Reviews

I just got done watching Red State via On Demand for $9.99. I just heard about this movie today and it did sound very interesting, enough so that I did spend 10 bucks on a HD PPV to see it. Right off the bat, I gotta say that it really wasn't what I was expecting and it could have been so much more. Instead it felt very flat. I was also expecting much more from something written by Kevin Smith. For a Hollywood production that cost around 4 million dollars, I have to ask where the money went. I know by Hollywood standards 4 million is pocket change but I've seen plenty of amazing indie horror movies over the years that were made on hardly anything and managed to not only tread new ground in the horror genre but surpass anything on the big screen.

My issue is that as a life long horror fan, this wasn't much of a horror movie, let alone a very good one. It suffers a lot of genre problems, the most common would be not writing decent characters, the entire point of making a good horror movie is to have at least one character for the viewer to like because if you don't care about anyone in the movie then all you're doing is spending 90 minutes just waiting for random people to get killed off. This movie really didn't bother much with characters. It starts with three guys obviously in their early 20's playing teenagers who's entire motivation is having sex with a loose woman. As you'd expect from this kind of movie, it's all a trap set up by the villains of the movie. The villains are religious cult very much based around Fred Phelps and his church of hate, only these people are gun nuts who hoard military grade firearms and take it upon themselves to execute people who they feel God hates. There is one person in the compound that isn't evil but everyone else is evil. The direction of the movie shifts into the local police for a little bit and then the ATF is on the case and they become the focus of the movie. It becomes what you'd expect, they try and do the whole Waco Texas event with the cult standoff. There's a moral gray area in this portion of the movie and it's about the ATF guys being ordered to go in and kill everyone, well they know there are hostages as well as children of the cult inside. The moral gray area just doesn't really hold up as well, again no good characters and no real reason to care if the entire cult gets slaughtered or not.

That's a summary of the whole plot right there without spoiling anything major. There are a lot of things to take issue with in the writing, especially considering how it's Kevin Smith, this guy is normally good at writing entertaining characters. As far as being a horror movie goes, it's barely passable, it's more of a thriller type movie but with weak tension and not enough real drama. The violence was very tame, it's all gunshots and most of them aren't actually shown. That is all you ever see, just a few squibs and one somewhat gruesome gunshot wound. What I was expecting was something closer to the 1965 cult classic Two Thousand Maniacs where these people were totally nuts but they took the killings and made them into their entertainment, really having fun with it. Here it's just wrap them in plastic and shoot them in the head ritualistically. With the ATF element, I think they were going more for the George Romero film The Crazies but it just wasn't working, plus with The Craziest it was more about fearing the trigger men of the government and here it's cold g-men with guns vs a cult with no redeeming qualities. Another better direction this could have taken would be something more humor driven like Machete which actually told a much stronger political message than Red State did. Speaking of the obvious political aspect to the movie, it really doesn't show until very late into the movie and it doesn't even attempt to be subtle, it's just right out in the open. A very flat message that doesn't really mean much in 2011, why not say this when George W. Bush was president? Another point I want to make is that it really could have been much worse. I mean at least they didn't totally beat you over the head with the political message, well they did that but it was just one scene. But I have to say I was relived that it wasn't another one of these torture movies like the first two Saw movies, Hostel, Grotesque, and Martyrs where it's nothing but horribly written one dimensional "characters" getting tortured off camera for the entire movie. That's a trend I was sick of from day one, I mean if a movie made to shock people isn't as gory as 1963's Blood Feast (the original gore movie) then I think they aren't even trying. So maybe the whole gunshot thing isn't so lame because they could have easily went for lots of torture scenes that are 95% off camera. In the end it was a well made Hollywood production that does look good and sound good in HD. It didn't really work as a horror movie, it lacked the emotional spark to be a drama, and it lacked the tension to be a thriller. It's just a well made but very bland movie overall. I'm not saying avoid it at all costs but don't go in expecting too much.

I decided to give in and watch The Human Centipede bluray this morning. I've been watching plenty of bad movies for fun lately, the last ones I've seen were The Worst Horror Movie Ever Made, Troll 2, and The Room. All very fun and entertaining bad movies but The Human Centipede was the opposite of fun and entertaining.

I went in with no expectations and ended up just screaming at my TV for an hour and a half. I haven't seen so much stupidity in a horror movie since Hostel, Rob Zombie's Halloween, Martyrs, Gutterballs, and Return To Sleepaway Camp. It's rare for me to hate a movie only minutes into it but this gave me no choice. It starts with an old German man who looks like Butt-Head with a little Beavis bone structure, he's sitting in his car early in the morning and looking at pictures of what appears to be dogs sniffing each other butts. Then a truck stops behind his parked car, the truck driver walks to a chain link fence (in a very public area with several dozen cars passing by the second) so he can go number 2. The German man takes a rifle out of his car, tries to conceal it under his coat, and nonchalantly walks behind the truck driver, shoots him, and we see the opening title. I'm not sure how there were no witness or anyone who heard the shot.

