This is a film that gets going, but unfortunately only at the end. This is where it gets good but there is not enough of it really to save the movie. The acting is weak for the most part and there is nothing really horrifying to make it. It made me think of a horror movie version of eastenders. I dont really know what else to write about this film so ill say how its structured. A group of what we call teens go into a abandoned asylum. They want a rave to happen in this place and so they set out to get it all ready. Theres after this a lot of talking that makes the film slow and drawn out. Till the real stuff happens at the end but not for long. I will say however it is pretty good what happens but thats it.
9 Reviews
a true supernatural masterpiece.
iceman-johnson25 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Let's talk about the plot.
4 kids, one in a wheelchair visit a old asylum in the 1940s. 3 of the boys climb through a side window and leave the boy in the wheelchair outside but they never come out and the boy in the wheelchair is now stranded as he can't move the chair himself..... fast forward to 2002 and we see a gang of friends pull up outside the old asylum and the boy in the wheelchair is still there waiting....ok, i'm kidding about that but it would have been funny seeing his chair and a pile of bones in it but i'm guessing he got found somewhere in between the 40s and 2000s and someone took him home because we never seen him again
Anyway the gang are there to throw an illegal rave for freshers week and hope to cash in on drunk students. They enter the asylum and look around and it's pretty small to be fair as it only has a few rooms and a hallway and the main dj room is pretty cramped. It looked huge on the outside but i guess its like the tardis but in reverse.
The gang settle in and begin to set up and we learn a little about them through forced dialogue and crappy writing.
There's the main guy who is an unlikable git, there's his girlfriend whos boring ,her friend who i think likes his girlfriend more than just friends but i'm not too sure. The dj whose acting is just as awful as his rapping scene, the party planner/filmmaker and his assistant who are pretty dull.....oh yeah, and the local sl*t, who constantly throws herself at the unlikable git.
Nothing really happens after that tbh. There's some love triangle stuff between the git and sl*t and his girlfriend the electrics keep blowing. One of them keeps seeing some ghost boy. This is pretty much 90%of the films plot and just repeats itself over and over until the amazing climax there is some pretty dumb moments in this where they are supposed to be building tension but it goes nowhere It's like: guy 1 "we have to get the party ready but oh no! The lights keep blowing for no reason what's going on?...oh wait. The lights are back on now, its fine" or guy 1; "who flooded this room? You did this didn't you " guy 2; "no i didn't, the tap doesn't work ,see" guy 1; "i don't believe you. Oh wait, there's no pipe going to the the tap, then how did this happen ?..oh well nevermind".
Or girl 1; "oh my god i saw something" girl 2; "what did you see?" girl 1 * says absolutely nothing* girl 2; "you're crazy" girl 1; "no i'm not" a scene of two of the girls dancing in furry leopard string bikinis in a cage that came completely out of the blue and provided nothing to the plot apart from the metal cage they were in got stuck. Was a ghost child that locked them in???...sexy and spooky....not really.
The dj leaves to get a new amp as the ghost kids blew his up and the rest start seeing the kids and completely crap their pants. Instead of leaving straight away they decide to investigate further then one girl notices the layout of the asylum keeps changing and they somehow get lost in an asylum with 4 rooms and one hallway and they get cornered by hanging electrical wires because they have the combined i.q of 12 and one of the girls grabs one of the wires that's sparking like a complete idiot and we fade to black... the dj comes back 1 hour later and sees the place completely smashed up. There's smashed bottles and doritos 3d crisps all over the place and nobody's around. He starts loudly complaining and accusing them of already having the rave without him even though he's only been gone for 1hr and there's no working amp to play music. He walks arounds shouting everybody's names but can't find them in the huge 4 room one corridor asylum. Meanwhile the rest of the the gang now washed out in a blue hue also walk around looking for the dj and they both meet in the same room but the dj sees the bodies of his friends on the floor dead and they are all burnt and crispy. From the live wires. The dj stares for quite a while at his charred friends and then legs it the rest of the gang realise he couldn't see them and they realise they are dead. They accept this with no problem and don't look the slightest bit sad they are now ghosts and walk into a hall where they once again meet the ghost kids. The kids walk up and take their hands and lead them out of the room possibly to get them to help open a jar of ghost jam or something.....the end,
I just watched this on netflix as it seems to have just been put up. Well for me anyway and i gotta wonder why they would pick something that was as bad if not worse as someone's gcse drama project.
