Spike (2008) User Reviews

Are you people kidding me?

[JoeB131 · 2/10 · 22 August 2010]

Obviously, these other reviews are from crew members writing positive reviews so you won't know what a turkey this is.

The plot line is that a marine, his sister and their girlfriends (yes, the characters apparently don't have names, and two of them are lesbians for no apparent reason) are run off the road by the title monster puncturing their tires.

But instead of being a murderous freak like they would usually have in a movie like this, he's actually a sensitive freak who reads books and quotes poetry. Which means he's not only a freak but a sissy. Those spikes were no doubt nature's protection from a thousand well-deserved wedgies and being shoved into a locker. Unfortunately, it means he can't consummate his relations with the Marine's girlfriend, whom he has apparently known since childhood.

Wow, what a lucky break they just HAPPENED to be going down that road that night, eh?

There's a big chunk of the movie where the lesbians are forgotten, and frankly, their presence is the movie was incredibly unnecessary, other than to help pad out 10 minutes of story into 2 hours of my life I can't get back.

Joe B. Watching Bad Movies so you don't have to!

Teen Angst with Monsters

[PhilipGHarris · 2/10 · 21 June 2008]

I saw this at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the director quickly came on stage to introduce his movie and say we were the first audience to watch it. It hadn't been before a test audience and even the cast hadn't seen it.

I hope that following the audience reaction at the end of this movie and if he has the opportunity to direct again he will ensure these things happen next time.

I'll try to concentrate on the positives first and the opening ten minutes are definitely most of them. Here we see tight camera angles cleverly utilising budget, tension is also well created and just a few words or actions develops the characters apace. There are also nods towards characters doing idiotic things and everyone behaves rather sensibly given the situation (car spun off road due to some unusual spikes causing a puncture).

There is an odd dream sequence "Her Boyfriend" has in the initial crash that has absolutely no relevance to the rest of the movie and is therefore strangely defunct.

But then it all falls apart and any characterisation is lost as the cast firstly descend into illogical actions and then start to act against the character they seemed to have been given at the start.

"The girl" wanders into the woods and meets Spike who is in love with her (or are they in love with each other) and he has killed or has at least attempted to kill "Her Boyfriend".

And that's really the basis of the whole film. The dialogue is poor and given the ages the cast seem to portray the relationship between "The girl" and "Spike" given periods of time mentioned seems to make little or no sense.

If he really loves her could he not have found a better way of stopping the car then possibly sending her to her imminent death and realistically isn't his "love" (again unrequited or not? - you tell me)rather odd. She obviously doesn't love him as she has taken on another partner.

Direction leaves a lot to be desired with the action (not that there is any) languishing on characters for such lengths of time that, as the viewer next to me whispered, sometimes we really needed reminding of what the other actors were doing. And this is a very small ensemble cast.

The film is desperately trying to be a Gothic love story and fails at every turn - turning it into an Emo love story (with everything you would expect it to entail).

But I'm not even sure that Emo kids would find any enjoyment in it.

I also haven't seen such a disappointed and negatively critical audience leave a cinema before.

I assume as reviewing this the film is still in post production and can be altered but even radical editing may not be able to salvage what is here.

Dark, Suspenseful, Tragic. Classic movie

[ricky_may1 · 2/10 · 16 October 2010]

Spike is one of those films that does not look like much at first glance but once you watch you become entranced by its wonder and majesty. Robert Beaucage weaves a dark tale that is scary, moving and ultimately tragic; it's like a fairy tale combined with a slasher. The characters are portrayed wonderfully, especially Edward Gusts as Spike, a man with the body of a monster but a heart as big as the earth itself. Sarah Livingston as the Girl is a mixture of beauty and strength as she fights to save her boyfriend from a creature torn by love and lust. even the music is dreamlike in its horror; The Marvelous little toy is used to creepy effect here and its truly unsettling when it plays. Spike is a sight to behold

In the Same Class As Manos

[bdavis33157-934-869979 · 1/10 · 27 December 2010]

