Crazy Eights

Between 1954 and 1976, a large number of children were submitted to behavior studies in the South of the USA. When Brax Young dies, his childhood friends Jennifer Jones (Dina Meyer), Gina Conte (Traci Lords), Father Lyle Dey (George Newbern), Wayne Morrison (Dan DeLuca), Brent Sykes (Frank Whaley) and Beth Patterson (Gabrielle Anwar) reunite after twenty years. While in Brax's house, they discover a letter asking them to search a time capsule from their childhood and map indicating its location. They travel to Entonsburg and find a trunk with some objects and a skeleton hidden inside. Their discovery triggers traumatic recollections from their childhood with tragic consequences.

"Crazy Eights" is a messy collection of clichés, with a confused story about a government study that affects the subjects, proving that it was no harmless as promised to the families. The characters and situations are awfully developed, and the circumstances why the group becomes trapped in the abandoned house are ridiculous. Why should six people in a truck stop the car during the daylight to break in an abandoned house to seek directions? Further, the soundtrack is annoying. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Lembranças Macabras" ("Macabre Recollections")

Six people come together after the death of a childhood friend and begin to unravel the secret behind a past they can't remember while trapped in some abandoned hospital kind of place, and thus begins the very many problems with Crazy Eights.

The film is basically one very big collection of plot holes, beyond what I tried to sum up never really made sense, because for someone like me who has a long attention span, I can clearly say that barely anything is explained, for example, what was the purpose of the experiments? why was the dead girl so vengeful if she died accidentally? And how can a group childhood friends remember each other but they don't remember a thing about their childhood? I don't know if the director tried to make one of those films that's suppose to stay with you for a long time after you've watched it, wondering about the same things I just pointed out, well he did, only after I watched it, I didn't really like it.

Another problem is the score, while watching the film I noticed that the score practically played throughout the film, I can probably account for less than three seconds for when I didn't hear it, and it was more annoying than anything else, for the majority of the film it just played, it didn't help set the tone or create a certain mood or help the film build any kind tension, it just played and muffled a lot of the dialog.

The acting was so so, but whatever kind of film the filmmakers tried to make obviously doesn't work, want my advice? Broaden out the storyline leaving fewer plot holes and make less use of the score and more use of sound and lighting effects to create a lot of atmosphere, I am sure it'll work better.

I got sucked into this by people who said it was scary and a good psychological thriller.

I must have missed the scary parts because it just didn't have any. I heard screaming, but there wasn't anything there.

The background music was very good and helped to set the tone, but nothing else delivered on that setting.

None of the actors did any work to impress me. It seems as if they were just collecting a check for a weekend of work.

I love the After dark films, but this is probably the worst one I have seen.

Think session 9 meets the big chill but not as good as either. The film is pretty good however a little slow in bits but rather creepy and involving. Lords and Meyers give two great performances and the film making is original if not terribly creative. It centers on a group of friends who discover a secret when one of them passes. Haunted by ghostly visions they decide to confront it at the place where it all started. It has some nice jump out scares but ewarns it's spooky mood modeslty. A decent film and definitely worth a look. A nice additon to horrorfest library. My one big problem with this film is the questionable villain and unpolished look the film carries besides that it's pretty good.

A cast made up of some fairly well known stars embarrass themselves with this highly disjointed ghost story. After 20 years, six childhood friends gather together for the funeral of a seventh. This in turn leads them on a path of remembrance and revelations. The movie did have promise, I will say that. Good locations and a good story or both sadly derail by bad editing, mediocre acting (if this were a cast of newish actors I'd be apt to overlook that, but most of them are seasoned pros so I can't), and the film just raises more questions than it answers. Sorry, but another miss for After Dark Horrorfest. It's down there with "Deaths of Ian Stone"

My Grade: D