Kill Katie Malone

After the first 30 minutes I knew I couldn't expect much from this movie. Almost all typical "ghost thriller" clichés are used. Nothing new or unexpected. I tried to give this movie a chance anyway, but at the end I still was disappointed. The creepy scenes aren't very creepy. The story doesn't make sense sometimes (one scene she hates him, next scene she loves him..) and as mentioned the story is just too predictable to entertain. I watched it till the end because I hoped it would get better or more thrilling at the end, but that wasn't the case. You shouldn't watch this movie if you are not a big fan of this type of films, and even if you are, you probably won't get too excited.

After thinking they've purchased a gag-gift on an internet auction, a group of friends find their new toy actually contains a malicious ghost who stops at nothing to interfere with the outside forces amongst the group, forcing them to find a way of dealing with the angry spirit.

This turned out to be a rather enjoyable entry. One of the biggest pluses here is the fairly different take on the killer-ghost genre, with the ability thrown in that ghosts can be contained into an object and then used as what amounts to genies from the legend, a unique concept that does some good work here. The fact that this tends to go for long periods of time trying to set up points where the interaction become necessary is a bit of contention, since the film's not really that interesting in those periods and not a lot goes on worth getting excited about, but the decent amount of gore in the kills and a pretty tense number of confrontations throughout the storyline definitely save it and make it pretty entertaining.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Prior to actually switching on the movie, this had promise. The premise that somebody might buy a ghost on eBay (or the copyright friendly film version of YouBid) interested me and I was eager to see how the story unfolded.

Unfortunately, a promising idea has been sold out to the tune of yet another college/teen horror thriller where a bunch of attractive American teenagers spend half the film running around a college or dorm from some kind of terrifying something that wants to kill them. Feel free to replace terrifying something with 'murderous ghost', 'axe wielding maniac', 'Freddy Kreuger' or whatever. It doesn't matter. The play out is the same and we've all seen it a million times before.

Direction is typically brash and predictable, akin to an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with less camp. Our protagonists make all the usual horror movie victim mistakes and the haphazard introduction of the haunting is far too over-the-top. Too much is shown too soon and the inevitable killing scenes are silly to the point of absurd.

There's really nothing new here. An original idea is squandered for the sake of a safe return on the budget (one assumes). The result is something forgettable and bland.

I must admit that I had initially expected a bit more from "Kill Katie Malone" than what actually was presented on the screen. The DVD movie that I acquired was titled "The Haunting of Katie Malone", not "Kill Katie Malone", so needless to say that I had expected more in the ghost and haunting department.

"Kill Katie Malone" turned out to be a late teenage horror movie laced with elements of supernatural horror in form of an apparition. Was it scary? Far from it. Was it entertaining? Mildly so.

I don't really understand why Dean Cain was brandished as headlining on the movie cover, because he was in the movie less than 5 minutes. Sure, I know that it was because he was the most famous of all the cast in the movie, but it was so wrongfully a means of luring people in.

The story in "Kill Katie Malone" was a mediocre storyline which really didn't make much sense. It is about an ancient box which contains the malevolent spirit of Katie Malone. Anyone who buys the box will own her spirit and can set her free, but always with a deadly result. Once freed of captivity in the box, the owner can only part with the malevolent spirit by selling the box to someone else.

There were aspects of the story that were fair and interesting enough, but the overall picture was one of being less than mediocre. So don't get your hopes up for this movie.

The acting in the movie was adequate though, despite the fact that the actors and actresses were struggling with an inadequate storyline and script.

For a horror movie, then "Kill Katie Malone" was frightfully devoid of anything scary or capable of making you jump in your seat. So that was an anchor around the movie.

"Kill Katie Malone" was hardly a memorable movie in any sense, and it wasn't one that left any lasting impression in the horror genre.

What will our badly-tattooed friend who can't even grow a moustache do? I watched Kill Katie Malone for one reason: Masiela Lusha was starring in a horror movie. And it was real bad (though she wasn't... but I'm biased).

Where do I begin? First, every character is obnoxious. I'm not sure why so much modern horror is populated with unlikeable characters. I suppose this had an interesting premise, which quickly devolved into another variation of The Monkey's Paw. Three college students pool their money to buy a supposed ghost trapped inside a box online (from the generic company "uBid," and, similarly, we don't see anyone dressed as a "character" all Halloween long). Hey, it grants wishes! So they let the ghost out, get terrorized, and people around them start turning up dead (only in the most comical ways).

The ghost leaves a message written on our two best buds' wall, and one guy takes a picture of it, and sends it to a friend, who is apparently the only person he knows competent enough to Google something in a foreign language. Did I mention this guy is in college? I don't know if the dialogue was poorly written, or if some actors actually botched their lines and they left them in, but this movie has some rather odd dialogue. And it is lazily written. The competing bidder (somebody's concept of a Goth) on the box is suddenly all-knowing, all-seeing? Well, she did have impeccable timing! That's a good thing she did. I laughed at the end.

The title doesn't even make any sense. Katie Malone is the ghost. She's already dead!

Masiela turns up in leather shorts, fishnet stockings, and tall high-heeled boots for the climax. I don't know who she was dressed as for the Halloween party (class skank?), but that's enough for me, and warrants an extra star. Hey, I'm easy!