Curse of Alcatraz

I thought it would be a typical monster flick, with a bunch of people stuck on The Rock and getting picked off, one-by-one. Turned out to be more thoughtful, suspenseful and interesting than I imagined, and the setting of Alcatraz made it all the more creepy.

You have to pay attention to follow what's happening to these people, and who the killer or killers are. The history about the island is pretty interesting too, which is weaved throughout the film.

It's a low budget movie, so some of the acting is so-so, but there are several stand-outs(like the guy in the wheel chair, the professor, and the girl who played Tiffany.) Not your typical horror film, but definitely with its frightful moments, and the whole "trapped" feeling of Alcatraz (which they actually shot parts of the film on).

A group of five archaeologists close down the tourist prison island of Alcatraz while they research new findings recently dug up, this doesn't sit well with some of the guards who feel that this will put their upcoming raises on hold. However any animosity has to be put on the back burner as the found artifacts are in fact cursed *cue spooky music*

This was a hard film to watch, not because it's so violent (if anything it's extremely boring), but rather because it's horribly filmed, atrociously acted and deathly dull. Writer/director Daniel Zirili is old hat at making supremely crappy films so that in and of itself isn't surprising that this film stinks, what is though is that this is one of the few movies where he uses the letter Z in the correct way.

In 2006 I visited San Francisco and took the tour of Alcatraz and enjoyed seeing this film which had great photography of the buildings inside and outside.

One of the guards on Alcatraz found an old relic in the lower sections of Alcatraz and called in the proper authorities to determine just what it is. This relic reveals itself to be an Indian from the 1800's and as the story advances, it reveals some very dark and dangerous secrets.

In this film there is also women involved in the investigation and the men and women become very close.

Not the best of films, but very entertaining. Enjoy

I had very low expectations for this film. After all, it was released in 2007 and it is already free on Hulu. How good can it be? Getting ready to open Alcatraz to tourists, they find a walled-in area and a skeleton, While investigating, Ranger Vince (William Van Noland) cuts his finger on the teeth. They bring in some grad students to investigate the body, and Vince is slowly getting sicker. Soon the murders begin.

We manage to get an very quick eyeful of Florida native and Survivor participant Jessie Camacho, but it is a body double unfortunately. That's it for the thrills; the rest is chills.

A little science and a little superstition, it was interesting to a point, but largely unfulfilling.

After finding a strange Indian relic boarded up on Alcatraz, the research team studying the remains find themselves under attack by a strange curse affecting the others on the island and force them to battle it off to survive.

This was an effective supernatural affair. One of the best things about the film is that it has a really creepy location and makes full use of it. Alcatraz looks really great here, as the washed-out color used for the interior scenes within the walls are a great touch to make it feel really isolated and creepy. There's also the layout of the prison, as the layout of the halls and the fact that it's all underground makes it dark and creepy as well which adds an air of menace to the film. Another strong point impacting this is it's really quite understandable how it can play mind-tricks on the people here without having to introduce the virus subplot. While it's really creepy on its own, the fact that the physical evidence from the face-peeling in the mirror to the bloody nose and finally the hardcore vomiting, it really gives the story some power and makes it even better. When it starts to get into the later half, which is mostly just a never-ending action scene, allows for some fun to be had. There's several chases through the facility that are pretty much spot on, from the battles in the infirmary with the possessed and out into the prison walk-ways while another big highlight scene from the scenes down in the medical lab where it all starts makes this one quite appealing that there's several impressive chasing scenes in perhaps the best part. The last really good part to this is the film's blood and gore, which is good enough here to hold this up quite nicely even if there wasn't a whole lot really wrong in this one. This one here is mostly plagued by the really hard way it goes about unraveling the plot as rather than giving the simple story it takes at least four different opportunities to get it all out. Even the ones in the film have a hard time, as several of the conversations are started over other conversations based around explaining the previously-explained reasons. The fact that it's a simple story is the point as for whatever reason, the virus angle doesn't feel that threatening and would've been fine had they used the ghost angle cemented with the virus thread, but it's all rather poorly done and doesn't seem all that intimidating. The only other issue here is the rather obvious amount of time here with the low- budget as there's a rather obvious presence throughout from the location, from the kills whenever they could be seen and there's just little elsewhere here that makes this stand-out from that factor. Otherwise, there's a lot to like here.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and drug use.