I watch plenty of horror/fantasy movies, and there are some real turkeys out there. But 'Spike' is in a class by itself, and no doubt will be talked about as among the worst films ever made - in fact, it reminded me of "Manos" the prior top in my book. Ridiculous plots and situations are part of the movie experience - but what's here is way beyond ridiculous. The acting is awful, the 'dream sequence' makes no sense, in the beginning the driver goes off the road for ten minutes before finally using the brakes, an easily avoidable snake, a puma that shows up out of nowhere, the monster's "living area" is exposed to the elements, you end up wondering why the lesbians even appear in the film since they add nothing to it, and finally the 'monster' who just happened to grow up with one of the girls. Why didn't the kid's parents seek help for his 'spikey' condition? The description of the movie on the back of the box was misleading, which I guess was the only way anyone would see this juvenile attempt at film making.

Dreadful

[apemail-1 · 1/10 · 29 September 2008]

Was just talking about this film, so i thought i'd check out how it was doing on IMDb... i was one of the 'unlucky' folk to choose it at The Edinburgh film fest, i'm horrified to hear anyone suggest it had anything going for it. It as one of the most turgid films i've ever sat through... no-one on the way out of the cinema was saying anything good about it, one gentleman asked me and my friends what we thought as he was in shock at how bad, and to be frank, up it's own ars* the film was!

Please those who have given it so much praise, be honest with yourselves and the readers of IMDb reviews, this film stank big time!

i gave it 1 out of 10 for the sheer genius of the director/writer convincing anyone to make this movie... Just awful...

Horrible!

[africe · 1/10 · 28 July 2019]

What a horrible ripoff of beauty and the beast! If they were trying to modernize the story they failed completely. Terrible acting, typical male army , and a lame lesbian relationship helped with the downfall of this film. Don't waste your time

Egregiously Bad!

[chrismoore321 · 1/10 · 5 October 2009]

I saw Spike this weekend at Shriekfest at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles. Having been peripherally involved in low budget movie productions, I know how difficult it can be to bring the collective creative efforts of writers, directors, actors and editors to fruition. While I applaud the apparent intent and ideas of the film-maker Mr. Beaucage, I found the finished movie to be awkward, tiresome and ultimately so frustratingly bad that I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone. I really wanted to like this film. On the positive side, the creature design and effects were very well done and the actual camera work was good. Unfortunately, this was not enough to make the movie work. Every so often there was a glimmer of non-awfulness, but mostly the wooden performances, asinine plot and the excruciating dialogue combined to make the movie very hard to sit through. It was neither fun nor involving. Some reviewers have compared Spike to a David Lynch or Guillermo del Toro movie. That is unfortunate, since it implies that Mr. Beaucage has created interesting characters and a plot worth contemplating. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Ultimately, Spike was so annoying, it wasn't even possible for me to enjoy it as a bad movie.

Garbage

[delta821 · 1/10 · 10 April 2011]

If I could give it a zero I would. Im not sure what the people who gave it positive reviews were smoking-but I want some cause it lets you turn crap into gold.

The movie was awful, barely any plot-any plot it didn't have made little to no sense as well. About all I can guess is the creature knew the girl when they were kids, was driven off and "somehow" manages to get the car shes in to crash and wants to keep her his lover forever.

That being said, the rest of everything makes no sense at all really. Just a bunch of people wandering in the woods with no real cohesive plot besides monster wants girl and small lesbian scenes.

Im sorry my friend rented this from redbox. Im sure the director tried hard, but it was just terrible. I had to shut it off after 45 mins cause I couldn't stand it anymore.

Don't rent it or see it, not worth your time.

Spike has no point!

[Pooku_75 · 1/10 · 24 June 2008]

With a running time of 80 minutes I suppose it's pretty damning to say that it was probably 65 minutes too long.

Judging by the audience reaction at the 'World Premiere' as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival, plenty were in agreement with me. It is never a good sign when you see people leaving the theatre early or sharing bemused looks.

