Compound Fracture

Compound Fracture: written by Renae Geerlings & Tyler Mane, directed by A.J. Rickert-Epstein, and starring Tyler Mane, Muse Watson, Derek Mears, Leslie Easterbrook, Alex Saxon, and Renae Geerlings. Todd Farmer and Daniel Roebuck also make a special appearance (which was pretty awesome).

This supernatural thriller of a horror flick deals with rituals, old family bloodlines, & modern day family drama twisted up with a great story about ghosts. It reminded me of something you'd see on the show Supernatural, but if the Winchesters never showed up. What starts out as a simple visit to Michael's family home to take care of his aging father, quickly turns into a nightmare, visiting old sins of the father back on the whole family.

The most notable thing is the great chemistry between the actors. They all did a phenomenal job, but I have to say my favorites were Renae Geerling and Muse Watson. Derek Mears was extremely intimidating and scary, though his character didn't have much scope. His story was a very integral one being he is the main baddie in this flick. Tyler Mane did a great job achieving a very father figure/head of the house/normal guy yet heroic role. It was almost, but not quite, weird seeing him as the hero when he's sitting on my DVD shelves as a bad guy in everything. Bottom line, everyone did a fantastic job.

The story was really good, mostly because of its originality. It not the same old ghost story and it's got a lot of great details in it about certain lore and history of the supernatural. When you're done watching the movie you can tell two big things... 1. They did a lot of research. 2. They had a blast making this film. Their story translated very well to the audience and at points I was thinking "well played" because they totally got me on several occasions. They are really good at the "show them left, but then they go right" kind of thing. Much of the story is unexpected, including the extremely fun ending.

I'll be honest and say it did take a while to get to the parts I was waiting for. All the scares leading up to the main course was fun, but I was really pushed off my seat for the last third of the flick. Tension is well presented in this movie and builds to palpable levels, so much so that I noticed I was uncomfortable sitting in my seat at one point and even wanted to cover my eyes because of some of the disturbing violence that took place. They don't call it "Compound Fracture" for nothing. That's not all though, every great horror story needs a bit of humor and this has it for sure. It's not comical, but it's got some great moments that will make you laugh.

My hope is that this movie goes on to propel the group at Mane Entertainment to making some even better flicks for us fans to eat up. I mean, simply getting this specific group of people together is an inspiration in itself, but seeing what they did together gives me great hope for the future of horror entertainment. There are still people out there with new stories, new ideas, and the ability to put something together with little money that will still scare your pants off while keeping you entertained the whole time. I want more of that! As a filmmaker myself there was a lot of me thinking "how'd they do that" when it came to so many of their effects. I should know better, "hollywood magic" and all, but still, they left me curious because they did it so well and it was very cool to see.

Director A.J. Epstein was great too. He put together a very fun horror experience with a comprehensive story. Getting to meet the guy was pretty cool too as he can relate to many of the people I used to work with as a filmmaker. He mentioned having made several short films and that this was one of the first he'd be known by. I'm sure it's something he'll be proud to be known for because it's pretty awesome! The entire group who showed up, Tyler, Renae, A.J., they all were very humble and very friendly and it was so much fun to hang out with them and talk with them. They were very welcoming to every individual who came out and did a fun Q&A after the flick. I won't say much about it because I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, but like I said before, you knew they had a blast putting this together.

The one thing I never got to ask (because I thought it'd be a dumb question) was to see if this was at all a commentary about what it would be like for Jason and Michael to throw down. ;) - Mr. Frights

This movie was much better than I expected. When I first started watching this movie, I could not get past the bad acting in the beginning and I had to stop. I went back to it today and I actually pushed past the bad script and poor acting. Tyler Mane was decent, but he could have done better. Muse Watson was essentially the only good actor - no surprise. The color of the movie was actually really strange, but I feel that it added to the aura of the movie. It was a nice change from the movies that are so dark you cannot even see what is happening. It has a really interesting story and an ending I did not expect. For the most part, it was very predictable, but it had some things that caught me off guard. The story was choppy at parts and a bit hard to follow, but it all made sense eventually. It was also a little bloodier than I expected, but I liked it all the same. I was expecting a 4/10, but it was better than that. For a low budget film, this was pretty decent; much better than ones I've seen before.