Were they wondering around the bbc archives looking for movies to put on and see an old copy of this wedging up a table in the coffee room and decide it would be a great idea to charge people a subscription fee to watch it as a sick joke?
It's such a bad film and the acting and plot are just terrible. Is it watchable? Well of course it is, but not because it's a great movie and has a riveting plot but because you can laugh and cringe all the way through it because it's soo terrible .
Maybe netflix knew this and thought it'd be a great film for people to take the pee out of but honestly i think they would show any old s**t.
4 kids, one in a wheelchair visit a old asylum in the 1940s. 3 of the boys climb through a side window and leave the boy in the wheelchair outside but they never come out and the boy in the wheelchair is now stranded as he can't move the chair himself..... fast forward to 2002 and we see a gang of friends pull up outside the old asylum and the boy in the wheelchair is still there waiting....ok, i'm kidding about that but it would have been funny seeing his chair and a pile of bones in it but i'm guessing he got found somewhere in between the 40s and 2000s and someone took him home because we never seen him again
Anyway the gang are there to throw an illegal rave for freshers week and hope to cash in on drunk students. They enter the asylum and look around and it's pretty small to be fair as it only has a few rooms and a hallway and the main dj room is pretty cramped. It looked huge on the outside but i guess its like the tardis but in reverse.
The gang settle in and begin to set up and we learn a little about them through forced dialogue and crappy writing.
There's the main guy who is an unlikable git, there's his girlfriend whos boring ,her friend who i think likes his girlfriend more than just friends but i'm not too sure. The dj whose acting is just as awful as his rapping scene, the party planner/filmmaker and his assistant who are pretty dull.....oh yeah, and the local sl*t, who constantly throws herself at the unlikable git.
Nothing really happens after that tbh. There's some love triangle stuff between the git and sl*t and his girlfriend the electrics keep blowing. One of them keeps seeing some ghost boy. This is pretty much 90%of the films plot and just repeats itself over and over until the amazing climax there is some pretty dumb moments in this where they are supposed to be building tension but it goes nowhere It's like: guy 1 "we have to get the party ready but oh no! The lights keep blowing for no reason what's going on?...oh wait. The lights are back on now, its fine" or guy 1; "who flooded this room? You did this didn't you " guy 2; "no i didn't, the tap doesn't work ,see" guy 1; "i don't believe you. Oh wait, there's no pipe going to the the tap, then how did this happen ?..oh well nevermind".
Or girl 1; "oh my god i saw something" girl 2; "what did you see?" girl 1 * says absolutely nothing* girl 2; "you're crazy" girl 1; "no i'm not" a scene of two of the girls dancing in furry leopard string bikinis in a cage that came completely out of the blue and provided nothing to the plot apart from the metal cage they were in got stuck. Was a ghost child that locked them in???...sexy and spooky....not really.
The dj leaves to get a new amp as the ghost kids blew his up and the rest start seeing the kids and completely crap their pants. Instead of leaving straight away they decide to investigate further then one girl notices the layout of the asylum keeps changing and they somehow get lost in an asylum with 4 rooms and one hallway and they get cornered by hanging electrical wires because they have the combined i.q of 12 and one of the girls grabs one of the wires that's sparking like a complete idiot and we fade to black... the dj comes back 1 hour later and sees the place completely smashed up. There's smashed bottles and doritos 3d crisps all over the place and nobody's around. He starts loudly complaining and accusing them of already having the rave without him even though he's only been gone for 1hr and there's no working amp to play music. He walks arounds shouting everybody's names but can't find them in the huge 4 room one corridor asylum. Meanwhile the rest of the the gang now washed out in a blue hue also walk around looking for the dj and they both meet in the same room but the dj sees the bodies of his friends on the floor dead and they are all burnt and crispy. From the live wires. The dj stares for quite a while at his charred friends and then legs it the rest of the gang realise he couldn't see them and they realise they are dead. They accept this with no problem and don't look the slightest bit sad they are now ghosts and walk into a hall where they once again meet the ghost kids. The kids walk up and take their hands and lead them out of the room possibly to get them to help open a jar of ghost jam or something.....the end,
I just watched this on netflix as it seems to have just been put up. Well for me anyway and i gotta wonder why they would pick something that was as bad if not worse as someone's gcse drama project.
