Penny Dreadful

Quite a large number of people recommended "Penny Dreadful" to me recently, and even though it's definitely not a terrible little film, I sure wished the descriptions of the story would have been a bit more accurate and the film itself would have been a tiny bit better. It's really not a horrific thriller in the tradition of "The Hitcher" simply because it features a maniacal hitch-hiker and it's definitely not reminiscent of "Wrong Turn" because it is set in the woods. "Penny Dreadful" is not much more than a simplistic backwoods slasher with a couple of ambitious themes (like the childhood traumas & phobias) and a couple clever and effective low-budget cinema tricks, like a minimum of filming locations. Adorable young Penny witnessed her parents dying in a car crash at young age. Ever since that day she's petrified of cars and that phobia prevents her from building up a normal life, for example dating the hunk in her apartment block. When the movie starts, she and her psychiatrist (Mimi Rogers) are driving towards the place where the accident happened, to get therapeutic closure once and for all. But Penny's fear for cars will get a lot worse before it gets better, because the two women pick up a sinister and uncanny hitch-hiker. The individual behaves odd but harmless at first, even offering the ladies a tasty-looking kebab, but pretty soon Penny is locked inside the car and trapped between two trees, and with her phobia of cars that is really not a nice place to hang out. "Penny Dreadful" benefices from an overall unsettling atmosphere and a couple of nail-biting suspense sequences, but the film is too long and it's impossible for director Richard Brandes to hold the viewer's attention throughout the entire playtime. Perhaps the film, and particularly the scares, would have worked better in a short format, like an episode of "Masters of Horror" or something. Now several scenes feel dragged and tedious. The denouement is rather stupid and only confirms that "Penny Dreadful" is just an average by-the-numbers slasher, because all the mystery surrounding the murderous hitcher has suddenly vanished. It's not a very gory movie, but the few make-up effects are competently achieved and quite freaky. The cinematography is probably the best aspect of the entire movie, as Joplin Wu's camera makes the ominous woods at night look even more menacing and inescapable than they already are.

Penny Dreadful is an interesting film. It's simplistic and executed for most of it's 98 minute running time intensely. But it drops the ball so drastically in it last quarter that the film almost falters completely. No doubt the most entertaining of the three it tells the story of a young girl named Penny whom witnessed her parents dying in a car accident. Growing up some years later she has a fear of cars and is taken by her psychiatrist up to the mountains to confront this fear head on at the place it happened. However upon reaching their destination they accidentally hit a grotesque hitchhiker and upon dropping him off are left stranded in the middle of nowhere after he attacks the car. With a blown off tire, no cell phone reception and a busted ankle Penny is left to fend for herself against the homicidal maniac. The concept is simple and scary imagined being entrapped in such a small space and terrorized. People of course come to help and are brutally slain. Some of the suspense sequences work wonderfully well from the camouflaging of the killer, to noises and sounds in the night. Rachael Miner's performance as Penny is multi layered and award worthy. The film has some nice supporting nods to from Mimi Rogers and others. The Direction is decent and promising while the score and cinematography are top notch and quite impressive. The films problems are simple pacing, it gets a little long in places, the killer he should never be aloud to speak and the final act. What seems to be racing towards a crazy finale ends up reaching it boiling point early and never erupts. The finale is weak and predictable and because this is such a simplistic movie it's hard to understand why they couldn't have executed a standard finale with the same intense gusto they had been demonstrating throughout. In the end Penny Dreadful is engaging, entertaining and delightfully creepy but with further tweaking we could've had a horror classic on our hands.

Penny Dreadful is not a great horror film, I've seen better. But what it is is an amazingly brilliant psychological thriller , Penny dreadful is a well made and well acted horror film that will satisfy any horror lovers urge for a good time. After surviving a horrible automobile accident that killed both her parents Penny Dearborn has an unstable and perpetual fear of cars, her therapists suggest that they confront her fear head on. So they take a road trip to cure Penny's fear, but it has dangerous and disastrous results when they pick up a psychotic hitchhiker. Penny Dreadful is a dark and gritty psychological thriller that takes you into the mind and soul of a frightened and traumatized young girl and her fight to say alive. This film explore three main themes, 1. terror and what it can do to you if you let it control you. 2: What certain events in your life can do to change who you are and what you are. 3: What the darkness of a quiet woods can do to turn your worst fears into a reality. Penny Dreadful is a psychological thriller that is right up there with the best and will continue to shock and scare you for a long time to come.

Horror happens always at night, in abandoned places, when no one is around to help, to see, to witness. Horror happens to only a few of us, the ones who are innocent already, the ones who are weak, the ones who are helpless. It seems that evil is a coward-entity, chickens out on places with many people and strong people and real adversaries. Evil is simply afraid, mushy, and has no integrity whatsoever. May that be how it is, Penny Dreadful is a film where this happens exactly by the book. By this I don't mean to put the film down. In the contrary. PD is an awesome story about to helpless women caught in the darkness, alone, and exposed to evil, or en evil entity. I had a great time watching this film and it scared the crap out of me. I love Mimi Rogers and felt the whole cast was doing a great job. I recommend this film to anyone and hopefully it will come out on DVD and I'll get me a copy of it. Go see it, it is scary!

Now, this had all the elements of good horror - suspense, screams, breasts, and slashing. Not too bad for a film that takes place in the woods at night.

Penny (Rachel Miner) is traveling with her therapist (Mimi Rogers) to overcome her fear of cars after an auto accident as a child. Now, everyone knows not to pick up hitchhikers, and you should especially know not to take them into the woods, but hey, there wouldn't be a movie if they did the smart thing.

She, with a fear of cars, ends up stuck in a car with her dead therapist, and thus begins a night of horror. Dead bodies are piling up all over as she screams to get out.

I won't spoil it except to say that I really liked the ending.

And, I sure want to see some more of Tammy Filor.