It doesn't help when the marketing describes the film as "Angela Carter rewriting La Belle et la Bête as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Trust me, the artistic resemblance to any of these works is non-existent.

Great ideas, bad music.

[david-pritchett · 22 June 2008]

I was in the first audience to see this film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. As the film is still listed as being in post production I assume that it may not have been the final version that we saw.

There are some great ideas behind it, and there are things that have been done very well in this movie.

The editing did seem a bit clumsy at the start of the film, and I thought the pacing was maybe a bit slow, but these aren't huge complaints, mostly it was good once it got going. I think the main thing which did this film a disservice was the music. Totally the wrong music for the film in my opinion. Hopefully this is just because we saw an early version though and this will be sorted out before the film is distributed more widely!

I hate to criticise as they have made a film, which is more than I've done! So, well done! It's certainly original and worth a watch. I look forward to a more polished version appearing with improved music!

An absolute terrible film

[aglastudio · 1/10 · 6 October 2009]

I had the unfortunate experience of having to sit through the agonizingly horrible film "Spike" at Shriekfest in LA.I am not your stereotypical "Horror" film fan, so make no mistake, that my disliking of this film, isn't that it's story or ideas where simply over my head, or not what i was expecting from a horror film. This film never delivers anything interesting or redeeming in the least.Spike's script is awful, as if written by someone who has never read a good story, or seen a good film.To equate this film to anything other than a fumbling, nonsense bore-fest,is to give way too much credit to the film maker, and is a serious case of "The Emperor isn't wearing any clothes".Laughable highlights of lame lesbian make-out sessions,forced Gratuitous female nudity,characters behaving in totally unbelievable actions, mediocre photography, bad editing, agonizingly slow action and pointless characters in the film like the injured boyfriend, make this films 82 minutes seem like an eternity.

Beautiful, dreamlike and haunting

[aedillon-1 · 10/10 · 11 May 2010]

"Spike" opens with a dream sequence, and though that dream is short and stylistically distinct from the rest of the movie -- it's exactly the skin-crawling kind of dream you have when you doze off on a late-night car ride -- those few seconds set the stage for a surreal, deeply unsettling 90 minutes. If you're expecting a horror movie, or a teens-in-the-woods monster movie, you're going to be sad. Instead "Spike" is a gorgeous and haunting meditation on love and death, childhood and fantasy, like "Picnic at Hanging Rock" in a dark palette of red, silver and black. It, well, gets under your skin.

The plot makes about as much sense as Shakespeare's setup for "As You Like It": it's just an excuse to get the characters into the forest. And once the two unnamed couples (one hetero, one lesbian) are there, weird things begin to happen. Something scary pops out of the woods and takes out one of the characters, and for a minute it seems maybe this will be a traditional horror movie. But director/screenwriter Robert Beaucage immediately lets you know you're in different territory: the scary monster leaves behind a handwritten poem. This isn't Freddy, this isn't Jason -- as it turns out, it's just an incredibly lonely guy with a crush on the straight girl. And he's covered in spikes.

The cast does a nice job of keeping you grounded in the strange terrain: this may be a trippy fairy tale, but these are real people. At first I didn't expect to like Sarah Livingston Evans' lead character, who stands around looking vague and then starts fainting; but as the story unspools you gradually see the strength, compassion and even humor behind her delicate features. And I loved Nancy Corbo as the resourceful person you'd always want with you when you're lost in the woods.

Initially I docked this movie a star because none of the characters have names; if you're going to separate your characters and have them wandering around the woods, they need to be able to call "Hey, Bobbi Jo!" or whatever. But after thinking about it I decided that was just ornery; I sort of like that they're all nameless, because you end up identifying with each of them in turn. This movie takes you deep into the primordial forest of the psyche, all the way back to your childhood: your first real friend, your first nightmares. It asks questions everyone can relate to: How do you let someone go? What will you do to protect the one you love? How can you love more than one person? Do you ever really forget someone? And it delivers one final heartbreaking answer: You can never help from hurting the person you love.