Were they wondering around the bbc archives looking for movies to put on and see an old copy of this wedging up a table in the coffee room and decide it would be a great idea to charge people a subscription fee to watch it as a sick joke?
It's such a bad film and the acting and plot are just terrible. Is it watchable? Well of course it is, but not because it's a great movie and has a riveting plot but because you can laugh and cringe all the way through it because it's soo terrible .
Maybe netflix knew this and thought it'd be a great film for people to take the pee out of but honestly i think they would show any old s**t.
Oh dear.
clairewelch-9390823 October 2022
I can only assume I've watched a different film to the rest of the people leaving reviews here. What an absolute load of drivel! Boring, boring, boring...then apparently we should be terrified by seeing a couple of kids. More utter boredom then an ending that was so predictable you could have guessed it before the film even started! I've seen better acting and more horror in peppa pig! Also the kids at the beginning of the film...what happened to the kid left outside in the wheelchair?? No further mention of him at all. Did he just get forgotten about? Probably be a good idea to forget this whole film. 1 hour and 20 minutes that I'll never get back.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
katecastle-9777926 October 2022
Well, this is possibly the worst film I've ever watched. The acting is TERRIBLE. It's actually so bad that it's hilarious.
This film is worth the watch for the hilarity of just how bad it is. I was honestly in tears with laughter at one point.
It's almost like a group of kids have got together to film a badly scripted show for their GCSE drama practical. Actually, I've seen better from school performances.
Don't even get me started on the ghosts; they basically got some kids, stuck some talc on their faces and told them to walk about now and again and look at people.
How did this actually get made?!
Acting = 0 Plot = 0 Directing = 0 Visual = 0 Scare factor = 0
I've given a point for it being so bad that it was comical.
This film is worth the watch for the hilarity of just how bad it is. I was honestly in tears with laughter at one point.
It's almost like a group of kids have got together to film a badly scripted show for their GCSE drama practical. Actually, I've seen better from school performances.
Don't even get me started on the ghosts; they basically got some kids, stuck some talc on their faces and told them to walk about now and again and look at people.
How did this actually get made?!
Acting = 0 Plot = 0 Directing = 0 Visual = 0 Scare factor = 0
I've given a point for it being so bad that it was comical.
If you don't, nobody will ... yes?
kosmasp25 October 2022
No pun intended - the movie is quite ... predictable too. I assume that the big twist towards the end is not that much of a twist for most of the viewers of this. Especially if you have seen a horror movie or two. I accidentally stumbled upon this ... almost like the main characters do with the house. We see the past and then we also see the now ... not that people learn a lot - growing up and maturing are two different things.
The movie is sort of decent enough - shockers included. But it also feels like you could skip most of it and just go to the end to get the end we deserve ... or do we? Well you hopefully will know what I mean ... and yes no pun intended.
The movie is sort of decent enough - shockers included. But it also feels like you could skip most of it and just go to the end to get the end we deserve ... or do we? Well you hopefully will know what I mean ... and yes no pun intended.
Good acting, beautiful faces and a gripping storyline
Hotel-Paper29 May 2004
Good teenage horror film. Not exploring much in the way of a new storyline but still an enjoyable film. It nonetheless keeps you gripped. Sis friends enter an old abandoned asylum in order to throw a wicked, unforgettable party. With DJ Lux on the decks and the beautiful Victoria pouring the drinks what could go wrong? Um, well loads actually. They start to suspect they're not alone and boy are they right. It's good to finally see actors and actresses who aren't well know finally having a chance to shine. Terence Corrigan and Kara Tointon stand out in particular. Playing Graham and sexy Victoria, they make the film more pleasing to the eye.
A good one for a night in with the girls.
A good one for a night in with the girls.
