Death on Demand (2008) Poster

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2/10
Demand more than death here, demand some quality!
Shattered_Wake28 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Playing like a bad mix of 'House on Haunted Hill' and 'Halloween: Resurrection' (yes, worse than 'Halloween: Resurrection'), we follow the story of three couples (including a couple football players, an emo lesbian, and a porn star. . . seriously) who are invited to the former home of amateur mountain climber & psychotic murderer Sean McIntyre (which might be the lamest name for a killer in the history of horror). Why? Because some rich guy (who looks like the prickish lovechild of Eli Roth and Colin Farrell) promised them $5,000 if they'd participate in his live-stream webcast at the haunted house. As expected, the ghost of McIntyre is brought back during a séance (why do I even bother?) and begins to stalk down his house guests.

Well, what's there to say? I wasn't expecting much here, and I got what I was expecting. This simply is not a good film. The premise isn't awful, I suppose. Worse ideas have made better films. But, though it's said too much: The execution was just plain bad. The writing was stale, clunky, and chock-full of clichés; and it wasn't helped by the laughably bad acting. Sadly, unlike many other modern straight-to-video horrors, the cast that kept their clothes on isn't even attractive enough to make up for their lack of talent. I will give the film one compliment: the gore FX were pretty good. . . even though the violence was unrealistic (I mean, severing a head with a kitchen knife? C'mon). The direction (by someone who'd previously been into 'Sesame Street' videos) isn't terrible, but it seemed he didn't know which way he wanted to go with it, as it blends hand-held, steadicam, and realistic video. . . then there are jumping camera effects (including some little girl with cataracts or something) in only one scene that never show their face again. One style would've done better. . . at least we could've depended on SOMETHING in the film.

Beyond some good gore/violence, there really isn't much else to see in this amateurish film. There's better gore and better violence in better films. No need to bother with this one.

Final Verdict: 2/10.

'Death on Demand' hits shelves July 8th.

-AP3-
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4/10
it isn't really much good, but as awesomely-bad horror movie fun, it could be worse
rpchristal11 July 2008
If you have to watch one horror movie with a ghost-killer donning a pair of mountain climbing boots with spikes and brandishing a pick-ax as a weapon this season, this will have to suffice for now. It's about a guy who, after being a successful mountain climber, came home and in a daze killed his wife and children, then hung himself. So, what better way to celebrate Halloween years later than to have a internet-camera view of every room during one night when a bunch of teens have sex in nearly every room for paying customers on0line to see (after, you know, conjuring the dead back to life in a wedgie-board set-up)? Then, of course, wackiness ensues! And by that I mean there's lots of grisly murders, and a lot of people doing stupid things and getting themselves killed.

Now, as far as direction goes, Adam Matalon isn't any genius but he's done a few scenes here that are somewhat horrific visually (even the opening scenes, tinted puke-green, have a good effect on the mood), and as he treads very familiar ground (from various haunted house movies to Halloween Resurrection just to name one obvious title) he makes things dumb, trashy, sleazy, and sometimes funny in the most garish ways imaginable. The cast, mostly first-timers and indie players like Broome, Ciccarelle, Christal, Falcone, Folan, Greer, do what little they can (which, actually, isn't very much with such paltry writing and invisible-paper-thin characters), and the filmmakers rely on lots of 'GOTCHA!' suspense and violence that goes to as far extremes as a direct-to-DVD can try to go.

Despite an ending that is (somewhat) promisingly bleak, and the so-real-it's-real turn by Krista Grotte as guest porn star Kristy Luv (who may be a real porn star, I'm not sure, definitely looks the part), it's all second-rate at best. While not really a Z-grade offering, and with a couple of moments of inspiration and cheap thrills and laughs, it's mostly lame and sour work.
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4/10
An entertaingly bad movie
Overall, not a bad movie for this type of bad movie, it is watchable, and laughably bad. Basically this is a rip-off of 'Halloween: Resurrection' But its pretty much as entertaining or better, with a lot less budget and worse acting (which makes it entertaining). This is a perfect example of an entertaingly bad movie.