The main plot is about two obnoxious American girls on vacation in Germany who want to attend a party. They leave their room and drive through the woods in the middle of nowhere when they suddenly get a flat tire. They have no idea how to change a tire so they start bickering and crying for minutes while an old pervert who speaks no English pulls up to harass them. Eventually they wander through the woods while screaming at each other and saying their names in every sentence, because I guess that's how people talk. They do find a house so they knock and Butt-Head answers the door and invites them in. He then gives them drugged water, freaks out when one girl spills her glass, demands she drinks more water, and eventually he gets suspicious enough for the girls to worry but by then they're already drugged. They wake up in restraints only to find out that the doctor is going to kill the trucker because he isn't a tissue match. He leaves and comes back with a Japanese guy, that is the very depth of this character. The only thing he ever does in the entire movie is screams in Japanese at the top of his lungs. When he has the three people he needs, he shows a slide show of his evil mad scientist plan to create The Human Centipede. A medical experiment that makes absolutely no sense and has no practical application.

For a while not much is really going on aside from Dr. Butt-Head ranting and acting like an idiot and the three victims crying like babies that need a diaper change. On the day of surgery one girl tries to escape and it's one of the most pathetic escapes I have ever seen, it's logic hurdle over logic hurdle like refusing to leave through the front door and steal the doctor's car, eventually the doctor catches the girl and makes her the middle of he centipede. The surgery scene is incredibly boring. You see some teeth pulled off screen and there's a circular incision that is barely shown, that is as gory as this movie ever gets. 1963's Blood Feast had a ton of gore and while looking laughably bad almost 50 years later, it is much more gruesome than The Human Centipede. 46 minutes into the movie you see the actual Human Centipede, which is three people with stitch effects on their faces and tons of bandages. The doctor parades them around the house, tries to teach them tricks, makes the front guy eat out of a dog dish, screams at them a lot, and the three of them do the usual routine of crying and the Japanese guy screaming in Japanese.

There isn't any more plot I can reveal without spoiling the movie but it only gets stupider. By the end it just creates a void where any sense of logic or humanity should be. The movie is just very boring, nothing much happens, there is just barely enough violence for an R rating, little nudity, no real plot, no characters or development, and just a very dull movie. I think what could have saved this movie is just taking the idea and making it into more of a comedy like replace the German doctor with Tommy Wiseau or The Iron Sheik and replace one of the girls with someone like Paris Hilton. Just outright spoof your own movie and it could have some watchable content. There is just nothing in this movie that I can possibly recommend. It isn't the worst movie, Manos: The Hands Of Fate and Birdemic: Shock and Terror were much worse and a lot more boring. The Human Centipede just goes nowhere and doesn't even make any attempt at being an interesting or original movie.

August Underground in a lot of ways feels like an experiment. The idea is to create a "found footage" serial killer movie that really delivers the serial killer experience. In other words it isn't a slasher movie, it isn't like a lot of phony serial killer movies, and it isn't much like a traditional movie. It's all filmed on a handcam and it has the look of a home movie where you see footage that's been filmed over other stuff and lots of cuts with the camera recording much later on. For all of the chaos, it really does tell a very subtle story and there is a lot more thought to it than just a bunch of random murders. I'll admit that when I first saw the movie, I hated it. Something made me want to see it again and again anyway, eventually I started to understand it and the best way to watch it is with director's commentary because it really explains everything in great detail. The movie is shot to look like real footage of a serial killer and his friend with the camera so obviously they can't break character or talk straight into the camera over what they're going to do. It's not easy to follow the first time but it does have a plot.

It all starts off where the guy with the camera walks into the basement. The camera has a really awful picture which was intentional, the very raw look of the footage really adds to the realism and gritty nature of it. In the basement there is porn pasted all over the walls, filth everywhere, and a woman tied up, bleeding, and mutilated. She is alive and the killer (played by the director, Fred Vogel) and the cameraman are humiliating her in various ways. Those first 5 or so minutes really hit hard and are just a taste of things to come. Everything that is filmed has a point and there is continuity to that. A prime example is there's a scene where the killer murders an old woman in her home, it wasn't just for the sake of it but she was easy prey and they needed her car so they could blend in better in that town with local plates. Director's commentary really makes much more sense of the movie. That's pretty much how watching the movie is, you're just seeing a mix of home movies and murder on this video. These guys aren't Freddy or Jason, they don't kill 24/7 and they sure aren't the antisocial quiet types. The two guys are great friends, they like to party, go to concerts, drink, hang out with friends, and do lots of very normal things. Serial killers in real life are like that, Ted Bundy was quite the charmer and Albert Fish could persuade people to leave their kids with him.