Surprisingly Good Horror Low Budget Movie
claudio_carvalho18 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
A group of teenager friends decides to organize a rave party in an abandoned house to make some money. They have a few hours to prepare the place, and after an electric explosion, weird things happen in the house. "Never Play With the Dead" is a surprisingly good horror low budget movie. The story seems to be a common teenager horror movie in a haunted house. However, the twist in the last scene recalls "The Sixth Sense" and makes this film a worthwhile entertainment. I liked it and recommended it for fans of a screenplay with a huge surprise for the viewers. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Nunca Brinque Com os Mortos" ("Never Play With the Dead")
Title (Brazil): "Nunca Brinque Com os Mortos" ("Never Play With the Dead")
I actually quite liked it despite it's faults.
poolandrews7 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Never Play with the Dead starts as six friends pitch up outside a large rundown abandoned house, Craig (Mark Homer) is organising a rave that he hopes will make bags of money, joining him is Lux the DJ, Lee the electrician, Graham (Terence Corrigan) the tea boy along with Melanie (Sarah Annison) & Sarah (Louisa Millwood-Haigh) the dancers plus sexy babe Victoria (Kara Tointon). They begin to set things up in preparation of the opening but strange things start to happen, the house seems to develop a life of it's own & psychically changes while Sarah gets spooked when she thinks she sees a ghostly child...
This British production was directed by Ray Kilby & for some reason I can't fully put my finger on I quite liked Never Play with the Dead. The script by David Fedash just has something going for it, the teenage character's are far better than those usually seen in these low budget teen horrors & the dialogue seems natural, no-one does anything moronically stupid & within the context of it's own story it's pleasingly restrained & plausible. I think the pacing is a problem, it's a touch too slow which sort of kills it as nothing really that significant happens & the whole of the first 80 odd minutes ends up feeling like one long drawn out build up to the admittedly good twist ending although I have to say as a seasoned horror veteran I actually guessed the twist before it was revealed but it still had decent impact & was surprisingly sad. Some of the storytelling isn't the best in particular it is never revealed why the place is haunted, why the house can change it's size & shape or what happened to the four children during that opening sequence which bugged me actually. As a 90 minute film maybe there's not quite enough here to turn Never Play with the Dead from a good horror film into a great one but what the hell I liked it all the same although I doubt I'd want to watch it again anytime soon.
Director Kilby does OK, obviously working on a low budget & shooting on video rather than film Never Play with the Dead has a certain spooky atmosphere & there are a couple of very effective scenes which prove you don't need horrible looking CGI computer effects to get under people's skin. This one goes for tension, strong storytelling & a careful build up rather than in your face scares or violence of which there isn't any.
Techncially the film is fine & you get the impression the filmmakers actually cared about the finished product which cannot be said of all low budget horror films from the past few years. The acting is pretty good from a largely unknown cast although many British viewers will probably recognise Mark Homer who appeared in 264 episodes over a number of years of Eastenders as gay-boy Tony Hills while both Mohammed George & the sexy Kara Tointon have gone the opposite way since making Never Play with the Dead having both joined the cast of Eastenders in prominent roles...
Never Play with the Dead isn't perfect but there's just something here which I liked & sometimes the heart just overrules the head.
This British production was directed by Ray Kilby & for some reason I can't fully put my finger on I quite liked Never Play with the Dead. The script by David Fedash just has something going for it, the teenage character's are far better than those usually seen in these low budget teen horrors & the dialogue seems natural, no-one does anything moronically stupid & within the context of it's own story it's pleasingly restrained & plausible. I think the pacing is a problem, it's a touch too slow which sort of kills it as nothing really that significant happens & the whole of the first 80 odd minutes ends up feeling like one long drawn out build up to the admittedly good twist ending although I have to say as a seasoned horror veteran I actually guessed the twist before it was revealed but it still had decent impact & was surprisingly sad. Some of the storytelling isn't the best in particular it is never revealed why the place is haunted, why the house can change it's size & shape or what happened to the four children during that opening sequence which bugged me actually. As a 90 minute film maybe there's not quite enough here to turn Never Play with the Dead from a good horror film into a great one but what the hell I liked it all the same although I doubt I'd want to watch it again anytime soon.
Director Kilby does OK, obviously working on a low budget & shooting on video rather than film Never Play with the Dead has a certain spooky atmosphere & there are a couple of very effective scenes which prove you don't need horrible looking CGI computer effects to get under people's skin. This one goes for tension, strong storytelling & a careful build up rather than in your face scares or violence of which there isn't any.
Techncially the film is fine & you get the impression the filmmakers actually cared about the finished product which cannot be said of all low budget horror films from the past few years. The acting is pretty good from a largely unknown cast although many British viewers will probably recognise Mark Homer who appeared in 264 episodes over a number of years of Eastenders as gay-boy Tony Hills while both Mohammed George & the sexy Kara Tointon have gone the opposite way since making Never Play with the Dead having both joined the cast of Eastenders in prominent roles...