Some of the acting was actually OK, but the two football players - "Biff" and "Brad" were awesomely horribly bad. Especially the erectile dysfuntion guy - I guess he was supposed to be closeted Gay or something but he was really, really, really horrible, easily in the top 10 worst actors I've seen. Could have used more nudity.
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1/10
Total and utter crap
disinter28 June 2008
I am second guessing myself over my "1" rating because I usually reserve 1 for extremely bad movies but I couldn't give this higher than a 1.5. The actors and actresses were all very unattractive which sucked because there was a lot of sexual situations. The actual acting was horrendous. You were always aware that it's just a movie. You never get lost into it like you do a great movie. The special FX were hit and miss but overall OK for a small budget picture. Not quite enough of it to earn the "strong violence/gore" moniker though. The ending was so predictable that it secured a "1" vote. Had the ending been good it would have gotten a "2". Another thing that bugged me was that the premise of the movie was this group of people stuck in a house (which may or may not be haunted) all the while being recorded and streamed on a website. The group had to solve certain clues so it was like a scavenger hunt. It made no sense because it was just a 2 story house. They acted like it was a huge compound. Another huge plot hole was the fact that every time some action happened it was never picked up on the web cam. If the whole premise of the project was to video these people, it seems like they would go to great lengths to ensure that there would be no "blind spots".

Hey don't take my word for it though. Pick up a copy and decide for yourself. Make sure to come back here and review it because it's pretty likely that as soon as I post this, we'll get a few positive ghost reviews by people that worked on it.

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to rag your movie but it wasn't any good.
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1/10
boredom on demand
movieman_kev13 July 2008
Richard Sachs (if you didn't even chuckles at that name, the ill-conceived 'humor' in this horror film will bore you, by the way), the collage student son of a successful businessman decides to have the inaugural debut of his reality show website shoot at an haunted house that was home of serial killer Sean McIntyre, a man who killed his family one Thanksgiving night before hanging himself. Of course he comes back to stalk the six contests of the game.

This film was horrible in just about every way, with the acting being atrocious (even for the low standard of low-budget horror films of the ilk), the humor was mind-stunning bad and the 'action' came too little too late to really give a damn about it. A sub-par clone of just about any indistinguishable straight to DVD slasher flick out there today. Pass on it

My Grade: F

Eye Candy: Sara Christal, Krista Grotte, and Anne McDaniels all show breasts
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1/10
If I had paid to see this movie I would demand my money back, if I was paid to see this movie, I would gouge out my eyeballs and watch club dread and bubba ho tep.
kelvin-stanley17 June 2009
Myself and my partner decided to give this movie a try we went by the trailer. I wish that we had spent our time doing something more constructive.. Party at my house for a 24 hour paint watching marathon. Getting back on track.. Velvet luv. oh boy. I think I have seen better acting at a school play. 2nd grade I should say.. "you make me hot baby" When we started seeing the scenes with velvet in them my thoughts were you gotta be kidding me, is this a low grade horror movie or some cheesy porn flick. we decided to follow through with the movie to see what exactly happens, unfortunately the plot was too obvious and we ended up guessing what was going to happen. Some reason I felt psychic, now if only I could have predicted the lottery numbers then I would have been set, unfortunately this movie is too predictable. If your thinking of watching this, I would seriously think twice, due to the poor acting, little tips though... when you place a false hand made of silicon or rubber.. make sure that you don't shine a light onto that prop, and for the woman in stockings when you act dead, try not to clasp your hand around the other actors hand and most important of all... ( Don't Blink ) I am not going to spoil it for you guys as thats the type of person I am, so if your going to watch it.. good luck, oh by the way.. This movie should actually carry a government health warning! ( This film can cause serious manic depression for the hour and half of your life )
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5/10
Better than Halloween: Resurrection
DigitalRevenantX75 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
In 1987, acclaimed mountain climber Sean McIntyre wipes out his entire family due to altitude sickness & hangs himself. Twenty years later, the McIntyre house is the site of a Halloween-themed internet webcast. Six people – two couples, a bookish lesbian & a porn actress – are handpicked to star in the contest for a small fortune as producer Richard DeNoia plans to boost his audience numbers & make a large profit, as well as paying off his debts. But during the night, the group hold a séance. Sean McIntyre returns from the grave as a vengeful ghost, slaughtering his way through the group.

Death on Demand is a B-grade horror film that took the likes of HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION as inspiration for its own story. But unlike Resurrection, this one doesn't have the star power of Michael Myers for a villain so they use the ghost of a mountain climber as the monster here.

