User Reviews

The film starts out promising enough. The first 7 minutes are good. There's an old footage thing, then there's a group driving through some woods in a VW camper van, then 'typical' kicks in - the noise of a hunting rifle, Boom! a stranger looks into groups vehicle window (yes, there's a boom sound effect). One of cast says 'i have a bad feeling about this..' (isn't that a typical line from Star Wars?) The stranger wants a jump-start, and over act's the part, by acting over strange. Credit where credit is due, just as things started to look predictable, there's an unexpected twist.

Positives: The film looks good. Those behind the camera, the editors, have done a good job.

Kristina Klebe caught my eye. She's has a lot going for her. Without doubt, the strongest cast member.

Negatives: Sound is a mixed bag. Some of it fitting, while some of it sounds all too familiar. At times there's a lack of balance, and over-use of jingles.

The story tends to drift, my attention span was being tested. There's a real sense The Kiss of a Killer brought together a mix of talent, and lesser talented individuals.

Weak moments: Two of the group spot some metal barrels in the woods. The barrels look in good shape. The male attempts to open the lid on one of the barrels. He fails. So the female has a go, and guess what? she fails also. If the male couldn't manage it, how was the female expected to do better? If you're staying at a hotel, and looking around the place outside, why would anyone who discovered barrels, attempt to open them?

During another scene, a male and female are waiting outside the Hotel in the camper van. It's daytime. There is a don-king noise, no big deal really. They overreact, and lock themselves inside the camper? The engine cuts out, and the female goes mental. It's absurd. The male gets out to look at the engine, and they completely forget their fear of the don-king noise, once the engine starts. The bald killer shows up, and stabs the male before the female's eyes. She runs for her life, the bald killer keeps up with her by walking slowly (running is apparently not the killers style). In a completely unoriginal move, the female runs into a building, and to the safety of a smartly dressed type who is involved with the hotel. He is obviously a bad egg. To jump on the phone to the police might be top of the list, but no, the female sits down and has a cup of tea to clam down? FFS, SHE HAS JUST WITNESSED SOMEONE BEING STABBED AND BEEN CHASED BY A BLOOD SPLATTERED KILLER AND SHE SITS DOWN FOR A CUPPER?

Closing comment: Good effort, but ultimately, the story isn't all that.

For some reason five really, really clever bank robbers who look like models decide to hide away from the police in a hotel.

First price for the dumbest bank robbers (or the dumbest movie script) goes to...

Perhaps they should have rather stuck to modelling - robbing banks and hiding from the police surely is too much of a mental effort for them.

Well I could go on that there is a serial killer in this hotel who has lived there for 30 years or so and all those acting school rejects get killed...

But hey you say, haven't I seen that a gzillion times before? Yes you have - but mostly even these were movies made by people with a gzillion times more talent than anyone involved in this epic fail.

With the decreased cost of digitally producing a movie every zero-talent wanna-bee puts out a stupid horror movie these days.

And no, the reason these movies suck isn't lack of money - it's the total lack of any kind of imagination, story telling skills or the even the slightest amount of talent.

"Bela Kiss: Prologue" is a German movie that is also mostly in the German language. It is the only full feature film work by writer and director Lucien Förstner so far and as this one is a 2013 movie, it will have its 5th anniversary next year. It runs for slightly over 100 minutes and combines the genres crime, thriller and horror in one movie. Bela Kiss was a serial killer early in the 20th century whose victims were predominantly women. This film here works with the premise that many many decades later Kiss may still be alive and that may be due to vampirism keeping him relatively young and fresh. So yes, it is a fictionalized film for sure and honestly, the entire Kiss reference works not at all in the film's favor. He sure is an interesting character that deserves his own movie, but this is not it. Maybe a documentary would even be more accurate as, eventually, we know very little about him, not even his exact time of death. As a consequence, this is a pretty generic thriller movie that turns more and more into horror the longer it goes. The Kiss reference in the title was probably just an attempt by the filmmaker to make this film sound more relevant and important than all the other horror films that disappear as quickly into oblivion as they appear on the radar. He was maybe even successful with this approach, but I cannot support it. The most known cast members may be Rudolf Martin ("NCIS") and Collien Fernandes, but the latter really only has a brief cameo. So all in all, this one is just for the very biggest vampire horror film fans. Everybody else will be mostly disappointed and underwhelmed. Here and there, we get a decent scene like the murder witnessed by the woman and hos she wants to check the hotel room despite the resistance of the owner, but it's just not enough for 100 minutes. Not even close. I would say the IMDb rating here is pretty accurate for a change. it just wasn't a good watch and I give it a thumbs-down. The acting is sometimes pretty embarrassing as well and I am not surprised at all that Förstner's career has not skyrocketed since then. I hope he has stepped up his game when he returns to making movies, even if his direction certainly wasn't the main problem in here, more like the mix of script and performances. The title also doesn't make much sense as this takes place way way later than Kiss' most prolific killing phase, so epilogue would be more accurate, and I hope it's not meant that there will be more films like this.

There is a really well made sort of new mash-up of a movie hidden in here. The cast are all into the story all the way, but there are huge gaps in the way they are trying to feel like an American movie, and the way that it just so isn't, if only they had picked a side. Everything on it's own almost works. Otherwise you are left with a waste of time, however every so often you are paid off with a really unique effect, or story twist, and there are just enough of those that make this work. I would say that if you like to watch campy vampire movies from the 60's, or you are a fan of those wrong Turn "freakshows"(someone out there must be) even if you just really liked the darkest moments of Hostle : Then you will Enjoy some part of this movie. Even if you are just someone looking for something different, that is sort of in there too.

Jesse of Jesse.ca

For some reason, despite falling victim to some of the tired horror movie clichés, this movie had me invested. Maybe it was the whole based on a true story. I mean I'm sure there was some sort of serial killer back before WWI started that disappeared, and bodies were found in barrels, I figure that is as much as the "truth" as we get. I think, after "Cabin in the Woods" I look at horror movies a bit different. I've always been a fan of horror movies, but now, I tend to see then as part of the universe of "Cabin in the Woods"

Visually, I applaud the filmmakers. I like when I see a movie takes chances and visually, I think they had some fun with lenses, filters and post production color correction.

If you haven't checked out "Cabin in the Woods", please do and please do it before you watch this movie. Then after watching that, just imagine this movie in the same universe. I think you'll appreciate it more.

But let's say I want to just rate this movie on its own. What are my expectations going into a horror movie? People that have sex die. Cars will not start. People will fall down while running in the woods. Is this movie guilty? Yes. But what horror movie isn't? (A lot of them, I know, but also a good amount of them are.)

I think we go into a horror movie hoping to get scared, see some blood and have those moments where we yell at the screen. Don't go in there! Don't trust him/her! Look out behind you!

This movie had that.