Reviews

Film-maker Jhananthan is known for making films that portray complex issues of the society in a rather simplistic ways (read it as impractical, amateur and preachy). This film too is no exception to that. The film is about a convicted terrorist awaiting death sentence at jail and his terror supporting friends' attempt at saving him via jailbreak before the inevitable happens.

From the first scene, it is apparent that the director wants to thrust his warped Utopian ideologies that is poorly disguised in a commercial platform on viewer's mind. This is one of those films that struggles to to have an identity of its own. It isn't out and out commercial film and at the same time it doesn't have a sense of realism. The film rightly bombed at the box office like the director's previous films. This is a badly written, badly acted, and most importantly badly directed flick which tries to speak against capital punishment while hyping communist ideology as the savior of mankind of sorts.

A story on stranded train passengers in the middle of the forest at the wee end of the night against unknown blood thirsty creatures makes for a good horror story on paper but when it comes to translating it into a creature feature, screenwriter/director has failed big time.

A very predictable cliché-ridden screenplay with utterly boring action sequences in which none of the characters on the screen garners viewer's interest/sympathy, making it a very dull affair. The film is filled with such ridiculously unbelievable stupid characters/moronic moments from starting frame to the end frame that it's not even comes closer to those films which are so bad that it's good category. This film needs its own category in terms of how awful a creature feature can go.

There are hardly any redeeming qualities that I could find in this unadulterated pathetic excuse for a film of epic proportion.

Where do I start?

The Story was non-existing.

Acting was pretty mediocre even for independent low budget horror movie standards.

Background score was abysmal, loud and totally inappropriate for most part of film's run time.

Much hyped creature effects has less than 10 seconds screen time.

Less said about the film's screenplay the better.

Overall, the director made mess of what seemed like a somewhat interesting premise.

In the early 90's, Tamil cinema was going through a phase where a number of films dealt with themes of College Romance/Teenage love stories. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Director G.M.Kumar (Aruvadai Naal, PickPocket, Irumbu Pookal fame) came with a movie that was totally against this tide. A gory horror film laced with clumsily executed soft porn acts. This movie was seen as a comeback vehicle not just for the director who had 2 flop films prior to this, also for 2 somewhat popular Tamil actors of 80's ('Mic' Mohan and Pallavi). This was one of the few movies where Mohan lent his own voice for his on screen persona instead of getting it dubbed by the dubbing artist S.N.Surendhar.

Coming to the story, Uruvam (means "Shape" in Tamil) in a nutshell is about how good overcomes the evil. Story centers on a House that is cursed with black magic by its previous tenant (who has lost a court case on the proprietorship of the house) against its new residents. How this innocent family escapes from the cursed house forms the crux of the story. This Film has got plenty of plot holes, inconsistent pace, and ham acting. This was also a box office disaster that made sure the director will not direct any more feature film in his career (ended up incurring heavy debts).

Despite all these shortcomings, it still got two very strong points that makes it a kind of cult classic among the fans of Tamil Horror genre. They are, haunting synth centric background score of Ilaiyaraja and Goosebumps raising camera work of Velu Prabhakaran. IMHO, Uruvam's original score is still among one of the best I've ever listened to (reminded me a lot of Cannibal Holocaust's terrorizing synth scores which was way ahead of its time). Whereas, cinematography of Velu Prabhakaran looks clearly inspired heavily from the works of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead series) is pretty intense and inventive for that time (remember, this film came in 1991 when the technology in film making were still at nascent from Indian film maker's point of view).

This combination makes this otherwise poorly written/acted movie to a must watch film for horror film buffs. Watch this film for its fantastic score and visualization, you won't be disappointed.

The Dark Floors is in the genre of Silent Hill, The Botched, and even for a certain extent The Langoliers (Made for TV).

Story is very similar to the above mentioned movies except here it has no objective and to top it up we have got a boring acting and very slow screen play.

Story goes like this-A group of people locked up in a hospital, are getting attacked by the mysterious creatures/spirits; an autistic child among the group seems to have some connection to this.

The characters are terribly one dimensional and garners no sympathy among viewers on their survival.

There is nothing positive about Dark Floors except it finishes in less than 90 minutes(even then its too dragging and boring for its 80 odd minutes) If you want to watch some better movies in this genre then try The Botched(at least it is silly) or even Silent Hill(has got better screenplay and acting) but not this Mess of a Movie Avoid Dark Floors

I have watched 8MM at least a dozen time since i bought the DVD last week,i got to admit that it is one of the best snuff film based movie i've ever seen.(though mute witness movie too come close but it is sort comic thriller) The characters in the 8MM were more of 3 dimensional,everyone affects the viewer in some way(especially the snuff victim's mother and the Joaquin phoenix) One could feel subtle tension throughout the movie,its impossible to miss great acting by cage. Background score is mild and pleasant whereas the screenplay is tight and entertaining,not to forget the good camera work. Overall 8MM is an out and out entertaining edge of the seat thriller with some melodrama Don't miss this movie at least watch it once ,im very sure you wont be disappointed

Being a fan of 80's horror flicks i thought demons will be one of those watchable English dubbed film after reading too many positive reviews on the net.Boy i am wrong, except for the initial 15 minutes the film simply dragging with traditional horror clichés. Though gore effects of the movie is okay the cast isn't.There are many scenes in which, one could literally feel to give a tight slap for the actors. All the characters in the movie were so dumb and stupid that there is no claustrophobic tension on their escape from theater. The movie is full of plot holes and irritating unnecessary overreaction from characters. The only saving grace for this movie is its background score. Giving 1 Star for this movie mainly because of its Music. Don't buy the DVD,only rent it if you are an ardent fan of Dario Argento. Avoid it if you can