Childhood friends come together for a dead pal's funeral, abiding by his wishes to open a specific box together which contains a map inside leading to a chest containing the skeletal remains of a little girl, and items each person had at that point in their lives(slingshot, paint brushes, musical notes, etc). Trying to find their way out of the area onto a road leading back to their lives away from the past, they seem to be driving in circles. Lawyer Brent(Frank Whaley, who has made portraying the @sshole character in movies an art-form)sees a girl, opting to follow her, hoping to get directions off the path and on the right road. Instead they find a condemned institution, with circumstances trapping them within thanks to possible supernatural forces. Attempting to find their way out, any exit at all seems lost to them, with doors locked tight and windows heavily protected. Slowly unraveling are each character as they remain locked inside this place.
Dina Meyer is a professor, Jennifer. George Newbern is the trustworthy and wise padre, a pillar of strength the group begins to lean on. Traci Lords is a singer who is finding it hard to hold together. Dan DeLuca is Wayne, whose broken leg when starting down the steps to the cellar is the catalyst for the group's being trapped inside as they all converge to assist him with the door closing them in. Whaley is the foul-mouthed, moody executor of the will. Gabrielle Anwar is the petite and deeply troubled pottery sculptor with harsh nightmares that have scarred her worse than any of the others, although everyone has been plagued with unpleasant dreams surfacing perhaps buried memories. There's little exposition which might've been written this way on purpose because despite what we see in the early going, their past in the hospital, tested like guinea pigs(..perhaps they were autism patients since it's brought up when Jennifer is looking through files surprisingly in mint condition despite 20 years)is an ambiguous mystery. We know by what they slowly uncover, when the memories emerge, as separated members are killed, that 8 of them escaped from this hospital with one girl, Karen(..the one whose skeletal remains were discovered), dying of suffocation because she was hidden in the chest as they fled. Leaving her behind and forgetting to rescue her damns them all. As Karen was locked in the chest to rot, the ones responsible now face a similar situation. Mentioned in the movie as well is the fact that Karen's vengeful spirit was released thanks to the group's dead pal, because through the opening of the trunk, her demise and memory became anew. As long as she was absent, their guilt could remain the same, but, through her release, they're besieged by their part in Karen's death. That's the way I saw it, even though I could be wrong. Whatever the case, it appears that each member, when isolated, fall prey to Karen's ghost, in ripped, musty rags and rotted corpse. The film, to me, felt rushed and heavily cut(..it kind of feels like one of those film's put through the ringer on the cutting room floor)with an ending that left me rather flummoxed and confused. There are moments of stupid human behavior..one questions why these characters would even bother with the obviously abandoned hospital(..I mean seriously, do you think a little girl would be living within the walls of this place?)or split apart when possible danger is around every corner. I find it hard to believe that, as a unit, they couldn't free themselves somehow from the rickety building. The violence, for the most part, is off-screen. Even when victims are discovered, there's no real focus on their damaged bodies(..sure a severed hand is shown, but it doesn't really freak out even the casual horror fan with a rather weak stomach for such things). I think the film wishes to explore the trauma of what happens to grown adults effected by a childhood they've buried away, like the corpse of Karen. Perhaps, in unlocking Karen's memory, the events experienced in the hospital resurfaced which led to their downfall. I feel "Crazy Eights" suffers from being too ambiguous, the story of the group too sloppily delivered, leaving us rather confused at to what we just witnessed. To be honest, too, that, despite the aspects mentioned, "Crazy Eights" is still a slasher flick where characters drop out of the story one-by-one with a girl's ghost taking the place of a psychopath with black gloves.
Dina Meyer is a professor, Jennifer. George Newbern is the trustworthy and wise padre, a pillar of strength the group begins to lean on. Traci Lords is a singer who is finding it hard to hold together. Dan DeLuca is Wayne, whose broken leg when starting down the steps to the cellar is the catalyst for the group's being trapped inside as they all converge to assist him with the door closing them in. Whaley is the foul-mouthed, moody executor of the will. Gabrielle Anwar is the petite and deeply troubled pottery sculptor with harsh nightmares that have scarred her worse than any of the others, although everyone has been plagued with unpleasant dreams surfacing perhaps buried memories. There's little exposition which might've been written this way on purpose because despite what we see in the early going, their past in the hospital, tested like guinea pigs(..perhaps they were autism patients since it's brought up when Jennifer is looking through files surprisingly in mint condition despite 20 years)is an ambiguous mystery. We know by what they slowly uncover, when the memories emerge, as separated members are killed, that 8 of them escaped from this hospital with one girl, Karen(..the one whose skeletal remains were discovered), dying of suffocation because she was hidden in the chest as they fled. Leaving her behind and forgetting to rescue her damns them all. As Karen was locked in the chest to rot, the ones responsible now face a similar situation. Mentioned in the movie as well is the fact that Karen's vengeful spirit was released thanks to the group's dead pal, because through the opening of the trunk, her demise and memory became anew. As long as she was absent, their guilt could remain the same, but, through her release, they're besieged by their part in Karen's death. That's the way I saw it, even though I could be wrong. Whatever the case, it appears that each member, when isolated, fall prey to Karen's ghost, in ripped, musty rags and rotted corpse. The film, to me, felt rushed and heavily cut(..it kind of feels like one of those film's put through the ringer on the cutting room floor)with an ending that left me rather flummoxed and confused. There are moments of stupid human behavior..one questions why these characters would even bother with the obviously abandoned hospital(..I mean seriously, do you think a little girl would be living within the walls of this place?)or split apart when possible danger is around every corner. I find it hard to believe that, as a unit, they couldn't free themselves somehow from the rickety building. The violence, for the most part, is off-screen. Even when victims are discovered, there's no real focus on their damaged bodies(..sure a severed hand is shown, but it doesn't really freak out even the casual horror fan with a rather weak stomach for such things). I think the film wishes to explore the trauma of what happens to grown adults effected by a childhood they've buried away, like the corpse of Karen. Perhaps, in unlocking Karen's memory, the events experienced in the hospital resurfaced which led to their downfall. I feel "Crazy Eights" suffers from being too ambiguous, the story of the group too sloppily delivered, leaving us rather confused at to what we just witnessed. To be honest, too, that, despite the aspects mentioned, "Crazy Eights" is still a slasher flick where characters drop out of the story one-by-one with a girl's ghost taking the place of a psychopath with black gloves.