As for the violence, it's not the goriest movie ever made by a long shot. The sequels were far more gruesome while the original feels a bit more reserved and some of the scenes they wanted were too difficult to film which actually kind of worked in their favor. The camera only comes on when these guys are in control so you never see anyone abducted, the killers chasing people, stalking, or taking any risk where having the camera on would be a hindrance unless they have a plan. When they do kidnap someone, they start recording when the person is tied up, bloody, and broken. There isn't a lot of on screen torture or mutilation but the special effects on the bodies of their victims are incredibly realistic looking and it's very sickening to see. It's hard to compare it to anything more well known because nothing else really has this style of violence. For example Hostel had almost all off screen violence but the effects you did see look incredibly fake. August Underground did plenty of make up effects before shooting the scene but the effects look like they could be real cuts, bruises, and dismemberments.

Overall it's not something for everyone. Realistically, a good 85% of the people who watch this movie will hate it outright. If you're expecting nothing but the craziest gore ever then you'd probably be better off watching something like Faces Of Death. August Underground is more of an art film without trying to be an art film. It's not really a total horror film nor does it feel like any movie you've seen, that's something that is a very acquired taste. It's really made for a very specific group of hardcore horror fans. Another thing is how much August Underground has been taken by mainstream film. If wasn't for AU then there wouldn't be this Hollywood fad of "torture porn" like Saw, Hostel, The Collector, and other torture heavy horror movies which despite their very high production values lack the realism of AU and the ability to go as far. Even major movies like The Dark Knight borrowed from AU, the scene where The Joker uses that handcam to murder the cop was heavily inspired it. It's a very love or hate movie with little to no middle ground. Another thing is that it wasn't made for shock value but it was made to give people something to think about. Even if you thought it was the worst movie you've ever seen, it will stick with you and make you think.

I'm a life long horror fan and I've seen thousands and thousands of horror movies from all over the world and movies that range from 1080p to shot on a cheap VHS camcorder in the 80's. Nowadays I feel almost dead inside because of crappy the horror genre has gotten and Hollywood really has ran out of ideas. The biggest mainstream horror movies are mostly stealing ideas from the underground, indie, other countries, or outright remaking movies. Toe Tag on the other hand makes horror movies for hardcore horror fans but seem to put people off who go in expecting just a gore movie. Maskhead really is the easiest Toe Tag movie to watch and it does feel like a nice merge of the underground and the mainstream.

As you've noticed on the main page, Maskhead is a collaboration between Fred Vogel (Toe Tag Pictures) and Scott Swan (best known for John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns.) Two young and creative minds getting together and really doing something unique. It's not another fake snuff film and it really isn't a masked killer or slasher film. The plot is about a modeling agency scouting for talent to make some soft core fetish videos. The movie is shot on two cameras, one is digital video hand camera which is mostly used during interviews and the other is a traditional steady camera. They film the movie almost like what you're watching is a mix of the footage the characters are filming but also it's like a movie where you see these characters off the set. The footage is mixed around so you'll see things out of chronology but it all makes more sense later on. The people that run the modeling agency are two lesbians and when they interview people (mostly porn stars and wannabe stars) they do throw in some really provocative questions to see how they react on the fly. Another major character is Cowboy who in opinion was one of the best movie characters of 2009 and this guy was just overflowing with charisma. He talks a lot and has all kinds of wild stories to tell. You just can't get bored with Cowboy because he really is a charmer. Then there's Maskhead, nobody really talks about him and he doesn't talk much but he appears very disfigured, he wears a horrific mask (which is probably just to scare the hell out of people) and he brings a snuff element to the fetish videos.

That's the main idea of the plot and characters without spoiling anything. The audition scenes were mostly shot unscripted and those provocative questions did throw some actors off guard. The people being auditioned and interviewed are interesting to hear from and why they want to get into porn. As you would expect the men are all very over confident. The next portion of their screen time is staring in the fetish video. One of the best scenes is the clown girl which actually has quite a cult following. She does things like a balloon fetish and other things until the she sees something she can not unsee, at which point Maskhead grabs her and kills her. Each porn star is in a scenario like that and often times it builds to something very awful happening to them before Maskhead steps in from the shadows. It's talked about that Maskhead is the real star of these videos. The murders are pretty brutal but it's not too hard to watch, I mean it's tame compared to the August Underground series which I think is nice because it's gruesome but it isn't too off putting. I'd say it would probably be a bit much for a casual horror fan like someone who loves the Saw series but if you've seen lots of ultra gory movies then Maskhead is a bit light, which isn't a bad thing by any means. Maskhead is more about the characters and it's way of telling the story than it is about hardcore violence. Also for a movie with porn as subject mater, there really isn't much in the way of sexual content or nudity, but then it is supposed to be a soft core fetish video. I really think Maskhead was the #1 horror movie of 2009. I'd recommend it to fans of gruesome underground horror as well as people who like horror but aren't looking for something that goes to the point of mental scaring or making you sick. If this is your first Toe Tag movie then I'd say this would be the best choice followed by The Redsin Tower and Sella Turcica, they really have came a long way from the studio making serial killer snuff movies.