Never Play with the Dead isn't perfect but there's just something here which I liked & sometimes the heart just overrules the head.
Eastenders does horror!
DrBlood20066 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Even though this starts off with a group of four little kids who sound Australian, this is in fact an English horror film from 2001. It still isn't out on DVD except in Australia for some reason which I have yet to figure out. I think those little kids probably were Australian after all.
Here's the official blurb: "Craig is a college student with a business plan. He and six friends have broken into a derelict asylum to stage the party of the year - and get rich in the process. With DJ Lux on the decks, Lee's spectacular light show and sexy Victoria pouring the drinks, how can they fail? But as the team set up, things start to go horribly wrong. Sarah becomes convinced that they are not alone, and as the panic rises the asylum begins to take on a life of its own. Walls disappear, they reappear and the group are forced further and further into the mysterious depths of the buildingÂ… where something ancient and sinister is waiting for them. The quest for fun is about to become a race to stay alive." It is absolutely full of UK soap actors including Dawn (Kara Tointon), Gus (Mohammed George) and Tony (Mark Horner) from "Eastenders" and three more whose names I don't know (but whose faces I recognised from "The Bill" and "Holby City"). You could tagline this film with "Eastenders does horror!" and it wouldn't be far from the truth.
It is all filmed extremely well and looks a lot like that other Eastenders filled horror "Long Time Dead"... but it's much better than that and doesn't have the horrid Joe Absolom in it. It has a good atmosphere in spite of the low budget and, because it contains real actors, it appears far more professional than the usual independent horrors.
Anyway, as the blurb says, this is about a group of "teenagers" who break into what used to be an asylum to use the building for an illegal rave. A lot of the film is spent building up the characters, showing them setting things up, pranking each other and exploring the building but there are a few genuinely spooky events along the way. Things build up bit by bit and there is a twist in the last scene.
I really liked this a lot. The acting is much the same as an "Eastenders" episode and so is very good, gritty and realistic. The incidental music used for the scary bits is typical TV movie stuff but works well too. The ending is a bit of a cop out but it doesn't spoil anything.
I've rated this as 6 out of 10 but I'd rate it higher if I could actually buy it. Hopefully Lionsgate will pick this up and distribute it as they seem to doing with everything else. We can only hope.
Here's the official blurb: "Craig is a college student with a business plan. He and six friends have broken into a derelict asylum to stage the party of the year - and get rich in the process. With DJ Lux on the decks, Lee's spectacular light show and sexy Victoria pouring the drinks, how can they fail? But as the team set up, things start to go horribly wrong. Sarah becomes convinced that they are not alone, and as the panic rises the asylum begins to take on a life of its own. Walls disappear, they reappear and the group are forced further and further into the mysterious depths of the buildingÂ… where something ancient and sinister is waiting for them. The quest for fun is about to become a race to stay alive." It is absolutely full of UK soap actors including Dawn (Kara Tointon), Gus (Mohammed George) and Tony (Mark Horner) from "Eastenders" and three more whose names I don't know (but whose faces I recognised from "The Bill" and "Holby City"). You could tagline this film with "Eastenders does horror!" and it wouldn't be far from the truth.
It is all filmed extremely well and looks a lot like that other Eastenders filled horror "Long Time Dead"... but it's much better than that and doesn't have the horrid Joe Absolom in it. It has a good atmosphere in spite of the low budget and, because it contains real actors, it appears far more professional than the usual independent horrors.
Anyway, as the blurb says, this is about a group of "teenagers" who break into what used to be an asylum to use the building for an illegal rave. A lot of the film is spent building up the characters, showing them setting things up, pranking each other and exploring the building but there are a few genuinely spooky events along the way. Things build up bit by bit and there is a twist in the last scene.
I really liked this a lot. The acting is much the same as an "Eastenders" episode and so is very good, gritty and realistic. The incidental music used for the scary bits is typical TV movie stuff but works well too. The ending is a bit of a cop out but it doesn't spoil anything.
I've rated this as 6 out of 10 but I'd rate it higher if I could actually buy it. Hopefully Lionsgate will pick this up and distribute it as they seem to doing with everything else. We can only hope.
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