Unlike Halloween: Resurrection, which was decidedly mediocre despite the novelty concept & The Shape's presence, Death on Demand is quite a reasonably decent film. It won't win any awards & there are some inconsistencies in the story, but director Adam Matalon manages to make a passable reality-TV-based horror film work. The actors do a decent job, although their antics at first get a little too clichéd for my liking. But once the ghost appears, the film picks up quite a bit (the scene where the séance ends with a supernatural warning & a chandelier falling on the table was a good jump shock). The climax where the sole survivor discovers a way to defeat the ghost, only to later find to her chagrin that it didn't work & the ghost is here for good is pretty bleak.
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1/10
Absolutely terrible and inaccurate
VCService559056 December 2008
This movie was terrible. Absolutely horrible. The acting was some of the worst I've ever seen and the movie seemed to simply revolve around sex. A few of the violent scenes were well done, but the actors were too horrible to pull them off. The outtakes were honestly the best thing on the DVD.

Not to mention the fact that I am a REAL climber and realized that he had some ice axes, some crampons, and a lot of TRAD CLIMBING gear that you would die trying to use in pure ice climbing. Mixed climbing, acceptable, but the movie called him an ice climber (which is also different from alpining, which is what hiking in the Himalayas would be).

/Gear rant. The movie itself sucked. Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't spend any money or time at all on it. Horrible♦
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6/10
Halloween: Resurrection, Part 2
FrightMeter14 October 2008
Three college-aged couples are promised $5000 if they spend the night in a supposedly haunted house, where years earlier, a renowned mountain climber murdered his entirely family on Thanksgiving Day before doing himself in. The catch--their entire night will be broadcast over the Internet via strategically placed webcams. The group's first decided upon task is to hold a seance, which results in the spirit of the deranged mountain killer materializing, and he is none to happy about the intruders in his home. Armed with his trusty mountain climbing hook, be begins stalking and slaughtering the teens one by one.

"Death on Demand" certainly wins no points for originality, as fans of the genre will immediately be reminded of "Halloween: Resurrection," as well as some obscure entries into the genre such as "Dead Dudes in the House," and the more recently DTV release "The Slaughter." Still, that is not this films worst problem, as many slasher films have clichéd plots that they are able to rise above. First, the acting is atrocious, and though there are a few attractive cast members, none of the can act to save their lives. There is one particular character-Brad-who is great to look at, particularly during his sex scene, but is one of the most annoying characters I have ever witnessed in a horror film and the actor portraying him is...well.....not very good. In fact, there isn't one likable character in the whole movie, so when they do begin to die, we could care less. The whole premise of the film is based on the fact that the events are being broadcast over the web, but when the killing starts, that whole plot element is forgotten. Nobody anywhere watching the webcast apparently views the teens being mercily butchered, but only minutes before could see the sex that seems to happen every five minutes in the film. Basically, clichés and plot abound the plot and not an original bone is to be found in this film, except perhaps the weapon of choice of the killer. Even the ending, which the writer probably thought was oh-so-clever, has been done before in many films (see the ones I mentioned above) and could be seen coming two miles away.

The film does look good, though. It doesn't have the cheap look that so many DTV's have and the lighting is actually adequate during the dark scenes. Also, the gore effects are pretty decent and there are some nasty kills that would have been much more effective had the character being murdered been likable. Once the seance is held, the pace of the film picks up. I wasn't bored, per se, and actually smiled a few times because, despite its countless flaws, the film does manage some flashes of good film-making that reminded me of the glory days of the 80' slasher flicks. Bottom line is I didn't hate this film. Sure, I cringed at the acting and dialogue a few times, but when it was over and done with, I wasn't angry or upset or felt that I wasted my time. I have come to not over-estimate expectations of a DTV slasher and this one had a certain charm, albeit its cheesiness, and I definitely don't count it among the worst I have seen recently.

My Grade: C-
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7/10
YOU DON'T LIKE VELVET?
nogodnomasters1 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The movie opens with the McIntyre murders, a black and white scene of a guy killing his family, then himself. 20 years later the house becomes a scene for a reality show where contestants must spend the night in the house equipped with sound (screams) and cameras. The characters entertain us with some "good" cheesy dialogue. The contest takes place on Halloween night with live streaming. In order to get viewers, they add a porn star to the group. The group includes two rival football players and their girlfriends along with a lesbian who is paired up with the porn star.

The couples initially hold a seance lead by Daphne Ciccarelle who dabbles in the occult...now it is a matter of who lives and dies and whatever plot twists they can come up with.

I liked the overall "B" movie quality to this film. While it isn't anything new to the horror film genre, I enjoy rip off movies that are done well with characters and dialogue.

Sex, nudity (cutie Anne McDaniels, Krista Grotte)
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