Reviews

So I always am baffled by the amount of viewers that come on and watch some b-rated horror movie and are absolutely appalled by it's lack of quality and performance. Folks, what do you think these movies are made for? Do you think the director and actors were truly going for an academy award? How is it we're all taking a movie seriously when the actors and creators clearly didn't even take it seriously at the time of making it?! Get real!!!!

So, then, let's get real. These movies are made to be campy. It's trying to entertain us at our most primordial levels. It has cheesy one-liners, attractive women, an over the top villain and silly gore scenes. It's great for high schoolers who want to have this movie rolling in the background while drinking cheap lagers and smoking weed. It's back to the vein of grindhouse and drive-in horror. I'm glad these movies are being made and I'm glad this movie was made.

At a moment when I didn't want to have to do too much thinking this movie absolutely delivered ... and I appreciated it! I have to think all day at my job and with the stressors of life, it's so nice to have a flick that's just be like, "hey, I got you. Chill out and just unwind." It's fun! I can tell the staff and actors were having fun when making it! The female actors who were willing to do it all were the real MVPs, here. Also want to recognize whoever did the musical score. Loved the little captions at the beginning which were in true grindhouse fashion.

Don't go to a greasy burger joint and complain it's not beef wellington. Don't go to an adult league after hours softball game and complain it's not MLB. Rate a movie for it's designated audience and intended purpose. Thank you!

There's a lot to like about this film. As I've seen with other IFC releases, in order to save money, filming seems to always be inside with no extras and always playing with black and darkness. They're probably filming either in a single studio, or at night. I don't want to pick on the film for this. Most likely, the budget was limited. Anytime a nice stylized great looking film (which this movie is) can be made on a minimal budget it should be celebrated. So I want to celebrate the successful culmination of this movie. The movie was also super knowledgeable about all of the equipment and methods used in creating sound in film back in the seventies.

Now, what brings me to write this review is to just give fair warning to the person that decides they want to shell out the money to see this on the big screen as I did at my local art-house theater (these are hard times, and so when you don't feel like you got what you paid for, it does indeed hurt). I would recommend you pass the movie and wait for this to appear on IFC Channel or Netflix. I was attracted to see this film by the idea that it was a movie about the sound studio of some 1970's Italian grind-house horror film. In the trailer, there were these scenes of men repeatedly stabbing cabbage and slicing watermelons for their sound effects. It seemed like a totally fun idea! But once I saw those scenes in the movie, there was really just an awkwardness and disconnect to the whole thing. Everything was so obsessively singular in the perspective of the awkward our-of-place Englishman. As a result, the watcher feels awkward and out-of-place throughout the entire film.

I don't want to go on in too much detail so I'll just say this. When given a pretext and a brilliant idea that could've made this movie a total joy to see, the director and producer just decided to take themselves too darn seriously. Making slasher grind-house movies in the seventies (and in Italy) must have been total no-limits decadent absurdity. The content and subject of said films was disturbing, but the delivery was so over-the-top horrible you couldn't take it seriously if you tried. Yet despite some attempts, this film doesn't quite appreciate the absurd factor of the class of films to which is the focal point of this movie. To the contrary, the tone of this film is very dark, disturbing and a bit overbearing. The entire time I watched it, I just kind of felt frustrated along with the protagonist. Bottom line, I just didn't enjoy it. At one point in the theatre the DVD skipped and I was excited at the prospect that maybe the film house might throw in some free tickets to come check out another film. But when I walked out of the theater all employees were conveniently gone, and there was just a clear path to the exiting doors. Shucks.