I just got done watching Birdemic for the first time, I knew it was made on 10,000 dollars and it is regarded as one of the worst movies of all time. This same day I also watched The Happening and The Crawling Eye (MST3K version) so maybe I was feeling masochistic. This movie was all around bad in every aspect. It looks like it was shot on a fairly cheap digital video camera and it's obvious that the sound was recorded from the microphone built into the camera instead of a boom mic. I know that because the sound is very awful, the actors have to be pretty close to the camera to be heard right, and there's way too much loud background noise which in post production they played a lot of public domain elevator music to drown out the background noise. The worst audio issue was when they film on the beach because the sounds of the beach are 5 times louder than the actors voices.

The movie itself is very slow paced, the first half of the movie is just the main guy meeting his dream girl and building their relationship. The problem is that nobody in this movie can act and the writing was pitiful so what we get are very bland characters, not even vanilla more like tofu bland. We get no reason to care about these people in any way and to make them less likable the main guy has to talk about solar panels, hybrid cars, global warming, and even the war in Iraq as much as he can. The script is almost a love letter to Al Gore. This feels like an eternity where it goes from his boring job that he is way too enthusiastic about, his obsession with a greener world, and his dates.

The second half of the movie is when the birds finally go on a rampage. Lots of 2D computer generated birds that fly around in circles and attack their prey by hovering in place while moving their wings up and down and making the same noise looped over and over the whole movie. Somehow these berserk eagles can set house on fire as well as kill people in one swoop. The couple ends up meeting another couple who lets them ride in their van, this van has everything from handguns and two AK-47 assault riffles with unlimited ammo (I'm guessing the van has Game Genie,) as well as medical supplies, and anything the plot requires. Most of the movie has these people gunning down birds and searching for survivors. The survivors they meet all have long boring monologues about how it isn't the eagles we should be afraid of, it's global warming and mankind's use of fossil fuels that is responsible for this disaster.

As far as the action goes, it's about as lame as the trailer makes it look. When someone dies it's just a bird hovering in front of the person and they fall down with blood make up on them. There's also some really pointless scenes there just to raise the body count like a man who pulls a gun on them (even though they still have an assault riffle that they seem to forget about for the rest of the movie)who wants their gas, which they say cost them 100 dollars a gallon. There's a whole lot of nothing interesting going on. At least companies like Troma can take a 10 cent movie and throw in lots of nudity, over the top gore, and comedy. The people behind Birdemic have the worst CGI effects since the old Star Trek movies and long speeches about the environment. If you watch it, bring some friends and laugh at it because it works in that regard. Other than that it's Duck Hunt: The Movie.

I've been hearing plenty about this movie, from good to bad. When I first saw the trailer, it looked like nothing short of raw exploitation and shock and I was seriously angry. Reading more from different forums where people are praising this Human Centipede crap and saying this will out shock them all, I was even more against this movie. I couldn't help but to still be curious, even after hearing people either talk about the ultra sick content to it being some kind of artistic movie that is relevant to modern day Serbia. I had my chance to watch it and it was so much better than anything I could have expected.

The review that really got me interested was on IMDb, it's called "A story of smut, shock, gore, rape, murder and psychological terror!." This guy had the right idea and spoke my language in terms of being a guy who has seen the sickest of the sickest. A hard part about reviewing A Serbian Film is talking about the plot without really giving it away. It's very well thought out and as strange as some of the characters are, they're really flawed and human. It's not the usual crap you see from guys like Eli Roth or Rob Zombie where caricatures are their idea of a fully developed human being. Simply put, we all know the basic set up, a semi-retired porn star gets an offer he can't refuse so he takes it so he can support his wife and son. Things get weirder and weirder by the day until he can't take it and quits. Well they drug him and he wakes up 3 1/2 days later trying to piece his memories together and figure out what happened.