In short, poor acting, OK script, interesting story, good plot, odd coloration (but it works), and it has a few good scares.

Check it out if you're just looking for something to watch that you've never seen before. It's not a MUST SEE, but it's alright.

Actually also be aware of the people who are in this. I have met some of them at conventions. And I almost had to laugh when Derek Mears character was supposed to be menacing "attacking" the "camera" ... luckily I could get rid of that feeling quite fast. And the movie may have it's issues and flaws, but don't forget this is a low budget horror movie.

All those things considered may help you like this or at least enjoy it while watching. Having Tyler Mane in a role that is against the stereotype we have seen him is also a nice touch. A nice horror movie with an interesting story to boost ... also the action towards the end helps make it more exciting. The stunts work quite well ... as well.

Given that it's a vengeful ghost type horror, I was interested to see how Compound Fracture would play out. But other than its oddly reminding me of a Metallica music video, I didn't derive much viewing enjoyment from this movie.

Set in a remote property with a thousand security cameras, give or take, we are introduced to a family that depicts a mixture of Addams Family, Hereditary movie and Metallica band. Which is all fine, I can go with that, particularly the Mike character is James Hetfield all over.

Credit goes to the visual art production, but the dialogue, weird acting portrayals and general lack of story pace, are all far more noticeable and detrimental. I feel horror makers since 2010 are trying to put more into their productions, maybe because horrors have proven for a long time, to be carbon copies of each other, within the sub-genres - haunted house, slashers, supernatural, etc. My take on this is it's always better to keep storylines simple in horrors and be sure to pack in as much thrills and spills as possible. There are some parts in this movie that are ok, but too many flat spots take up much of the ninety minutes. The characters I found were dull which is another important aspect of any movie - to have some sort of connection with them so that we the viewers can get interested in what they're doing and where the story is taking us. Other than Mike resembling Hetfield he has little going for him unfortunately.

So if they put as much energy into character and action, as they did in the visual aspect, this would have been a more enjoyable horror experience. As it is, it's pretty drab and uninteresting.

Compound Fracture feels like a first outing, and it is. Tyler Mane's new company offers us a passable thriller that ultimately never truly thrills.

The story works. It offers characters with interesting drama and characterization, and a villain with a purpose. There are a few forced moments, where the emotion just shows up instead of being earned organically, but that could be in part to the directing and editing, which I will get to later. The story definitely had potential for thrills, and each character is memorable in their own way, and that is something you don't often find in indie horrors/thrillers, especially first timers like Geerlings.

The acting was weak. Muse Watson, the patriarch with dementia, often felt way over the top as he went in and out of lucidity. Sometimes it felt like dementia, sometimes if felt like he was tired and ready to go home. Tyler Mane will always feel like a giant to me, and it was hard, but not impossible, to see him as a family man. I think his strengths come from playing more fringe characters, less 'everyman'. Alex Saxon was a point of awkwardness for me. He fear noises really drew me out of the moment.

I think, even with the acting, there is potential in the film, but it all fell flat due to the direction/editing. I'm going to group those since they were done by the same guy, Anthony J. Rickert-Epstein. First, a look at his page reveals he is a cinematographer (he was also DP on this film, that's a lot of hats for a feature). And it shows. There were some technical shots going on but usually at the cost of performance and story telling. The film plays slow, and not "slow burn", just slow. The action scenes feel forced. I felt like I was supposed to be scared or thrilled but everything was moving so slow I was usually left just watching, unengaged. There were moments that didn't fit the rest of the film. I can't say it enough: everything felt forced. It felt like they wanted us to be scared, but didn't know how to pull it off, so they just copied a lot of techniques with sound and editing and tried to make it work. And for me, it didn't.

I think it was a good first effort. Hopefully they learn from the mistakes, mostly of letting one man head three departments, and can produce more films.

Compound Fracture isn't a great movie, but it shows that this team has potential, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next.