Saturday Morning Massacre

This will be short and sweet.

I ENJOYED THIS MUCH MORE THAN I EXPECTED!

Yes...it will remind you of Scooby-Doo. It's supposed to.

Yes...you have to take some things on "faith," which means there are some implausibilities & some factually illogical scenes. What horror movie doesn't have them?

Folks that watch horror movies and then nitpick them to death by saying "why go in there alone?" or "there's no way that could happen" miss the point in my opinion.

I actually really liked how this built steadily through the movie. The director did a good job of using subtleties to build the suspense and form the horror elements without using generic jump scares. Sounds, curiously angles cinematography, mirrors, lighting...they were all used to the director's advantage.

*** A HINT: Pay attention to the entire screen you're watching, throughout the movie. Just sayin.

The acting was pretty decent, I dug the story, the script was acceptable, the direction was good, the scenery was really good (they filmed it in an actual historic mansion), and the production was good.

Contrary to what a few reviews have said, I did not find this gory at all. If you're looking for gore, go elsewhere. There is a bit of blood, and a couple scenes that border on gory, but it's not a gorefest.

Overall, I liked the whole "Scooby-Doo" tie-in. Make no mistake...it's not a copy or a new incarnation, only the set-up and purposeful character tropes that tie them together intentionally. Really enjoyed it. Won't win any awards, but the $3.99 rental price on Amazon was worth it to me.

For fans of slasher movies.

As a horror film Saturday Morning Mystery is nothing special. It's not particularly scary or innovative in the 'who, what and how'. The bit that IS innovative is the use of an ersatz version of the gang from Scooby Doo... and that is the film's only real talking point. It lives or dies by how well that is pulled off. Sadly it's a mixed bag of nuts. The first half is great, I enjoyed seeing the real-life version of the characters I watched as a kid... worrying over having no real source of income, having to deal with the police, uncovering criminals whose motives are a bit nastier than 'old man Geezer trying to keep kids away from his gold'. They run into a few quirky characters (what's up with the couple in the diner?) and a haunted house with a bad history. So yeah, the setup is fun. Naturally, I favored the 'Velma' character Nancy. She's brave, perky and smart just like she oughtta be.

To my mind the movie took a turn for the worse when the obligatory 'Shaggy'-induced drug sequence goes down. It took me a moment to realize what was going on and somehow it just didn't sit well. It felt forced... or something. After that, and the equally obligatory 'Fred' and 'Daphne' sex scene it felt like the writers had shot their wad.

The trick of the movie is that it tries to go where Scooby Doo never went... where, as a kid, I always wanted it to go, by giving the kids some REAL monsters to uncover. Unfortunately this is where it pretty much completely drops the Scooby Doo setup and goes straight into 'coeds meet rabid hillbilly' territory. There are no surprises or interesting moments from this point on that haven't been seen in dozens of other fright flicks. I have a larger issue with horror films in general that throw up their hands when it's time to get scary and resort to just chopping up the cast rather than coming up with more creative ways to say 'BOO!'. Death and dismemberment are nasty but a lot can be said for more subtle character-based scares as well. The monsters in Saturday Morning Mystery just are not worthy of their adversaries. For one thing they bear no resemblance to the ersatz spooks the cartoon gang had to thwart... which is fine, but they're not a particularly interesting pack of ghouls in any other way either. They're just there to sneak around in the background and then leap out and kill. Not surprisingly the kids on their own are much more fun to watch.

There is a confused attempt to do the signature 'hallway chase scene' that was often in the old cartoons... but if it was meant to be funny it wasn't.

Really, if it weren't for the first 45 minutes or so of this movie it wouldn't even be worth a discussion because it would be just another slasher flick.

"Saturday Morning Mystery" (formerly known as Saturday Morning Massacre- and Massacre is still the film's true form.) is a bizarre little indie flick directed by Spencer Parsons. The film stars Ashley Rae Spillers, Johnny Mars, Josephine Decker, Adam Tate and Paul Gordon. The story follows a crack pot team of paranormal investigators, much like the Scooby gang, who get hired to dispel the rumors and fears of locals around the paranormal activity at an estate. The group soon learn that there are much more sinister things hidden behind the walls of the Kyser schoolhouse. The gang choose to stay and solve the creepy behind the going-ons at the property, which proves to be in grave error. The decision to solve this mystery becomes a real massacre.

"Saturday Morning Mystery", (or Massacre) as I prefer to consider the film, is truly one of those strange films that blows you away. I had expected some cheesy, retro-throttled, low-budget spectacle. At the start there is a real throwback feel to the film which clearly became inspired by the cartoon mystery gang- only with the characters and their back-story though. Beyond that the similarities become terrifyingly obsolete. This is a real fright-fest fanfare story, with a way more sinister series of events than any cartoon show could think of inspiring. It becomes a truly gripping and nail-biting grindhouse horror story. The kitschy beginning and groovy build-up in this film has a cleverly darker intent. That intent is to throw you off guard, and then drag you into the pits of hellish nightmares as your nails tear off, and blood stained cries shatter the dark chilling air! This film is one of those rides into horror land that you will be glad you took. Think –The Scooby gangs accidentally wonder into the path of Stag Night kinfolk in a rural setting.

The story in this film is pretty well written and flows beautifully. There are a couple of moments that go off between dialog and scene portrayal. Actually only two that I remember seeming off was the "tab of acid" line and the "I totally have a jimmy in this bag" (or something like that.) There was no tabs taken-the drug leeched into the water cooler, and the character that said the line about the jimmy didn't have a bag on her in the scene. At least I didn't see one. Anyway those two moments – that is all-those two were the only milliseconds that slowed my totally pleasurable horror ride into this window to Hell. Pretty much every aspect of the film from cinematography to directed to soundtrack and kill scenes rocked in "Saturday Morning Mystery" You don't expect the intense vicious turn this film takes toward the last act but man it drags you in and sets you on the edge of the slaughtering blade of horror. This is truly one of the best indie horror films I have seen and a must for horror movie collectors.

Other reviewers claimed that a missed opportunity to create a real life Scooby-Doo movie was missed. No it was not. There were already two made and that is more then enough. One reviewers contends it is not a copy of Scooby-Doo, Yes it is. For all intents and purposes, it is. The ONLY reason I would suspect The Evil Dead is mentioned is due to the amount of blood? Of course the blurb on the cover is a no name site and unknown person so why believe what is claimed? One could make a much better comparison. Yeah, they have a dog, so what?

The objective breakdown:

Cinematography: Less then average. Much of the film is shot in darkness. Camera seemed to have a great deal of difficulty in focusing. You will see many a shot not in focus. Shots are not properly framed. This occurs so frequently it is disturbing.

Sound: Average. Sound is clear and no difficulty discerning dialogue.

Music: Background music does not seem to fit the movie and is repetitious, loud and ingratiating after viewing for a period of time

Acting: Some are average. The actor playing the "Shaggy" character is horrid. The cop is not much better. It is amazing how much work some of these actors have in low, low budget er... movies, should I call them that?

Script: Predictable. This is suppose to be a parody. It is extremely obvious that the two writers attempted quite a bit of humor in the dialogue. The problem is, none of it is funny at all. The inability to write humor and the actors inability to deliver the lines properly is as painful as performing botched eye surgery upon one's self with a spatula. It fail completely what it sets out to do.

If one has absolutely nothing else to watch I guess one could watch this. There are SO many bad movies made it is like being hit by a tsunami. Regurgitation of the same film over and over makes me want to regurgitate.

Low budget B rated movie. Watch it for fun not for awards. It is what it is!