This is all built up around the first half of the movie and in the 2nd half is more about the search for what happened which is not pleasant. Everything from being drugged up to the point of a raged animal and unleashed on strangers to more situations where they keep pushing him closer to the edge. The beauty of it is that you have this movie shot in HD and the flashbacks have this very fast paced style, it's almost like Crank or Oldboy. In terms of content, if you've seen the August Underground movies then you aren't going to be very shocked, I mean yeah it is horrific at some points but the violence is much more mild but the rapes in Serbian Film are much more graphic looking. It's not like Antichrist where they bring in nude body doubles, thankfully they just use rubber man parts in the scenes that would show a penis. It looks a bit fake but I think using a fake one is more tasteful. Let's say if the 3 August Underground movies are the ghost chili of horror, A Serbian Film is closer to wasabi. Not that there isn't more they could have done, it's all a matter of context. AU had it's subtle plot about these serial killers filming their lives and Serbian was more a character study.

My bottom line is don't watch this if all you want is the sickest and most brutal movie possible, that's the same reason 80% of the people who watch pirated versions of August Underground's Mordum hated the movie. Also don't watch it to expect some kind of world changing allegory because you aren't getting one, I mean yeah you see what a dump Serbia is from the war but violent porn doesn't carry that message, it just shocks you in ways most movies wouldn't dare to. If you want to enjoy A Serbian Film, watch it with an open mind and I'd say think of it more as a mystery story than you would as another "shock movie" of the overused and never relevant term "torture porn." It is sick, it isn't pleasant, but they tell a compelling story and they don't hold back on the raw nature of it.

When I first saw all 3 August Underground movies, I really didn't like the series. I think this is the one that stood out to me the most but the thing that turned me off was the parts where no one is getting killed. It took me until about the 3rd time when I really understood what the reasoning of this movie is and why there is more going on than just senseless violence. A big help was reading interviews with Fred Vogel and reading professional horror reviews which really helped me appreciate this movie.

It really is something that most people will despise and a select group is going love but there isn't any real middle ground. The style is something different since it's pretty much about 3 serial killers with a camcorder and they film their atrocious crimes and they also film themselves hanging out and showing what they do in their spare time. It's more about saying that these are somewhat regular people who like to party, smoke a little dope, go to concerts, and have fun but then you also see not only their darker side but you also see these people at their most vulnerable too.

A big part of the footage is seeing the relationship of these three killers and how the two guys are trying to win over the attention of the one woman in the group. The killers are also very interesting to watch as well and they all have their own different personalities as well as different things they like to do when killing. What works is that they show you all kinds of sick and disturbing stuff and they also show you how these people are in their every day lives and it feels very real and natural as opposed to most horror movies with a masked man who kills 24/7 and doesn't do anything resembling what a human being would do.

As far as the way it looks goes, it's not pretty. The quality is just a decent camcorder and it does get pretty shaky but it's only to add to the concept of making it look like real footage. The gore is just top notch and really some of the best I've ever seen, really in league with movies like Cannibal Holocaust. In the end it does feel very genuine and gritty. Nothing fancy, nothing pretty, but it sure does look like the real thing.

It's only a matter of if you'll love it or hate it. If you buy this movie only to see a lot of really gory stuff then you'll be satisfied with the gore but bored with the character development and the unorthodox way of telling this story without really telling a story. This isn't the type of movie to dumb things down and explain anything so it might take a few viewings to get it. But I'd say 80% of the people who see it won't like it but if you have a very open mind and a strong stomach then this really is a very unique movie to watch.

I really never understood all the hype for Eli Roth. Cabin Fever wasn't a very good movie and Hostel was just a total bore. I saw Hostel twice and kept an open mind but it's 90% talk and when someone does die you don't see very much, and what you do see looks incredibly fake. So is Hostel 2 much better? Kind of.

So the characters aren't very interesting. Pretty shallow too, there is the main woman who is the better of the group, her slutty drunk of a friend, and the ultra winy friend who you would be tempted to kill too. It's almost like they just want you to see them die because they annoy you so much and give nothing back to redeem themselves. Then you have the people who are paying to kill these people, you get to see them and learn more about the kind of people who would pay over 60 thousand dollars to kill a stranger. But they aren't that interesting and very predictable.

There isn't any real tension in the "will she escape alive" area of the movie, you already know that if someone is being chased then they will just end up in the killing place. Everything is extremely predictable and they never try to do anything you wouldn't expect. Also the pacing is just as bad as the first Hostel, there is one off screen kill early on and one very bloody yet not particularly gruesome kill in the first hour. Not much happens until near the end of the movie just like part one. The kills are mostly very over the top, it's like the movie tries to take itself so dead serious but they use kills that would look too stupid for a Troma movie.

