Don't Look Up (2009)

Evil spirits released from old celluloid cause a film crew to slowly go insane while in production on a new project.

Director:

Fruit Chan

Writers:

Brian Cox (screenplay), Hiroshi Takahashi (screenplay "Joyû-rei")

Stars:

Rachael Murphy, Eli Roth, Ben DiGregorio

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rachael Murphy	...	Lila Kis
Eli Roth	...	Béla Olt
Ben DiGregorio	...	Olt's Cameraman
Reshad Strik	...	Marcus Reed
Alyssa Sutherland	...	Claire
Shiloh Fernandez	...	Garret
Henry Thomas	...	Josh Petri
Lothaire Bluteau	...	Grigore
Robert Towers	...	Beng
Carmen Chaplin	...	Romy Bardóc
Daniela Sea	...	Tami
Jack Dimich	...	Romanian Grip
Elena Satine	...	Anca
Zelda Williams	...	Matya
Brian Henderson	...	Peter

Storyline

In the Dark Ages, a gypsy woman made a pact with Beng, the gypsy devil, to marry a powerful man. In return, Beng asked for her first born child. Her daughter Matya had the mark of the devil and was killed by the villagers. In 1928, the Hungarian director Bela Olt decides to shoot Matya's story with the lead gypsy actress Lila Kis. However, the director, the cast and the crew vanished with the film that had never been seen. Back to the present and the discredited medium director Marcus Reed and his producer Josh Petri head to Romania to make a film about Matya's story...

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Plot Keywords:

gypsy | romania | actress | extrasensory perception | hollywood california | 

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Taglines:

Lights... Camera... Evil...

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence and gore

Details

Country:

USA Japan South Africa

Language:

English Romanian

Release Date:

8 January 2011 (Japan)

Also Known As:

A Semente do Mal

Filming Locations:

Lacy Street Production Center - 2630 Lacy Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Distant Horizon, Action 5, Reel Deal Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the director of the original film is Bela Olt. One of Bela Lugosi's early stage names was Arisztid Olt.

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Connections

References Son of Frankenstein (1939)

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Soundtracks

Gaze At Me
Performed by Doping Panda
Composed by Yutaka Furukawa
Published by Sony Music Artists, Inc. (JASRAC)
(p)2009 Sony Music Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Disappointing

This movie started with some promise, considering that it's from the same writers of "The Ring," and directed by (until now) promising director Fruit Chan.

The beginning is fairly intriguing, but maybe fifteen or twenty minutes in, I was losing interest, and wondering where the plot had gone. In my opinion, the writers definitely missed out on an opportunity to really scare us, to give us the next "Ring," or "The Grudge," but they passed it up. God knows why.

I didn't find Chan's direction particularly riveting or impressive, which was disappointing, to say the least. Without any notable exceptions, the acting is dismal and unconvincing, making a bad movie worse. The fake Romanian accents, in particular, started to get to me after a while. (Our hero's name is MarCUS. Not MarCOOS.)

I still felt they might have managed to salvage it at the ending, but this, as well, was a disappointment. Any brief horror they had managed to drum up had been whizzed right down their legs in roughly fifteen seconds.

Yes, there is some gore, and at times I felt an uneasy sense of foreboding, but this film ultimately failed in delivering the punches. Rent it if you like, but beware that it won't live up to expectations.