As anyone who's ever tried to make a cake knows, you can have the right ingredients to make a really awesome cake, but if mixed wrong you can come out with something a little mediocre. That's kind of how I found this movie. It has all the right ingredients to make something truly amazing, but the execution left me wanting more. Don't get me wrong, it's still a bit of a shot in the arm for some more predictable horror films. It just also happens that it's hampered with limitations.
The story is very much rooted in the 80's horror mentality: children witness murder of parents, children are sent to orphanage, the one who isn't evil (and is subjected to inexplicable cruel treatment even by his caretakers) is adopted, the evil one tracks down the other later in life while all hell breaks loose. OK, fair enough. You've seen it before, but it's still fun. The kills are fun to watch and the effects are genuinely good for what feels like a movie on a budget. The setting is where I find a lot of fault...it takes place in pretty much one single building. While I often enjoy horror films that employ a sort of claustrophobic setting, in a stalk and slash movie it just seems silly. Basically, you'd just need to leave the damn building for it to end. I was also a bit confused when the movie turned from the aforementioned stalk and slash into sort of a torture movie. The transition kind of makes sense, but I was really hoping to see more of the effects-driven kill scenes.
All in all the movie plays well and keeps up it's pace. But at the end I was left wanting more from it. I imagine if you remove the limitations (many of which I suspect are financial) you'd have a truly great horror movie, not one that's just good. Here's to hoping this movie gets a second chance...or possibly a sequel.
The story is very much rooted in the 80's horror mentality: children witness murder of parents, children are sent to orphanage, the one who isn't evil (and is subjected to inexplicable cruel treatment even by his caretakers) is adopted, the evil one tracks down the other later in life while all hell breaks loose. OK, fair enough. You've seen it before, but it's still fun. The kills are fun to watch and the effects are genuinely good for what feels like a movie on a budget. The setting is where I find a lot of fault...it takes place in pretty much one single building. While I often enjoy horror films that employ a sort of claustrophobic setting, in a stalk and slash movie it just seems silly. Basically, you'd just need to leave the damn building for it to end. I was also a bit confused when the movie turned from the aforementioned stalk and slash into sort of a torture movie. The transition kind of makes sense, but I was really hoping to see more of the effects-driven kill scenes.
All in all the movie plays well and keeps up it's pace. But at the end I was left wanting more from it. I imagine if you remove the limitations (many of which I suspect are financial) you'd have a truly great horror movie, not one that's just good. Here's to hoping this movie gets a second chance...or possibly a sequel.