Also like Hostel 1 there is so much build up for the kills and then you don't get much out of it. Lots of really fast movements so you can barely tell what just happened, very hokey effects, unrealistic kills, and very bland torture scenes. Why not at least try and shock the viewer. OK so if someone is going to pay 80% to kill an American woman don't you think he would be sick enough to force himself on her before he kills her? And why is it that in both movies they have really stupid annoying kids that aren't really there for a reason. Why don't they kidnap children and have people pay twice as much to kill little kids? They have the opportunity to shock, offend, and disgust the viewer but they decide to take everything very soft and hype everything up. I wasn't expecting Cannibal Holocaust or anything but at least if you promise to have such a shocking movie style that the media calls "torture porn" then at least attempt to back it up. It's like going to a restaurant and seeing the thickest, juiciest, most tender steak you've ever seen so you order it and get a flat McDonald's looking hamburger pattie instead.

The movie is just boring and the kills just aren't even shocking. It's like they're hyping it to be like the main stream equivalent to August Underground's Mordum when it's really the most tame horror movie imaginable with the biggest hype and build up that they can buy. It's all sizzle and no steak. Eli Roth just seems like Uwe Boll with more credibility.

I saw the work print and the only really difference is that in the final cut they removed the rape scene, tacked on a little more blood, and changed the ending. Regardless of what they do "more blood" won't make this movie any less awful than it already is.

So it starts off with the young Michael Myers who is a fat, ugly, spoiled brat with not one likable trait. His mom is a striper, his dad is a drunken sob, his sister is a slut. And yes, that is as deep as his family gets. It's like Rob Zombie just watched Jerry Springer and took notes. Every character in this movie aside from Dr. Loomis, Michael's mom, and Laurie have very little dialogue and there is little to no character development. Everyone in this movie was written as a one note stereotype without any likable features. It's all promiscuous women, sex obsessed men, white trash, preps, and that's really it.

So you have a cast of people that you are never even given a reason to care about and you just wait for them to die. Also there is no suspense in the whole movie. You see Michael first and then you see someone put them self in a vulnerable situation minutes in advance. You always get a heads up way in advance before anything happens. When someone does die the kills are very lame like he just does the same 3 kills over and over again and it's mainly just stabbing or beating someone over and over and usually after the first strike the rest is either off screen or the camera is running all over place so you can't even tell what your looking at.

The music was very misused. In the original Halloween you can have a camera walk up stairs in the dark and then edit in the Halloween theme and it becomes creepy, here it's like they just used the old Halloween music at random and didn't even bother trying to make it add any tension. There are also some various classic rock songs that show up for no reason other than to say this is set in the late 70's.

The story is very boring and just drags on and on. The so called back story of Myers is that he was an obnoxious kid who could somehow over power and kill people a lot bigger than him. Instead of him stealing his mask from a store he kills a guy who was on screen for less than 5 minutes and takes the mask from him. Also as a kid he talks but then after demanding to be let out of the mental hospital and being turned down after asking 3 times in a row he never speaks ever again. The first 30 minutes or so are just him as a kid. Laurie doesn't show up until about the 2nd half of the movie and she just isn't even the slightest bit likable or charismatic. Also Dr. Loomis is very sympathetic for young Myers even when he stops talking but after the 15 years later gap he is convinced that Myers is the Devil in the flesh and must be stopped at all costs, they never really explain that plot hole.

So all you get are people who are disposable and only there as props for Michael Myers. In the original Halloween it was about the characters and John Carpenter said that Myers was little more than a prop to get the story across. So this remake just went in the complete opposite of the original. I really wanted to enjoy this movie but 5 minutes into I knew it was awful and I still sat through this mess and it only got worse. Somehow it's worse than Halloween 3-8, I don't how thats possible but it is. Do NOT waste your money on this movie, even if you can get a free pass just see something else. This movie doesn't have one redeeming quality and is a slap in the face to the entire horror genre. Do yourself a favor and rent the original Halloween.

I saw it first in theaters and years later the unrated DVD as a Blockbuster free rental. The movie feels like a con job, all you heard was how it's just way too violent and shocking but then when you see it all you really get is lots of talking, gratuitous soft core sex, and near the end of the movie some really bad gore effects. I've seen Troma movies that had a budget of what change they could find in their couch cushions that had far more realistic gore and of course much more creativity.

The problems with Hostel are that they took a decent idea and didn't even try and go anywhere with it. You have some American tourist who end up being kidnapped and tortured by wealthy Europeans. A big problem is that there is way too much talking and sex and not enough of the "horror" element. There aren't very many kills and what you do see looks insanely fake, like the blowtorch scene where all you see is the guys back and then they cut to the girl with red plastic glued to her face. You'll be better of just hitting fast forward through most of the movie since you won't be missing much, just lots of long conversations there to pass the time that don't add anything to the story.