(NB to IMDb: This review SO does not have spelling mistakes.)

Hard to call it a movie

[bowserbomb1 · 1/10 · 26 October 2010]

Holy God in Heaven this is one of the worst pieces of garbage to ever hit the straight to DVD line up. If I ever have the displeasure of seeing something this bad again I promise I will never watch another movie again. This movie is nothing but terrible acting piled on top of useless plot set ups that never develop into anything. I don't know where they found the funding for this "movie" but the person who funded it cannot be too happy with how it turned out. Honestly I can't find one good thing to say about it besides that fact that a girl kind of gets naked in it, even though that isn't even that great because of her terrible "acting abilities". The movie was under the horror section in my local redbox and let me tell you it does not belong there. The synopsis said it was a movie about four people who get lost in the woods and hunted down by a spike monster. Not only is this not an accurate portrayal of the "plot" but it makes it sound like a real movie, which it is not. To sum up what I'm trying to say this movie wasn't worth the 1 dollar we rented it for and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.

Lots of beast but not much beauty

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 22 July 2019]

The cover for 'Spike' looked really appetising. The premise sounded great, being apparently indebted to 'Beauty and the Beast' (a favourite, story and the 1946 and Disney films). It looked good, this was not something that looked cheap. There are quite a number of good and more first-time director films, so there is certainly no bias against debut directors. These outweighed the low rating and mixed to negative (on here) reviews here.

Seeing 'Spike for myself', am going to have to regrettably side, or should that be agree, with those that disliked it and am really sorry about that. Didn't think it was that bad to warrant the lowest possible number of stars, there are far worse films out there and didn't find it one of those beyond redemption films (have thankfully been seeing less of those now), but if there is one thing that really frustrates me when watching something it's when good potential is wasted when strictly speaking it shouldn't be. That applies with 'Spike'.

Lets begin with the saving graces. On the visual side, the advertising doesn't lie as 'Spike' does look good. Especially the photography which is both atmospheric and dreamlike, making for one of the best-looking modest-to-low budget films seen recently and in a while and that is me being serious.

Also thought the acting was better than average, with an initially intimidating but deeply felt performance from Edward Gusts worth singling out. 'Spike' starts off well, the first 10-15 minutes did intrigue and entice me.

However, 'Spike' is primarily let down by an often interminably sluggish pace and a story that after a promising start is far too stretched out (too little story content for a feature-length film) and not always easy to follow. The romantic element doesn't charm or move enough, although the actors were not bad at all on their own their chemistry didn't come to life for me. Didn't feel an awful lot of dark suspense and 'Spike' left me cold on an emotional level, a big problem because 'Beauty and the Beauty' is a very moving story.

While successful on the visual side of things, the direction showed inexperience on the momentum and character interaction. When there was dialogue it was pretty banal and awkward, while the music was completely inappropriate and like it was meant for a different film.

Summing up, disappointing but with a few merits. 3/10

Little Mistakes Cost Lots of Stars

[the_zookeeper · 1/10 · 17 October 2010]

I was rather excited to see this movie, because some of the reviews here were positive and the back of the CD case interested me. Part of it read as follows: "As they are each picked off one by one by a bizarre beast it becomes clear that none of them will make it out of the forest alive; unless the one the monster so desires is left behind." I should have taken a cue from this. If the back of the case isn't even written properly (sentence fragments should not follow a semi colon), then the chances that the movie might not be worth watching are higher than average.

The plot revolves around four friends who, while on some sort of road trip, blow a tire and plunge into the surrounding forest. When the one male in the group steps outside to see what the damage is, he is attacked by something and ends up with a possibly life-threatening injury.

After this incident the group becomes separated and the movie's title subject comes into play. Throughout the movie, it's clear that someone put a great deal of thought into the different scenes, situations, and dialog, but that person failed to put it together cohesively.

