6 Degrees of Hell (2012): The Good, the Bad and the Feldster
Synopsis: As a tale told to a paranormal investigator through a police officer that experienced it, the movie follows the intertwined stories of an owner of a haunted house attraction, a psychic, a different paranormal investigator and demons possessing a multitude of people to try to break through to this world.
The Good: It's really hard to find good things about a movie when it's script and story is a convoluted mess. I mean, I think we all knew going into this movie that it was a second or third tier horror movie. After all, when top billing is Corey Feldman, the writing is on the wall. That said, there was some decent production value here. The haunted house attraction as a set piece was nice. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie taking place in the house had pretty decent make-up effects and captured a somewhat creepy atmosphere by mixing actors crucial to the "story" with people who were simply there for the attraction (also some form of actors, I'm sure). This film tries really, really hard and there was some part of me... way deep down, that felt bad for it. I wanted to like the movie. Sadly, it made no sense... which brings me to the Bad....
The Bad: It made no sense... lol. Simply put, this movie had far too much ambition and badly botched the execution. They threw every horror cliché at the wall and just hoped something stuck. You had possessions, implied ghost stories, zombies, possessed artifacts, killer dolls, satanism, haunted houses, clairvoyance and the list goes on and on. It's actually more ridiculous than I just made it seem, which is pretty darn bad. I've seen a LOT of bad horror movies. Cheap ones with no budget, all the way to major label releases and I've learned one thing along the way: don't try to do too much if you aren't sure you can execute the idea properly. I'd rather watch a one-trick pony do that one trick really well than a pony that can't do any of the six tricks it tries to perform. No budget? No worries. Just have a good, simple idea and execute that one idea. This movie? Good Lord. It tries to weave so many story lines and subplots that it just confuses itself. I found myself scratching my head thinking, "Did I miss something? Am I just not smart enough to follow along? Did I nod off and miss a major plot point?" By the end of it, I realized that it was just a mess and there was nothing I could do to salvage the wreck. I certainly wasn't going to watch it again to see if I could find some semblance of cohesion in it all. I think the idea is that all these random occurrences, visions, clues, etc. would all be tied up neat and tidy at the end. Guess what? They didn't. We got left with a bunch of random junk that makes us feel like we missed something, when in fact, it's simply that the director/writer outsmarted himself. It's something we find a lot in these small, independent films: arrogance. In addition, the acting was pretty poor (especially Mr. Feldman) and the dialogue was as expected... which is bad, in case you couldn't figure that out. In the end, small budget, poor directing and script, poor actors, poor execution and confusing story made for a poor and confusing viewing experience.
The Feldster: As other reviewers have stated, the top billing Corey Feldman gets is a bit of a sham. His part in this movie was likely filmed as an afterthought to try and drum up some marketing hype. He plays a paranormal investigator who is listening to the unfolding story being told by a police officer. He's got about 5-10 minutes of screen time. And given that part of the story is already about a paranormal investigator, it doesn't work as anything more than a shoved-in-your-face cameo of a has-been. It's just as well though. I don't know what happened in this guy's life between Stand By Me and now, but one thing is completely certain... he's lost his acting chops. What's that? Oh yeah, drugs. I guess that's what happened. It's a nice throw-back to see him though. I mean, on the bright side, we get to see what he's has been up to all these years, right? His hair is still in the early Nineties and he's switched over to fake cigarettes, so that's something, I guess...
Synopsis: As a tale told to a paranormal investigator through a police officer that experienced it, the movie follows the intertwined stories of an owner of a haunted house attraction, a psychic, a different paranormal investigator and demons possessing a multitude of people to try to break through to this world.
The Good: It's really hard to find good things about a movie when it's script and story is a convoluted mess. I mean, I think we all knew going into this movie that it was a second or third tier horror movie. After all, when top billing is Corey Feldman, the writing is on the wall. That said, there was some decent production value here. The haunted house attraction as a set piece was nice. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie taking place in the house had pretty decent make-up effects and captured a somewhat creepy atmosphere by mixing actors crucial to the "story" with people who were simply there for the attraction (also some form of actors, I'm sure). This film tries really, really hard and there was some part of me... way deep down, that felt bad for it. I wanted to like the movie. Sadly, it made no sense... which brings me to the Bad....
The Bad: It made no sense... lol. Simply put, this movie had far too much ambition and badly botched the execution. They threw every horror cliché at the wall and just hoped something stuck. You had possessions, implied ghost stories, zombies, possessed artifacts, killer dolls, satanism, haunted houses, clairvoyance and the list goes on and on. It's actually more ridiculous than I just made it seem, which is pretty darn bad. I've seen a LOT of bad horror movies. Cheap ones with no budget, all the way to major label releases and I've learned one thing along the way: don't try to do too much if you aren't sure you can execute the idea properly. I'd rather watch a one-trick pony do that one trick really well than a pony that can't do any of the six tricks it tries to perform. No budget? No worries. Just have a good, simple idea and execute that one idea. This movie? Good Lord. It tries to weave so many story lines and subplots that it just confuses itself. I found myself scratching my head thinking, "Did I miss something? Am I just not smart enough to follow along? Did I nod off and miss a major plot point?" By the end of it, I realized that it was just a mess and there was nothing I could do to salvage the wreck. I certainly wasn't going to watch it again to see if I could find some semblance of cohesion in it all. I think the idea is that all these random occurrences, visions, clues, etc. would all be tied up neat and tidy at the end. Guess what? They didn't. We got left with a bunch of random junk that makes us feel like we missed something, when in fact, it's simply that the director/writer outsmarted himself. It's something we find a lot in these small, independent films: arrogance. In addition, the acting was pretty poor (especially Mr. Feldman) and the dialogue was as expected... which is bad, in case you couldn't figure that out. In the end, small budget, poor directing and script, poor actors, poor execution and confusing story made for a poor and confusing viewing experience.
The Feldster: As other reviewers have stated, the top billing Corey Feldman gets is a bit of a sham. His part in this movie was likely filmed as an afterthought to try and drum up some marketing hype. He plays a paranormal investigator who is listening to the unfolding story being told by a police officer. He's got about 5-10 minutes of screen time. And given that part of the story is already about a paranormal investigator, it doesn't work as anything more than a shoved-in-your-face cameo of a has-been. It's just as well though. I don't know what happened in this guy's life between Stand By Me and now, but one thing is completely certain... he's lost his acting chops. What's that? Oh yeah, drugs. I guess that's what happened. It's a nice throw-back to see him though. I mean, on the bright side, we get to see what he's has been up to all these years, right? His hair is still in the early Nineties and he's switched over to fake cigarettes, so that's something, I guess...