There just isn't anything worth seeing in Hostel. Very little plot, badly filmed soft core sex for filler, and some of the worst gore effects you'll see in a major Hollywood movie. Do yourself a favor and get something good, may I suggest getting a Troma movie like Terror Firmer which has a perfect blend of horror, comedy, nudity, and loads of gore. All I can say is that Hostel has no redeeming qualities, maybe if it didn't take itself way too seriously it could have been slightly more watchable.

This is an amazing horror thriller. The only downer would be that there is really no gore, gallons of blood splatter all over but there is nothing on screen. What makes up for it is a script that is pure genius, great actors, a great set, beautiful women, and it's something different. Antonio Frau really is in league with Hannibal Lechter, Patrick Batman, and Jigsaw, I really see him as a mix off all of them.

Like Jigsaw he wants to weed out the people who ruined their own lives and don't deserve to live. He really is great with psychological torture. The tag line on the case was "The Spanish answer to Hostel." This was nothing like Hostel, I would call it the Spanish Answer to SAW or Hannibal. They story and the acting were enough to keep me entertained, which is very rare for me since when I bought this I also got 4 Troma movies so that really says quite a bit about the quality of H6. If you like independent and foreign movies that go places Hollywood wouldn't dare to go then H6 is worth your 20 bucks.

I hated Hostel with a passion, it was nothing short of Hollywood trash, it was a pathetic excuse at a shocking horror movie, it didn't have half the gore it promised, and it was all hype. Live Feed is not some generic Hostel ripoff, it's everything Hostel was supposed to be and it's 10 times better on every level.

There is a lot of sex and nudity and in terms of the sleaze factor it really delivers but unlike Hostel this movie doesn't just use sex as filler until someone gets killed too late in the movie, Live Feed has a perfect balance of suspense, story, sex, and gore. The pacing is just right, it doesn't waste too much time and unlike most Hollywood horror movies the characters are actually kind of interesting.

For a very low budget indy splatter film they really went all out with the gore, there were a few effects that I wasn't sure how they did (like the snake scene.) It isn't as gory as lets say Art Of The Devil or Evil Dead Trap but there is enough gore to satisfy a real gore hound.

The sets were also well done, it was supposed to take place in Japan but they did a good job of filming it in America to save money and use enough Asian actors to try and get the setting more authentic. This is just a really great indy horror movie, it's also better than anything I've seen in a movie theater in the last 5 years with the exception to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes, Hills Have Eyes, and Devil's Rejects. But this is a low budget film that can easily go toe to toe with the multimillion dollar Hollywood movies that are made just for a quick 10+ million dollars on the opening weekend that lack the heart, soul, and passion of an indy film.

There just so much hype about how different and artistic this movie is and I ended up buying it. This movie beyond garbage, it doesn't even deserve one star. What you have is a generic rape/revenge movie that does nothing different from movies like Last House On The Left or I Spit On Your Grave. The filmmakers must have watched the finished movie and realized what a pile of crap it was so they decided to start it at the end and then have it end at the beginning of the story so that way it would have a gimmick to please the artsy crowd.

It really isn't as brutal as people make it out to be, there is some blood effects and some sound effects but anyone with a camera and some actors can do a better job with it. 95% of the movie is dialogue, there are two scenes that have major impacts on the story, one is early on and the other is later on. So you'll be sitting through a really weak story with characters that you don't have any reason to give a damn about. If you can stay awake through the movie you'll see a very gratuitous rape scene that goes on for what felt like at least 10 minutes, it was nothing more than shock for the sake of shock.

In the end there is no message, no meaning, and not a single redeemable quality. I can't think of one positive thing I can say about this movie, the nicest thing I can say is that it isn't the single worst movie I've ever seen, but it still would make my top five. It would be right down there with trash like I Spit On Your Corpse I P**s On Your Grave, May, Night Beast, and Hostel. Even if you found this movie for one dollar I wouldn't suggest buying it, after seeing this movie you'll want your time back. I wouldn't urinate on this movie even if it was on fire.

It's like the Jackass crew decided that they were going to go all and surpass Jackass 1 in every way. This has to be one of the sickest movies I've seen in years and if I was going to compare it to anything Pink Flamingos comes to mind. It has tons of slap stick humor and insane stuns, but there is far more in the way of gross out humor. You'll see human and animal waste, lots of naked men (more scrotum's than you've than you ever wanted to see), and enough vulgarity to make Marquis De Sade smile in his grave. I really don't want to spoil any of the stunts considering that it would really ruin the fun of it. But I can say that Snakes On A Plane has nothing on Jackass 2, and there are some great snake scenes in Jackass 2. It's like this is the kind of movie where you already should know if you'll like it or not just from seeing the trailer.

There just isn't much to say, if you have a strong stomach and love to be shocked then you will be laughing your ass off from beginning to end.

