8 Films To Die For

After Dark Horrorfest, Vol. 3
$119.84
For the third year in a row, horror fans find themselves watching a set of 8 movies for no other reason than that someone distributed them in a group together. At this point, it seems more than abundantly clear that these "8 Films To Die For" are never going to be the elite horror experience, or the most extreme, or anything else special or unique. They're just 8 movies no one else wanted to distribute (for good reason, as it turns out).

This year's crop is slightly better than year 2, though none of them rank with the overall competence of last year's BORDERLAND, or the chills of the first year's THE ABANDONED. If there was a consistent issue this year, it was that each of these (for the most part) had a very interesting concept, but were just executed poorly. As I think on each one, I can tell you at what point the movie shifted from promise to disappointment, like a roller coaster that climbs and climbs to what seems like a wonderfully great drop to come, only to find that the top of the first incline is the end of the ride!

Another consistent theme seems to be "let's compensate for a lack of imagination by just having everyone die in the end!" With one exception, these films all end terribly. Perhaps now and then it is appropriate and interesting to end with tragedy, but such an ending has to be earned. And these films mostly do not do so. If you are going to end on a dour note, you need to at least give me a good reason!

Finally, giving a real ranking of "best" to "worst" is difficult because each film at some point has a major detracting factor - but I will do my best . . .

8) PERKINS 14: I'll start with the worst, because that's pretty easy to pick out. This film was hyped as the one "created by fans." Story, actors, etc . . . were all submitted and voted for online by fans. The story of 14 kidnapped kids raised as animals in cages and sent out for mindless killing was interesting in concept, but horrible in execution! So-lame-you-can-see-the-prop effects, bad acting, and terrible writing, and stupid characters doing stupid things sink this puppy.

7) SLAUGHTER: Tight, tight contention for last place. This one would be in the bottom save for a somewhat well done final third. This one concerns a girl moving out to a farm with another woman she barely knows, only to become wrapped up in a sinister plot for revenge. The film's death knell is it's excruciatingly boring first 45 minutes. The filmmakers must have thought their slow build of disappearing victims would be more interesting than seeing these people killed off. They are wrong - replacing potentially good kills with "girl bonding" does not a horror movie make! And, even with some good "table turning" in its final act, the last turn of the table is so ridiculously bad, I was laughing even during the unnecessarily grim final shot.

6) DYING BREED: Getting a little better. This one looks fantastic, and the actors are fairly likeable, at least in the first half. Typical fare of twenty-somethings being chased in the woods by hillbilly cannibals. The first kill is a real shocker, and one of the later ones involving a bear trap is very effective. But, as with PERKINS 14, the stupidity of the characters when the killing starts tanks the film in its final act.

5) VOICES: Asian entry is heavy on both blood and mood. Kim's family and friends keep trying to kill her. Good camera, creepy atmosphere, and perhaps the best score of the 8 films - the weakness here is, after the third or fourth attempt on her life, it becomes achingly predictable - EVERYONE is going to try to kill her, and she's always going to be saved at the last minute by someone we didn't even realize was there.

4) AUTOPSY: Perhaps the most "fun" of the set. This "horror-hospital" fare has five tweens trying to escape a hospital staffed by psychos working for a mad doctor trying to keep his wife alive with live organ transplants. Unflinchingly gory, but in a fun way, this one never takes its ridiculous premise seriously, which is what saves it. The only thing keeping it from the top spot is some very poor editing near the end, and a completely tacked on and nonsensical final shot.

3) THE BROKEN: Lena Headey sees a double of herself driving down the road, and begins questioning her own reality. Mixed fillings about this one. Loved the concept, loved the mood. The atmosphere was effectively creepy and cold. Huge Lena Headey fan. Had some good creep-outs, particularly in the final act. The problem is pacing - at first, the slower pace feeds the atmosphere. But after thirty minutes, you can't help but start checking your watch. By the time things pick up again, you've lost a lot of interest. The characters are never really fleshed out, and while you know WHAT's happening by the end, you never know WHY. Also, the film cheats by skipping a key moment at the beginning to try to have a twist at the end. However, by doing so, it only makes the twist that much more predictable. Still, from a purely production value point of view, it easily stands above the other entries.

2) BUTTERFLY EFFECT 3: Arguably the best film of the set. Very interesting story, top production value and effects, fine acting, solid ending (the only really happy ending in the group). Travelling back in time to try to discover who killed his girlfriend, our protagonist inadvertently turns a single murder into a string of serial murders, and has to try to set things right. The one thing keeping THIS one from the top spot is, aside from some inappropriately gory kills, this movie is not remotely horror.

