Trespassing

The graduation student Mark (Daniel Gillies) is developing a monograph work about contemporary myths, and he interviews the psychiatrist Dr. Theodore Rosen (Kurtwood Smith), who was treating Carl Bryce (Jeff Galpin), a deranged teenager that killed his parents twenty years ago. The body of Carl has never been found and there is an urban legend that the spot is a cursed place since slavery times, causing madness and death to those that trespass the area. Mark invites his friends Eric (Jeff Davis), Tyler (Clayne Crawford), Kristy Goodman (Estella Warren) and Sharon (Ashley Scott) to help him in his research in the old real estate. Once there, a mysterious killer starts to execute and chase the group, with the survivors trying to escape alive.

"Trespassing" is a predictable and forgettable low-budget movie, with a promising beginning and a deceptive ambiguous conclusion. The story is another rip-off of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but with an awful handy cam that shacks and trembles the images, most of them too close and without permitting to see the surroundings. Ashley Scott performs the annoying and totally incoherent character Sharon, taking the worst possible attitudes under stress. The conclusion is ridiculous, probably with the intention of a sequel. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Invasão Mortal" ("Mortal Invasion")

A group of friends investigate an allegedly cursed plantation that was the scene of a horrific murder twenty years prior. Of course, as soon as they arrive they split up.

Strange things start happening.

EVIL REMAINS uses paranoia, claustrophobia, and the unknown to keep the atmosphere thick with dread. There's a growing sense of disorienting insanity as the trespassers find themselves in a trap that gets tighter and stickier.

Not a bad movie, though it's more unsettling than terrifying. It's best watched in total darkness as most scenes are... well, dark...

Indie teen slasher actually entertains but lets itself down with a frankly criminal ending.

It is pretty much staple horror fare throughout, but it does succeed in doing what any half decent film should do, and that is to entertain the viewer.

The story here is a curse apparently engulfs an area of land where a boy allegedly slaughtered his parents. A bunch of students decide to go in and investigate the house of the atrocities and sure enough, 'crazy kids in the dark mansion' ensues and a fight for survival begins.

The characters are pretty mediocre, and fairly unconvincing, but they serve the purposes of the film acceptably. The best character is the killer, as for once he does not lumber slowly, rather, running at pace and looking capable of actually catching victims.

The direction is stable for the course, and hardly inspiring nor dull. It does its job without being anything especially flashy bar a couple of fairly interesting moments.

The plot, if you can call it that, is pure killer chase and cat and mouse. There's nothing original or exciting there.

The movie's strength is its atmosphere. It really does do a reasonable job of making the environment chilling. Sure, it's no Ring or Blair Witch et al, but there are far worse in this field than Trespassing.

Indeed, all the above would surely qualify it as a decent enough way to fill in an evening, if maybe a bit forgettable. Unfortunately, it is not forgettable thanks to an ending on a par with My Little Eye's for sheer lousiness.

Yes indeed, the conclusion of this movie is up there as one of the worst I've ever suffered. There *is* no real conclusion, and as a result you end up totally unsatisfied and replaying the last minute to see if you missed anything.

You didn't.

The ending is rushed, weak, answers nothing, and simply whimpers out, rather than giving us some kind of closure.

I feel quite cheated out of 2 hours because of that finish, I really do. A pathetic and unconsidered way to cop out of giving the audience what they actually deserve.

Thanks to it, this movie was a complete waste of time.

Rating: *** out of ****

I'll admit it, the deciding factor that made me seek out this film was Estella Warren. Sure, she displayed little acting talent and almost no screen presence in any of her prior roles, but there's no questioning she's a total hottie and seeing her in the role of a scream queen was a dream come true. To my utmost surprise, both she and the movie are pretty damn good, making this movie one of the more pleasant surprises of the past few months.