I hated SAW with a passion. There was no gore, no suspense, loads of plot holes, and "shocker" ending thought up at the last second, not to mention it damn near plagiarized the much superior Se7en. How can the sequel get any worse? Well I went to Block Buster to spend my free rental, I didn't see anything halfway interesting so I grabbed SAW 2 because it can't be worst than the first and it got so much praise and hype.

So it starts almost exactly like part one. This guy has an iron mask filled with nails that will snap. OK I know for a fact it won't be gory because it'll just cover his face, what's the point. So I was right, just a little cheap blood. It goes on very slow paced with characters no one gives a damn about and never a reason to care if they live or die. Eventually everyone is locked in a room with no idea how they got there. They get a message that each one of them can unlock a safe and each one knows a number. Wait, did you ever see the movie Cube? Wow, they just ripped off Cube this time. But Cube had suspense and some gory moments and Saw one and two don't have either. So everyone of these idiots blinds runs right into every single trap without thing about it. It's like an hour in a half of watching rats walk into a mouse trap for a chunk of cheese. Not to mention that this movie isn't anywhere near as gory as it's hyped to be. as far as gore and violence go this would be a 3/10, even that snooze fest Hostel had a little more blood than this dung heap. Oh yeah and this Jigsaw killer is the lamest horror villain since the Leprechaun. Jigsaw is just a poor man's John Doe (Se7en) and Hannibal (in this movie he blatantly rips off Hannibal.) So just like SAW one everyone is stupid, there's no gore, and you already know who's going to die and how. For example "Hey I should craw into this giant oven, nothing could possibly go wrong here!" The movie treats it's viewers like idiots, and you know what after all the praise both movies got maybe they have a point. And like SAW one this movie does another moronic plot twist that will either leave you laughing or just insulted. Not to mention like SAW one this isn't the slightest bit scary. I think it's made to freak out teenie boppers who think I Know What You Did Last Summer was scary.

How do people say this movie is gory anyway? If you thought this was gory I'll bet you wet yourself in terror at the very mention of The Little Mermaid. You'll be better of renting or buying something good, like Se7en or Cube. I want my free rental back.

I bought the complete unrated uncut DVD and it was everything I could ever ask for in a movie. I'm a huge fan of 1970's exploitation films and this is the best. There is lots is hardcore, XXX, full penetration sex. The gore was decent but I the story telling made up for it. It's one of those rare movies that I could watch forever and wish it didn't have to end. It gets it point across very well and it portrays Caligula as not a monster or a mad man, but as an average young man given more power than he knows what to do with. It show him as a scared young man and how the power gradually corrupts him and he gets more evil and becomes more of a tyrant as the movie goes on. As far as the sex it's very erotic and high quality. The only down side is the gore was a bit lacking. I don't know why so many people hate this film, I would guess there just closed minded, uptight, prudes that can except a movie that is daring and won't hold back to tell the true story as accurately as possible.

I like FPS's but there are so few with creativity like DOOM 3 witch was just great visuals and mediocre game play, it's wait for monsters to pop out and you shoot them. The critics praise GTA San Andreas but it's just GTA 3 with a few minor tweaks and horrible controls for walking and shooting. Postal 2 is a breath of fresh air, just make sure to get Share The Pain it has half the load times and online play. Postal 2 is so creative, you can use a shovel (first weapon in the game) and knock someone head off and the physics let you kick the head around and the body too. Liquid is also realistic with the, physics you can make a trail of gas and set it ablaze and pee anywhere. It's fun to whip it out in the game, women point and laugh, and men goof on you until you pee in their mouth and watch them run, puke, or pull a gun out. One thing I hate about GTA games are missions were you baby set some fool and if he dies you screwed, races, and other missions that are more stressful that fun, Postal 2 has none of that. This game is very free roaming and you do missions at your own leisure. All buildings can be entered (unlike most games) you can beat the game guns blazing or with stealth your call. The missions are humorous and there is no story and boring cut scenes are short and don't waste your time. You get a check list in each level, like pick up your paycheck at Running With Scissors (makers of Postal 1 and 2) but all hell breaks lose when anti video game protesters take arms and gun down the company for their cause. There are also mazes that keep changing in some missions, and the way you play (passive or madman) will change some missions. Like at the bank when you cash your paycheck there are about 20 people in line, if you wait and cash it bank robbers show so you can sneak out or kill them all. If you don't want to wait you can rob the bank vault and kill at least 40 cops. As far as replay value it depend on the player, I've beaten the game 4 times and I mostly just go on killing sprees and I've been playing for several months and it's a good time killer. I can't wait for the single player expansion in January 2005. The best thing is Postal 2 is $20.00 or less. I'd recommend this to Unreal and Duke Nukem fans! 9/10