gaius-octavius

This film really wasn't bad at all. It obviously had a limited budget, but compared to similar offerings, 'Grave Mistake' produces a surprisingly entertaining 90 minutes of viewing. There isn't anything particularly innovative here; it's a zombie movie that follows the usual pattern and uses the kinds of stock characters that can be found in many horror films. Indeed, the film's strength is that it understands the genre well and therefore fits neatly into the niche it's aiming for.

The special effects here are surprisingly good as well, considering the type of film. The zombies look a lot better than can be found in most low-budget attempts and the gore is more convincing. It's a long way from perfect, but it's not laughable, either.

I think Seth Darling did well in the lead role for someone who has no other credits to his name. Then again, I can't stand overly Hollywood young actors, so I might be biased :) The other cast members range from okay to awful, much as one expects from this kind of film.

All in all, though, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. One to avoid if you want your horror Hollywood perfect, but if you don't mind a little rawness, it might be worth a try.

The plot of 'Caregiver' is quite clichéd, but the film itself ends up being rather likable despite this. Paige (Åsa Wallander) is a new staff member at a halfway house for teenage girls whose sweetness and light exterior belies her dark true nature. The girls themselves fall into various stereotypes of delinquent teenagers, and are portrayed with varying levels of acting talent. Rebeka Montoya (Monique) is the stand-out, both in terms of beauty and ability, while Kali Hawk is also appealing as Tania.

The film isn't perfect, by any means. The flash backs are a little too obvious, Paige's background is a little too trite and the presence of one character, Krysta, (played by Jeanie Marie, who seems to be better known for more adult entertainment) seems a gratuitous excuse to have a woman wandering around completely naked for a bit. But as straight-to-video movies go, you could do a lot worse. Despite its flaws, it somehow manages to remain entertaining, provided that the viewer watches in the right spirit.

All in all, 'Caregiver' is an entertaining horror/thriller that is worth a try if you stumble upon it on DVD.

I quite like bad horror movies – but only if they're bad in an entertaining kind of way. Unfortunately, there's very little to entertain in 'Storm of the Dead'. Instead, it's boring and poorly paced, with a thin plot meandering through an hour and a half of film when it could probably have fitted nicely into a short.

The film's writer/director has posted a review, which is interesting to read in terms of the thought process behind different aspects of the movie. In particular, he noted that five minutes of Just Plain Walking Around was added to plump up the film to meet international length standards. In my opinion, that's just lazy film-making, and an insult to the viewers who are forced to sit through that five minutes of filler.

That said, I was quite impressed by J. Todd Smith (Hutch), who was definitely the highlight of the movie. Karin Justman (Lisa) was also decent. In contrast, Brian Renner (Red) was supposed to be providing comic relief, but instead provided poor delivery that made me cringe every time he spoke.

Not a film I'd recommend by any means, but there's possibly something in there for people who like their horror slow-paced.