The scenes are fragmented, and the characters act in a way that would simply not be logical in the situation, were it to really occur. The female lead knows that her male friend is seriously injured, and yet she walks around calmly for much of the time afterward.

There are also small items that lower the movie's attempted believability. (For example, when human beings, who are endothermic, reach for jackets due to the temperature of the woods, it is not possible for a rattlesnake, an exothermic animal, to be active. It would be too sluggish to move.) Even considering all the little mistakes in filming and poorly-developed characters (with the exception of Spike, who is something else), I still might have enjoyed the movie had it not been for the music. The music was just terrible. It was not appropriate for many of the scenes and even went so far as to ruin the mood much of the time. I began to wonder if the director had driven to the nearest church to find an organ player, and the one he found had suffered from a stroke years earlier and was half tuned on Balwinnie at the time.

The concept of the movie was interesting, and the creature's costume was well-designed. But this wasn't enough to save the entire film from a horrible music score and unbelievable dialog and character behavior (not to mention obviously staged reviews). And seemingly endothermic snakes.

Worst. Movie. Ever.

[monkeys_llamas · 1/10 · 20 March 2011]

This has to be one of the worst movies I've ever watched. There was hardly any dialog (most of the movie was heavy panting) and the character's names were never mentioned. The acting was terrible and the characters were not developed in the slightest. Trying to follow the plot line was like trying to follow a foreign language film. The back of the disc case said thriller but it turned in to a creepy romantic film about 30 minutes in.

I feel like I've not only wasted the dollar I spent renting this movie at RedBox but also 90 minutes of my life.

If I could give this film a rating, it would be negative infinity.

After watching this movie, I wanted to kill myself.

Spike is NOT a Scary Movie!

[okiereb1 · 3/10 · 7 April 2011]

OK, I jumped at renting this movie, when it came available on DVD, the cover looked interesting and the synopsis sounded decent. Got news for everyone, the movie is basically a sociopath porcupine-human hybrid with romantic tendencies meets a straight-couple, a gay-couple, and decides to go Hamlet on them all, accidentally of course.

Seriously, I am totally blown away with all the 9-and-10 star ratings, which are by a preponderance of females, talking about it like it is the movie 'Ghost', or something. Heads up, it is no more scary than someone's brother in a Halloween suit, lurking outside his neighbor's daughter's window, promising not to kill her parents if she will only come out to him.

This movie gets a 3 for decent cinematography and somewhat decent acting. As for the movie script, continuity, or scares - rent Ghostbusters, it is scarier.

P.S.: This is what most honest people would rate this movie, and more- than-fair from a guy who finds Resident-Evil an excellent 'average- scare' zombie flick.

I loved you like a stuff animal

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 15 February 2018]

Three girls and a guy (2 couples) crash their car due to a blow out. The guy (Jared Edwards) gets injured while being outside the car and has a spike in his neck. His girlfriend springs into first aid action and applies the proper first aid, something rarely done in movies. She even constructs a stretcher out of skis and a sleeping bag. Meanwhile there is a porcupine man (Edward Gusts in the title role) running about who speaks in poetic lines.

The movie is a weird Beauty and the Beast love triangle. As it turns out Spike and the girl (Sarah Livingston Evans) were childhood friends who became separated. The movie is boring and shot at night so the scenes at fairly dark. While there are a total if 5 characters in the film, he centers around 2 of them. You keep waiting for something to happen, but it is more of a drama than a horror.

F-bomb, 2 girls briefly kissing, nudity (Sarah Livingston Evans), no sex thank goodness.

Beauty and the Beast on a budget

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 14 August 2017]

SPIKE is a cheesy indie fantasy, heavily indebted to the classic BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The plot sees a trio of characters driving into the woods and getting lost, only to encounter a mysterious humanoid being which has designs on one of them. The whole film takes place in the dark and features consistently odd effects and dream imagery, with panthers and the like appearing. Unfortunately, the below par script means that this isn't romance, nor horrific, nor even interesting; just a dud.

