User Reviews

Clearly a "starter up" film for a new producer on a low budget. To truly rate this film you must try your best to look past that fact, and towards unbiased judgmental responses.

The plot to the film is decent, it attempted to follow multiple persons and I did feel there was great potential in following a drug addict w/ schizophrenia, or DID or whatever. The directness Of the plot was likely one of the best features (name introduction followed by features), but then the film began to go downhill. A story wasn't overtly prevalent and certainly failed to intrigue a viewer. In addition the black & white fell short of what it was meant to add to the film (also being an obvious coverup for poor visual effects and acting). Finally, I couldn't stand the music. I love a film which uses upbeat music at completely inappropriate times, or vice versa. This puts one's senses on alarm and can add confusion, but this films miss matched music certainly did not possess this ability. 4/10 for good effort and potential in future movies.

I declined to give this movie a rating. This movie should not be reviewed as a normal movie. That would be like putting a kid's crayon drawings in the Louvre and asking people to critique them against DaVinci and Rembrandt. Pointless and cruel to the kid.

I get what Dakota Ray is doing. He's not seeing what he wants in current horror so he's doing it himself. Is he qualified? Not a chance. This movie is substantially worse than several student films I participated in in college. But you have to give him credit for getting out there and doing it rather than sitting on IMDB taking potshots at other film makers.

This movie tries to take a sort of "metal" approach. There's nothing redeeming here. There's nothing good about any of the characters. There's no moral, no lesson other than that there is no redemption in this world. There's sensationalized prostitution and drug use. It's pure pulp slasher horror, and on that level it succeeds. I doubt many people are going to argue about what kind of a moral or social statement this movie makes. You're seeing it for the shock value, and the luridness.

(Personally, I think that looking for social or moral statements in horror movies - even if such statements are actually in the movies - is an attempt by the viewer to deflect from his own voyuerism. "I'm not watching for the shocks - I'm watching for the message." Right. You probably read Playboy for the articles, and go to Hooters because you like the food, too.)

I would like to see what Ray could do with, say, $50,000 and the advice of a seasoned film maker.

If you put a gun to my head and FORCED me to rate this movie, I'd say F for technical execution (including writing, acting, etc), C- for originality, but a big fat A for gumption and moxie.

It's funny how horrible it is. Director/actor/writer probably did too much acid bought a video camera and edited footage of plotless devil stuff.

I have a real soft spot for the types of films that Dakota Bailey directs and writes. I love the indie feel to these films and how coherent and consistent the scummy worlds he builds are. While My Master Satan: 3 Tales of Drug Fueled Violence and American Scumbags both had their moments I feel like The Acid Sorcerer is a step up from those while still retaining the familiar style. I loved the trailer for this one and it is always good when a film does live up to it's trailer.

As always there isn't really a central plot to be found here, instead it is once again a slice of life offering showing the day to day life of some true American scumbags. First there is Smoke (Dakota Bailey) who is a serial killer drug addict whose compulsion to kill comes from a shadowy being that follows him around. Then there are homeless drug addict couple Crawdad and pregnant Vermina who will do anything to get their next fix. We also get a glimpse into the life of the most crazy one; cross dressing serial killer and snuff film maker Nikki (Nick Benning) who might end up with more than he bargains for when a HIV infected prostitute becomes his next victim. These characters are all loosely tied together by drug dealer Eyevin (Brian Knapp).

While there isn't much of an actual story playing out after the sometimes meandering and disjointed American Scumbags this felt like a return to form, yet without the sound issues of Bailey's earlier films. While the lo-fi look is a novel thing it is good to be able to actually consistently be able to understand what characters are saying. I also felt the return to more dialogue was a good move as focus on scenes of action never really worked too well. Probably my favourite part of the original films was the psychedelic acid trip segments and here there are two of them that are both great looking in a nightmarish way. I love the filter used for these and with the rest of the film in black and white these brightly coloured sections stand out. As always the film is split into different chapters that helps the disparate story lines stay apart from each other with the traditional Gothic font used for the chapter headings.

There are plenty of depraved scenes here from pregnant women doing hard drugs to a prostitute not caring she will spread her disease to clients of hers, to random and senseless scenes of violence and plenty of animal cruelty, while other scenes are inserted just for shock value but work within the films context. A missing child poster being ripped up and thrown on the ground, a roadside memorial being kicked over, and a child's grave's crucifix being destroyed all happen because every single character here are self serving, nasty people and so it's like they cant help but ruin things. The nihilism and pessimism of the films dark universe is all pervasive, I again felt like this was an alternate dimension, or a near future apocalyptic landscape as there is no hope to be found here, just murder, drugs and abuse. This comes across in the dialogue too, which occasionally comes across as a little cheesy, though with some characters it works. I really liked the idea of Smoke having some sort of split personality represented by a shadowy figure, it felt original and wasn't something I had seen in Bailey's films before. Comments such as "Humans are nothing more than glorified animals" said by a demonic character fit well. I also liked the set dressing, the many close up shots of graffiti with slogans such as 'I spread hate like herpes' added tone to the poverty stricken surroundings.

The Acid Sorcerer isn't a film that everyone would enjoy, it can be a bit of an acquired taste, yet there aren't many people who make films such as these, at least not compared to the more mainstream horror/crime films out there. While I felt the ending was a bit of a non event, with no real resolution the 50 minute film as a whole was an improvement over the previous ones with better quality footage, better sound (including a great soundtrack by Ramesses), and some stand out characters (especially Smoke, Eyevin and Vermina).