Frayed

I wondered just how much gore and blood this film would contain after I watched the opening where a woman gets beaten in the face with a baseball bat. Over and over and over, the hitting continued past what I would consider dead.

Is this film going to be "over the top"? No problem there. It was more suspense than actual blood and gore. It was a chase to catch an escaped mental patient before he could kill the Sheriff's daughter.

For a low budget film made with inexperienced actors, it was really good. Kept you guessing to the very end, and beyond. What really did happen?

This 2007 horror film, has one of the most amazing and gruesome openings of any movie I've seen for awhile. In camera, a Mother is attacked by a killer with a baseball bat, and in pretty good closeup, her head smashed all to hell, in an extremely gory bloody pulp of a mess. I love movies that get off to such a good start. The suspected killer is her own 5 year old Son that has flipped his lid, and after 13 years is being transferred to a psychiatric hospital, when he escapes. Ah you say, HALLOWEEN.... Not hardly, although some reviews have had trouble trying to review this movie without giving away all the twists and turns right into the end credits. Yes, the now 18 year old crazy did escape, and teenagers are dying, when the movie shows a security guard from the hospital being chased by a crazed killer. Other reviewers have been a little more bold, and said, it's a cross between Halloween and Haute Tension. I tend to agree, that "Frayed" has a lot more in common with "Haute Tension" than just about anything else I can think of, and even that comparison is rather remote. Which brings us to the fact, that the story is pretty original, even though you could say homages are paid slightly. This is a damn good horror film, and you do not know what exactly is going on, until even more reveals are exposed as the end credits start to roll. For gorehounds, even though the most graphic almost sickening scene happens right at the beginning, there is still plenty of good old kills to keep the blood flowing. I give this very very high marks as one of the best horror films in the past few years, and an absolutely superb screenplay. After the movie is over, all I wanted to do was watch it again and listen to the commentary. I ran out of time, but that is on the agenda very soon. Don't miss this one, it deserves every horror fans attention.

I watched the movie over the weekend with a group of my daughters' friends (about a dozen kids all in high school). It was great to watch a horror movie that I enjoyed and they did too.

The film really is a thinking person's horror movie, and I really appreciated the fact that they didn't dumb it down or insult the intelligence of the audience at any point in the film. There are very few movies where I really respect how the filmmakers treat the audience, and this is one of them where I do. Frayed pays homage to some of the earlier slasher movies, but never appears to be copying them. There are some of the standard scary movie ingredients, but the plot goes way beyond what you expect from a horror movie. The filmmakers were able to take a favorite genre of their own, and make something really creative.

The other thing that really impressed me was the production quality of the film especially when considering the budget constraints of making it. In particular, the special effects were amazingly well done. The thing that most impressed me about the digital effects was the fact that I didn't know most of them were digital effects. After the movie I watched the very brief overview of the special effects and was surprised by some of the things that were done on the computer rather than on the set. This was very well done and I believe the special effects guys deserve huge kudos (and an award for one specific scene) for their accomplishment.

The best endorsement I can give the movie is that I want to watch it again. I know I missed clues and I want to see the movie at least one more time to see what I catch that went over my head the first time. In addition, everyone knows how impatient high school aged kids are, and they not only enjoyed watching the movie, but they watched it again that evening because they all really wanted to see it over again that night.

As for the very violent scene that occurs early in the movie, yes it is uncomfortable to watch. I believe the team earned an award for that one, but they probably won't get one since it is in a small independent movie. The scene is very difficult to watch or even think back to, which is why I recommend watching the bonus feature on that section of the movie. Watching the character/victim in the make up for the final stage jokingly saying "I'm ready for my close up" helped ease the discomfort that the filmmakers were trying (successfully) to make everyone feel.

I recommend watching it with a few friends so you can bat around ideas after the movie. That really helps everyone figure out what actually happens. Frayed goes way beyond a standard slasher movie genre with a tight complex plot, great cinematography, good acting, and remarkable visual effects to deliver a great horror movie.

If the same team makes another movie (which I hope they do), I can't wait to see it.

This is the first time that I have seen fit to leave a comment.

I was completely unaware of this movie's existence, and usually I'm pretty good at knowing what is coming out. Out of boredom, I watched it On Demand and was stunned. It's definitely not your average slasher film - instead, it is a psychological thriller that leaves you picking your brain for hours.

I truly recommend this for anyone looking for something raising the slasher-fic bar. I was only looking for the general entertainment and was more than pleasantly surprised.

Please, take my word for it. You'll be intrigued...

I just saw this movie last night and I must say I was highly impressed for a low budget horror film. I agree with the other comments that there is some unnecessary scenes or "fat" that should have been trimmed from this movie. For example some of the scenes involving the teenage characters are not only unnecessary but also involve sub b-level acting which is at times irritating. Other than this movie was kept me on the edge of my seat, but as the summary says it borrows heavily from both halloween and high tension...overall this is a solid film that competes with most of the horror movies Hollywood has to offer and most fans of the genre will be pleasantly surprised.