Live Feed (2006)

Director:

Ryan Nicholson

Writers:

Roy Nicholson (written by) &
Ryan Nicholson (written by)

Release Date:

26 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Vacation to Hell

Plot:

Five young adults are about to find themselves in a fight for their lives, pitted against evil itself...

Plot Keywords:

Food | Stabbing | Erection | Extreme Gore | Extreme Sex

Cast

Kevan Ohtsji	...	Miles
Taayla Markell	...	Emily
Stephen Chang	...	The Boss (as Stephen M.D. Chang)
Colin Foo	...	Shards
Greg Chan	...	The Butcher
Rob Scattergood	...	Darren
Lee Tichon	...	Mike
Caroline Chojnacki	...	Linda
Ashley Schappert	...	Sarah
Mike Bennett	...	The Giant Executioner
Ted Friend	...	The Whiteman
Patrick Pon	...	Triad Henchman 1
Mike Wu	...	Triad Henchman 2
Hansen Li	...	Triad Henchman 3
Jennifer Chow	...	Asian Girlfriend 1

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, sexual content, language and some drug material.

Runtime:

77 min | 81 min (unrated version)

Country:

Canada

Language:

Cantonese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | UK:18 | Germany:Not Rated (SPIO/JK) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Creepy Six Films

Trivia:

Due to an actual murder outside of a Chinese restaurant a few feet away from the filming location, the production had to move the final gun fight from the alley to inside the cinema the day before shooting due to concerns from the community.

Quotes:

Emily: Why did you pick us!
The Whiteman: Nobody picked you! You came at your own free will.

Movie Connections:

References The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

A low budget modern grindhouse treat

Having read many reviews of this movie, complimentary and otherwise and a lot of the directors chat on the message boards, I was pretty psyched to watch this and it did not disappoint. I watched it on the smellovision and a little way in nearly made the mistake of switching off cause I thought it might have been the cut version. Fortunately I kept watching (it wasn't cut) and had a big stupid grin on my face at the end. I thought it was comfortably a cooler film than Hostel, which many compare it to. What made the film such fun for me was the pace and the twisted verve put into all the gore scenes. Though the low budget was very evident, the grue was utterly splendid and I particularly enjoyed the use of swords since I am a huge fan of Lady Snowblood, the Lone Wolf and Cub series etc. Unlike Hostel it never made me wince, which I appreciated because I don't like to wince. Instead I smiled and sometimes even cheered at the grisly goods on display, with some making me laugh out loud. The acting was passable, about average for one of these kinda films and it suitably conveyed a set of pretty unlikeable characters that I really wanted to die horribly. The evil characters were the best, with Stephen Chang particularly gnarly as the boss and the old man in the theatre endearingly creepy. The writing is OK, again about par with a few funny lines and the odd film reference. The direction was often great, especially for a low budget feature length debut, conjuring up a sense of doom from the outset and only slightly faltering in the fight scenes. Having said that I rarely appreciate fight scenes in movies from the West because Oriental films almost invariably do it better and at least Live Feed made them plenty gory. I liked the music, particularly in the snake scene, it suited the events well. The movie is pretty thin plotwise and suffers from character related issues as well as the obvious budgetary constraints holding it back aesthetically, but this is still a great fun time and an ace debut. It makes me want to see everything Ryan Nicholson does, cause the guys clearly a grindhouse champ and a cool gut to boot. Having given me some of the best fun outside of 70's and 80's classics, I highly recommend this one to to splatter and grind hounds.