Perkins' 14

Of all the '8 Films to Die For' that I've seen (which is most of them), this one is undoubtedly the best (though that isn't saying much). It's not what I'd call brilliant horror, and certainly could have been a lot better, but there are some really good ideas here and they're well carried off by the director and his cast. The film could be called a zombie film - although I think that isn't really an accurate description. The film does take some influence from said genre, but the monsters in the film aren't zombies - instead, they're teenagers high on PCP. The plot focuses on a small town cop, who is devastated by the loss of his young son some years earlier. He's called into work after one of the other cops took the night off sick, and is intrigued by one of the prisoners in his cells. He notices the guy is missing a finger, and jumps to the conclusion that he's holding the man who kidnapped his son. After sending another officer to the prisoners' house, all hell breaks loose when the fourteen maniacs being held in his basement are let loose!

The whole film takes place at night, and director Craig Singer (who previously made the half-decent 'Dark Ride') makes best use of this as it gives the film a tremendous dark atmosphere that serves the central plot line well. It's basically a film of two halves; the first half focuses on the interaction between the two central characters - the cop and the prisoner. The best thing about the first half is the suspense and intrigue drummed up as we wonder exactly what is in the guy's basement - the sequence that reveals it is really well done. The second half is much more action packed and sees the maniacs let loose on the streets, and then we watch as the cop desperately tries to keep his family safe. The film is rather savage in the gore department - though to the director's credit, he's restrained with the gore and uses it only when needed - which ensures the biggest impact. The fact that the special effects are well done is also to the film's credit. The plot line flowing throughout the film regarding the officer's son is interesting; but soon gets silly. It also has to be said that many of the character decisions throughout the film are questionable. Still, this is an interesting effort and I would say if you only see one 'film to die for', make sure it's this one.

On the tenth anniversary of his son's abduction, Deputy Dwayne Hopper (Patrick O'Kane) thinks he might have the kidnapper in one of his holding cells. Ronald Perkins (Richard Brake) was picked up and all of the info he has been giving up isn't matching up. Sending an off duty buddy to Perkins' house, Hopper soon finds out that Perkins is indeed the Stone Cove Kidnapper and a man with a sinister plan. Part of After Dark Horrorfest III, this little film started off so good. It has a great premise and set up, but the major plot action ends at 40 minutes in, leaving me wondering what in the world they were going to fill the remaining 50 minutes with. The rest falls into standard "people being stalked" territory. O'Kane and Brake are interesting leads, both men having unique looks that set them apart from the usual shiny teen lead casts we see nowadays. Director Craig Singer (DARK RIDE) does an excellent job of disguising Romania for Maine and the film is incredibly well shot. Too bad he kinda blew it with the handling of the plot. Look for former Misfits replacement singer Michale Graves in a supporting role.

What starts as a very interesting premise, dealing with a pharmacist and the kids he's brainwashed into mindless killing machines, is hamstrung by terrible execution and shoddy acting. At the beginning I was intrigued but as the movie wore on I found my Interests waning exponentially, hoping that the film would just end already. When the end finally came it didn't even cause me a sigh of relief that the whole awful movie was over, but rather more mad that I ever watched it in the first place. The ending, be that as it may, was simply atrocious. Yeah who would've thought there would be an awful '8 films to die for' movie? (that's sarcasm by the way )

Or maybe breaking bars? Who really knows, when something like that plays mostly in a prison/police station? The viewer should actually know or be able to make up his own mind of course, that's why I'm leaving that up to you. Richard Brake is a delight, though I would have liked it even more if he'd been the main police character, but hey we'll take what we get.

Very paranormal, very intriguing and very violent. Things that you should embrace and not be fearful of. Having said that, I hope you don't mind the many flaws. I almost deducted one point of my rating because of how irrational one female ran off outside from a safe room almost near the end ... it was to move away from that location, but it didn't make actual sense. Apart from giving us (the characters) a reason to get outside and in peril again ... ah well, still decent enough for what it is, low budget horror

First off... along with Autopsy this is one of the of the 8 films to die for which I could sit through without falling asleep. Perkins'14 starts off very calm revolving around a cop who had his son abducted along with 13 other kids 10 years ago and can't let go. There is a lot of strange flashbacks inter-cut with the actual events where suddenly someone arrives at the police station who he considers to be the Abductor of the children ...from here it turns into mind-games between him and that guy named Perkins and by the title you can already guess that Mr. Cop is right about him. When a colleague searches Perkins house he finds a cellar with cages and his sudden death by one of the raging kids who were turned into blood lusting maniacs by 10 years of PCP-therapy. Now they are out in the streets on a rampage and we are up to a happy family re-union between the cop and his son ... or are we not??

What starts out slow and confusing (later you learn that its not confusing but pretty random) turns into a zombie-like movie with some pretty decent gore elements. The violence is depicted pretty raw and bloody and those kids are more a mix of instinct driven animals and zombies than anything else. They attack like the "28 days later" zombies, jump and run around, crawl air ducts, snap necks and disembowel with their bare hands. Thats nice, the visuals also carry it with some decent atmosphere. Problem is that the whole plot makes pretty little sense as of why Mr. Perkins engineers blood lusting zombie-kids on PCP and how they track down their kin and I really wonder how such obviously instinct driven creatures suddenly know how to use keys, shoot rifles etc. The whole ending is pretty idiotic and the movie should have rather focused on a logic plot and characters not acting like idiots (like a cop entering zombie infested crime scenes without a gun or his wife jingling key-chains like a crazy kid) instead of the massive bloodshed and bleak finale. Perkins'14 has really a lot going for it but smashes my hopes with a plot full of holes and dozens of ridiculous horror clichés.