1) FROM WITHIN: Comes closest to hitting all the targets. Good production, good concept, good acting, good pacing, VERY creepy and chilling, and unlike BUTTERFLY, it IS a horror movie. A town is plagued by apparent suicides, but there is a sinister plot behind them all. I can reluctantly call this the overall best - my only reservations are the glibly stereotypical portrayals (both of the religious, and the pagan characters) and the fact that most of the best scare effects are lifted from other, better movies (GRUDGE, RING, EMILY ROSE, etc . . .)

Let's give a little more credit where due:

BEST SCARE: toss up between a good jump-scare in AUTOPSY, and a very chilling moment involving the father and his double in THE BROKEN.

BEST CRINGE-MOMENT: The clunky hand-drill to the head in AUTOPSY, definitely - though the teeth pulling in SLAUGHTER had me turning away as well.

STAND-OUT ACTORS: can't really say anyone was "best actor," but I liked Melanie Vallejo in DYING BREED, Jessica Lowndes and Robert Patrick in AUTOPSY, and Lucy Holt did well in psycho-mode at the end of SLAUGHTER. But I'd say Jenette Goldstein probably steals the show as psycho nurse in AUTOPSY - love when Emily pushes her to the floor and she screams "YOU GOT ME DIRTY!"

GORIEST MOMENT: Oxygen Tank to the head and face in AUTOPSY, ala IRREVERSIBLE.

BEST OPENING: VOICES had the creepiest opening, though it had nothing to do with anything else - SLAUGHTER had the most intriguing opening - AUTOPSY had the best opening credit sequence.

All-in-all, I had fun watching these movies, but I don't think a single one of these warrants a purchase, and CERTAINLY not the whole set!

The Abandoned
$14.98
It was kind of a bore, to be honest. Not scary, really, never was scared. The cinematography is the main thing it has to offer, story was far too repetitive, even though there was a seed of something interesting there, but it just wasn't enough to make this a good movie.

Autopsy
$14.98
A group of five friends are returning home after visiting New Orleans during Mardi Gras. They have an accident along a deserted highway, hitting a man who wandered out of the woods. By "chance" an ambulance happens by and takes the entire group to a desolate hospital. Now of course, you or I or anyone of rational intelligence would run from this place when they see the creepy orderlies Travis and Scott, or the even creepier head nurse Marian (Jenette Goldstein of "Aliens and "Near Dark"). But this is a horror movie and common sense is typically tossed out the window so one can enjoy the ride.

By common sense, I mean that one should refrain from getting up and exploring the near empty hospital on their own. I've been in lots of hospitals, often in the middle of the night and I've never had the urge to get up and wander the halls. Nurse Marian's happy Southern charm isn't nearly enough to neutralize what we know immediately is a sinister motive and her happy countenance soon turns to anger as she chastises the kids for not waiting their turn in the lobby.

Their "turn" is their appointment with the man behind the hospital, Dr. David Benway (Patrick) and his easygoing bedside manner almost fools you into thinking he might not be so bad. Benway, however is conducting some very "Dr. Frankenstein" like experiments for reasons which will be revealed soon enough.

As usual in these films we have a female heroine. Here it is Emily (Lowndes) who scours the hospital looking for her boyfriend, Bobby, the first patient of Dr. Benway's. Emily discovers the twisted experiments performed by the sadistic staff and is in the fight for her life to survive.

From a technical standpoint, Autopsy is well made. The setting of the aged hospital with its old-fashioned dial phones and 1950s styling adds atmosphere to the film. Fans of gore will not be disappointed as the violence is extremely graphic and there are body parts aplenty strewn across the screen, not to mention intestines.

The performances are a mixed bag...Patrick, Goldstein, and the two cruel orderlies revel in their roles while the victims are exceedingly dull stereotypes and even Lowndes isn't very fun to watch given the choice heroine's role.

Autopsy is predictable but that's almost a given in films of this type. The setting is great and the villains play their roles to the hilt making this a passable entry into this year's After Dark Horrorfest series.

Tooth & Nail - After Dark Horror Fest (2007)
$14.98
I really enjoyed this movie! It was really an amazing movie, written perfectly I think. The movie had no loose edges, as it was hard to tell what was going to happen next. The twists just kept coming. It was also pretty scary, I remember having to turn down the volume, or just mute it when I knew something was coming! Sometimes it did come, and other times it was just ongoing suspense! You never knew who was going to die, it was a free for all the whole film, which was pretty good as well. I would watch it again in a heartbeat! The acting was also very great! I was there with the characters experiencing the same thing that they were. It was very hills have eyes, in that the victims become the hunters, and the hunters become the hunted. I love that kind of savagery. 5 Starts, would give it 10 if it was possible!