 minutes there is a lively sequence involving him. The rest of the film is a dull cheap waste of time.

Whole thing is shot on HD, and thought it doesn't scream video, it doesn't look especially good either, some of the lighting is really bad but it's in focus, just lacks any style or sense of claustrophobia or building tension. Talk talk talk. Cheap, cheap, cheap. A long wait for very very little result I'd think for all involved and for all those who have to watch it.