A Brush with Death

Not the worst movie I've ever seen, but pretty bad, even for an indie. The plot seems like it was written as part of a class exercise where each class member gets to write one page of a script. There are flashbacks, flash-forwards, and all sorts of discontinuities. Characters are introduced only to be dropped completely, while new and important characters are introduced at the very end of the movie.

A couple of the scenes make you wonder what the movie would have been like if it had been consistent, but these moments are fleeting.

The movie is also not helped by the poor audio. There are times when you think that one of the characters must be deaf because the POV shots show someone talking but you can't hear any dialogue.

Finally, I would have liked to have been there for the casting, as the producer apparently posted a call for interchangeable cheerleader-type girls 19 to 22 years of age, no nudity or acting ability required. Five of them are bad enough, but I'm sure there was a whole line of them at the casting office. That would have made a horror story on its own.

THe box says 5 girls go out to a rural farm house to get away and then learn a terrible secret about a house next door. Well, after learning the secret they of course decide to go stay in it. Which never unfolds really. You got 5 hot girls that end up swimming half the film and just talking about nothing really. Im not convinced that they even died in the movie at the end. There is no nudity, I don't know why it is R rated, a couple bad words I think. The blood is only thrown against a wall and implying that something bad happens.

The worst part is, in the beginning there is some crazy gas station dude that has during one of the MANY flashback scenes that just have no bearing on the movie, anyway, this old guy kills a dude and them starts taking photos of the girl with a stuttering young man who is the only cool character in the film. They take photos of her, with the guy kissing her and sorta leading to a perversion that would be cool in itself if the real story didn't have to happen.

Over all, the writers need to go to school and learn how to write something entertaining because nothing ever happens in this film. Absolutely boring. The only bright spot is the stuttering guy who actually did a pretty good job. This film makes ED WOOD films look like masterpieces. Horrendous.

The girlfriends Amber (Seanna McDonald), Megan (Missy Sturges), Samantha (Lily Vu), Candice (Ali Thurlow) and Hillary (Nikki Cordell) drive their Jeep to spend a couple of days in a mansion that belong to the uncle of one of the girls in San Joaquin Valley, ninety kilometers north of Los Angeles. They run out gas on the road and the pervert mechanic Walter (Ted Esquivel) and his stutter assistant Caleb (Max Taylor) give the necessary fuel to the girls. While parting in the swimming pool of the house, they meet their neighbor Ranken (Nicholls Melancon) and decide to hold a party in the night in the Rue Family Farmhouse, an abandoned place considered haunted where a couple of people had been murdered many years ago. Later the girls find the truth about the place and the locals.

"A Brush With Death" has a bad screenplay that misleads the viewer, introduces a totally new important character near the end and the cheerleaders have the behavior of sluts, but this B-movie indeed is not so bad as indicated in IMDb rating. Actually it is an average slasher low-budget movie, having a reasonable unknown cast with beautiful actresses and a flawed and silly story with a good conclusion. I bought this DVD without any previous reference and when I saw the IMDb rating, I watched this film with a very low expectation, but in the end, I did not totally dislike this movie. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Obsessão Sanguinária" ("Bloody Obsession")

I actually like low budget, usually low rated movies. There is something about them.... sometimes its a mess and laughable. BUT I don't feel like I completely wasted my time viewing this movie. Maybe I would feel different if I paid to see in a movie theater where I was a captive audience. I multi-tasked while viewing. Nothing too important that can be "missed". Not too bad a movie. Now they expect reviews to be ten lines, and although I summed up my feelings about this movie in less, I will take the time to try and balance out the negative reviews just a tad. So I will again say the movie was not to bad in hopes of making enough lines to meet the criteria for a review.

There is nothing bad about a movie with five highly attractive young women that are scantily clad for most of the film. Yes, that added a few stars to my rating. The story is not terrible either and the characters are fun. Worth a watch.