Not worth the time or effort...

[paul_haakonsen · 1/10 · 17 July 2019]

Right, well I was under the impression that I was sitting down to watch a horror movie when I sat down to the watch the 2008 movie "Spike" from writer and director Robert Beaucage.

Little did I know that I was going to be in for a snoozefest of unrivaled proportions. First of all, I managed to endure 35 minutes of "Spike" before I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom. The movie was so slow paced that I was really to yank out my hair, and nothing of any worth happened in the 35 minutes of torture that I endured. The storyline was void of anything interesting and the characters essentially had the appeal of wet cardboard.

I have absolutely no intention of returning to watch the rest of "Spike", because there literally was nothing in this movie that appealed to me. So I have no reason to return for further torture.

I had never even heard about "Spike" prior to finding it in 2019, and deciding to give it a chance. Some movies are just a swing and a miss. It is rare that a movie is so uninteresting that I actually decide to turn it off prematurely. However, "Spike" managed to do that. So don't bother with this movie, that is my advice.

"Spike" scores a measly one out of ten stars from me.

Spike is a vision to behold

[tonyakay · 8/10 · 6 October 2009]

Director Robert Beaucage has impeccable vision. His monster romance film, Spike, is one of the most visually gorgeous films I have ever seen. A BEAUTIFUL monster romance film - now that's something viewers rarely get a chance to enjoy. Unexpected, touching and filled with visual art. Spike proves that direction and design are non contingent upon funding. After seeing Spike, I'd be interested in seeing what Robert Beaucage does with any script. His visual direction will surely define his future film projects.

There were two exceptional actors in the film. "Spike", played by Edward Gusts, was given difficult, prose-inspired dialogue - an educated monster, if you will - and he handled it with ease. The most touching moment of his performance was what I perceive to be his improvised lamenting at the end of the film . And "His Sister" played by Anna-Marie Wayne, was passionate and so adept at creating her side of the lesbian relationship she was in, I believed every utterance she offered to her girlfriend. These two actors did wonderful jobs and I look forward to seeing their work in the future.

Beautiful Film

[tanyagorlow · 8/10 · 27 October 2009]

I recently saw Spike in Los Angeles and thought that it was an absolutely beautiful film. Robert Beaucage creates an entire world that both the audience and the characters can get lost in. I think it was an inspired love story that showed both the best and worst of its characters.

I particularly enjoyed Ed Gusts performance as the title character. I think that he showed real sensitivity and heart ache through out the movie.

The best part comes at the end. I won't completely give it away, but it was a tender moment that would move the hardest of hearts. Because it does have touching moments and is essentially a love story, the film is far more complex than a typical horror. It has blood, certainly, but it also has heart.

pretty darn good

[info-17105 · 10/10 · 3 July 2008]

This was a great movie. Dark, mysterious and entertaining. Just perfect. The characters were well developed. The plot was a okay, but definitely entertaining. The photography was great. The use of light, or lack thereof, was extremely creative and helped make the movie even more suspenseful. The acting was believable and well done. The storyline was well thought-out and took the audience on a journey.

Some of the small technical problems can obviously be worked out as it seems that the movie is still in the final stages. The director (Robert Beaucage)even said that the movie hadn't been seen before, even by the cast.

I'm not sure most were prepared for this film when they went to see it, but most of the audience at the Edinburgh Festival enjoyed this film.

Beaucage incorporated some very original methods that pulled this film together. Several of the scenes are still having me rethink some of the techniques that he implemented. I really would love to see a final version and another film from this young director.

Robert Beaucage Crafts a Darkly Beautiful Gem with SPIKE

[kristi_laurie · 9/10 · 6 July 2008]

I recently returned home from Scotland where I attended the 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Along with the well-publicized, big budget films (The Edge of Love, Elegy, WALL-E), I was fortunate enough to view several films from EIFF's newest category, "Under The Radar". Under the Radar introduces movies that can best be described as "cult films" - think "A Clockwork Orange" or "Blue Velvet". Artistic director Hannah McGill said, "With this new section, we want to re-animate the spirit of the truly cult-worthy 'midnight movie', by showing films that take real risks with their ideas, their aesthetic choices and their humor".

