Circle of Eight

From the description on the TV guide, this looked like it might be interesting. Unfortunately you cannot believe everything you read. The concept was quite good, however, the execution didn't match up by a long chalk. I'll explain what I mean later, but here's a brief summary first (summary haters and those that don't wish to know anything about the plot please help Jessica move in while I write the next paragraph).

Jessica is moving into her first apartment in the big city (Los Angeles in this case). Driving through the streets she's full of optimism and looking forward to her new surroundings. Outside the building, the Dante, she meets Evan, an attractive young man who helps her with her stuff. The building manager, Ed, is a bit odd, but likable enough, although he's a bit particular about tenants going into his 'File Room'. Having moved in, Jessica is then visited by several of the other occupants, an odd bunch to say the least. They are all very insistent that she joins them for a roof-top party to celebrate the New Year. And then strange things begin to happen, Jessica begins to see the other residents murdered, one by one. Nobody seems concerned about this and so she goes to Evan to try and get some answers. I'll leave it there and I've probably made it sound a lot better than it really is.

This film has the look and feel of a student short that got made into a feature. It all seems very amateurish, everything from the cinematography, to the sound, to the acting seems to have had little thought to it. Nobody on screen really deserves a mention, but I will name a few so you'll know who's responsible. If anything, John Bishop was the best performer as Ed, but he wasn't great, Ryan Doom (great name!) was adequate as Evan and Austin Highsmith was OK, I guess, as Jessica.

I feel I've been a little generous with my score (below), but the concept behind this very poor film was actually quite good. The trouble is, little, or no, thought went into the execution. Maybe some of it could be blamed on budget restrictions, but I've seen much better than this made for a lot less. I think you can probably guess what comes next… definitely NOT recommended… You have been warned.

My score: 4.1/10

The Story Jessica (Highsmith) moves from farm country to a bizarre apartment building where the manager's office is the elevator and there only seem to be a handful of tenants. Everyone seems to both offer and expect Too Much Information, and insist that Jessica attend that night's New Year's Eve Party on the roof. Meanwhile, Jessica sees bloody corpses, which she finds a bit disturbing, mostly because they disappear each time she tries to show someone.

I just finished watching it, and I don't... I mean, I sort of get the lesson she was supposed to...um, no. And how did they...if they...huh?

Why you should see it

So you can explain it to me. Because two female characters exist only for the scene in which they take their shirts off and make out on a broken desk for no discernible reason. Or maybe you can explain that too.

Why you shouldn't see it

You'll probably need someone to explain it to you.

--from my review at www.1man365movies.com

This movie had me nailed to my seat. It is so wonderfully weird and bizarre in an awesome way. Throughout the movie you are left in the dark and can only guess and speculate about that is going on. At least I didn't fully grasp the events before the movie was ending.

The acting in the movie was good and the cast was good. The story of the movie - well, I am still somewhat left baffled. I got the general concept of the movie (which I will not give away here), but I somehow think there had got to be more to the story than that...

This movie is good entertainment, especially if you like movies that give you stuff to think about.

This is one of those films that foreshadows the upcoming disastrous events and i write this put of context with the film. Instead, the disastrous events are the damage to the brain caused from this shallow, pathetically acted film. There some films that are bad but still hold up some positive notes but with this one, you wish you never watched it at all.

Acting is poor, the characters are empty, the story is obvious with some cringeworthy dialogue pushing it on it way. The only saving grace is Ed whom, despite his sweet corn anecdote, he was fairly good in his role.

Guaranteed, there will be many unintentional laughs. The wardrobe collapsing at the end, the lesbians, Jessica's leg catching fire. Many laughs are to be enjoyed.

At the end of the film, it makes you think, What were the other six doing in this eternal loop of hell? Why are they involved? All i can say is don't watch this film.

What happened tot he story? It starts to build, then just goes phhhht.

It wasn't scary, it wasn't chilling or tense or horror.

It was actually boring and lacked any real anything.

Characters offered nothing of interest, story didn't build up, overall, it just didn't get off the ground to go anywhere of interest.

This was 2 or 3 rewrites short of being a thriller or a drama or anything.

The opening scene was OK, but then it just left you there...with this girl driving in a car, moving into a new building and all fizzled away.

Maybe the next script will be a better movie.