Evil Remains is about a small group of graduate students (five in all) who head to a long-abandoned plantation estate to help one of the guys do his thesis on myths. The plantation itself is the site of a popular myth, that the land is cursed and whoever trespasses will find themselves with an uncontrollable urge to act on their rage. Upon their arrival, the guys set up the equipment in the house while the two girls (Estella Warren and Ashley Scott), who also happen to be lesbians, go for a short walk in the woods, not knowing their return to the house will be a particularly bloody and messy one.

Right from the beginning, Evil Remains is immediately distinguished by the effective direction of James Merendino, who has a knack for developing creepy atmosphere, building suspense, and even delivering a few genuine scares. Despite the fact that natural lighting typically annoys me (and it does make it a bit difficult to tell apart the male characters for a while), it's used to good effect, giving the movie a stark look that works especially well during the nighttime scenes.

Merendino handles the stalk-and-slash sequences superbly; the second half of the film is essentially a series of bloody slasher action and exciting chase scenes that utilize both the claustrophobic and wide-spaced settings fairly well. The house itself is only explored to a mildly satisfying effect, but it's an effectively constricted location that immeasurably aids in tightening the suspense, especially in one scene where the survivors find themselves anxiously awaiting the killer on the other side of the door.

Taking everything into consideration, I was most surprised by the performances, which are all quite good. The gorgeously hot Estella Warren is especially excellent as the smart, likable heroine who actually thinks the situation through before acting. As a matter of fact, I was quite amazed by Warren's work here, since she showed no discernible acting talent in any other film I've seen her in. The only one in the cast that doesn't quite hold up is Ashley Scott, who's not bad, but the role requires her to do little more than whine.

The movie is still obviously not without its flaws. Despite the solid acting, the movie does little to establish its characters, in particular the two brothers with a troubled past that's brought up but dropped just as quickly in favor of some bloody slasher action. The decision to make the lead a lesbian is interesting (the only other slasher I've seen that made its heroine a lesbian was Deep in the Woods, but it only seemed like an excuse for nudity in that flick), but it ultimately makes little difference, as Warren and Ashley Scott could merely have played best friends and no one would be the wiser, but at least it prevents Warren from having a forced romance with one of the male characters.

A few of the characters could also show a little more common sense; one guy sees a freaky-looking image on a photo he just took, but neglects to show it to anyone else as incentive to leave. Another guy leaps off the roof of the house to escape but actually ends up backing himself towards the front door! And there's one lengthy scene that'll have you shouting "close the damn door!" Most disappointing is a potentially exciting chase scene through the woods that makes an abrupt segue that temporarily kills the momentum.

The plot's also a little hazy, there's no sense of clarity regarding exactly what it is the curse does and how a masked killer would specifically factor into it. Still, the film works for what it is, a fast-paced slasher with a number of bloody kills, exciting chases, and a terrifically secluded setting. Definitely recommended to genre fans.

Estella Warren put on the best performance in the movie, period. There was not much more going on than a lot of idle blather. I really tried my darnedest to listen intently and learn about the five main characters as they interacted with one another, but my attention span kept flipping over to what may be in my fridge because there was absolutely nothing of interest in Evil Remains.

The opening scene allowed the movie to clearly prove it was a horror film but it also set up the tempo for the movie with that long drawn out eerie music and then the anti climax when a friend or family member jumps out rather than the serial killer.

Oh, the serial killer? Well he happens to be an abused son who retaliates by first murdering his abusive father and then his dear mom at home. The movie then flips forward several years and a student decides to do his thesis on whether the house is still haunted and whether or not the son is still alive and living on the property so many years later. The psychiatrist who assisted the disturbed killer (before he was a killer) tells the student that rumors abound of the killer living on the property and running around with a dogs head covering his face. I believe the intent of covering the killers face with a dogs head is for the audience to still have some questions in their mind as to who the killer is. Is he the abused son all grown up? Or is he actually one of the five (5) students who are out to investigate if the killer still lives. Actually four of the five students just ran their mouths so much that I didn't care whether they lived or died.

The ending was predictable and the movie continued to deteriorate from the opening scene. Estella Warren seemed to actually be fighting for her life, too bad she didn't stay away from making this movie, as it will be a blemish on her career.