Perhaps my favorite film in this category was Spike - Robert Beaucage's dark faerie tale that saw its world premiere 20 June at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. At first, Spike appears to be a horror film, and in a way, it is - but not in the way I expected. As Spike's plot unfurled, I began to realize maybe Spike was talking about me when he said, "The characters in faerie tales don't ever know they are in faerie tales". I was in a faerie tale in that theatre and didn't even realize.

Spike is wonderfully directed, well acted and nicely shot, especially when considering its meager budget. Beaucage tells his story with an aesthetic eye and a visceral panache. Edward Gusts had me in tears with his portrayal of the love-ridden beasty. Nancy P. Corbo and Anna Marie Wayne are true highlights in the film, and Sarah Livingstone Evans shows admirable promise in her first movie role.

Robert Hope wrote, "Spike prowls the dark lands that separates Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber from Charles Vess and Elaine Lee's astonishing graphic work Morrigan Tales. Yet rather than resulting in a series of ill-assimilated post-modern touchstones, its earthly cultivation of a monster's obsession with love's dead bloom is a talon-sharp original". Beaucage has truly created an original albeit very human cast of characters in his modern faerie tale for adults. Some might say Spike is Beauty and the Beast gone wrong. But who is Beauty and who is Beast?

The Girl uses her feminine wiles to deceive Spike; so is she clever or a duplicitous bitch? Spike is well read, eloquent and romantic, but concurrently impales throats with abandon. Who is the hero in this faerie tale? All myths have to have a hero, don't they? This perfectionist's need for a tidy story gets thrown out the window here, but I find myself wanting more than is shown in the short eighty minute film. I felt myself aligned with Spike while at the same time disgusted for recognizing my own pathetic desperation when faced with abandonment and lack of love. My brain wanted a neatly packaged story ala 'hero defeats bad guy', but my soul was satisfied with the thorough gut wrench that Beaucage provided as he drew me into Spike's world. Those more comfortable with a simpler, more dualistic, good-is-good-and-bad-is-bad view of reality may find solace in films such as Independence Day or Ratatouille.

Spike is not the stereotypical horror film. Michael Myers' Mama has never visited this winding road, so don't go looking for her there. Those hard up for Rothian torture porn need not apply. Spike is a horror film in that it forces the conscious viewer to examine his/her soul and accept the deformed monstrosity that dwells there; whether loved or no. This is not easy to do, and Spike is not an easy movie to watch. But those willing to be scratched and torn as they thrust their hands into this thorny thicket will find the rose that blooms within Spike truly beautiful.

Impressive first time outing

[AndrewConnor · 8/10 · 30 June 2008]

As per some of the other comments here, I was at the premiere in Edinburgh too. I found the film enjoyable - it has some rough edges, but that's to be expected when it's a low-budget first film.

Contraray to the other comments posted so far, the audience members I spoke to afterwards all thought the film was good. There were enough twists in the plot to keep you engaged, and enough interest in the characters to make you want to know what will happen to them, even though that's never going to be good given the nature of the genre.

The plot is far-fetched - but then, you are watching a film with a main character who is covered in sharp spikes! The visuals fit the piece well, with that Gothic look that suits the material. For me, the jarring aspect was the ornate style in which Spike talked, but that could be linked back to the novels he collected at his lair.

On the sound side, I thought the music and effects worked fairly well too - I think the sound would have benefited from a more subtle mix, as there are points where the music is really a bit too obtrusive for the action - but that could also have been down to the sound system in that particular cinema, which though improved, is still a bit ropey at times.

This is what it is - a well-executed, first-time-round genre film, which gives the director that first step on the ladder to bigger and more polished films. It's a decent film to watch, and illustrates what can be done with an enthusiastic cast and crew on a low budget feature.