The Shortround: Alice Jacobs is Dead (Review)

Alice Jacobs is Dead

Alice Jacobs is Dead (2009)

Directed by Alex Horwitz

I found the trailer for Alice Jacobs is Dead last week. It was a short that from the trailer seemed to give us a different perspective on what a zombie film could be.

And what a difference it is.

Here is what we don't see: Zombie hordes in mass, kinetic, fast moving zombies, good guys vs zombies or any zombie attack force.

Here is what we DO see: A couple who are deeply in love until the bitter end despite a sickness that ultimately leads both of them to their deaths.

Alice Jacobs is part zombie film, part romance story. It's zombmanticism. A new subgenre of zombie films that takes the Romero of old and adds in a tender juicy slice of love. Put in the shoes of our brilliant doctor and having to choose between the woman he loves and the safety of the human race, it's an ethical and moral question that puts the viewer to the test. What would you do?

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Dr. Ben Jacobs saved the world. The drug he created allowed mankind to fight back against the Z-virus, which nearly destroyed civilization entirely. Now, in the aftermath of the crisis, hes trying to cure the last victims of the virus. But what will happen when he brings his mysterious work home?

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Alice Jacobs is Dead stars John La Zar as Dr. Ben Jacobs and Adrienne Barbeau as Alice Jacobs. It has a feel of World War Z as we are 2 years removed from the outbreak, with a partial cure coming from the doc. But unknown to all, including his lab scientist George, his wife is sick with the virus as well, having been prolonged by Jacob's "cure". She lives between life and zombie life,
a purgatory of hell in which she is imprisoned in her own home.

Barbeau is perfect as Alice who has to deal with this conflict. Trapped and beginning to get the cravings of a soon to be undead, she deteriorates before our very eyes. In the penultimate scene of her pending transformation, she devours tasty red meat in glorious cannibalism. La Zar is solid as the doc and husband who blinded by love lives only to find a cure and keep his wife alive.

Later, our junior doc discovers Dr. Jacob's "secret" which leads to the chilling conclusion. Dr. Jacobs has to make a choice. Keep his wife alive or kill her to protect humanity. That's the foreground question of AJID. But the backround question is what Alice decides to do. She too has to make a choice. Prolong a life isolated from humanity or let the sickness progress and turn into the inevitable. Which would you choose?

Romero made us feel for Zombies with Bub in Day of the Dead, but never have I felt torn for how I felt about Alice Jacobs. Humanizing people with a sickness may be the satire of this zombie short but it's packs an emotional POW!

Alice Jacobs is Dead is what zombie movies should be in this new millennium. Spinning a new perspective on this genre, questioning our morality and adding scenes of terror and gore to the satire.

At the end of watching Alice Jacobs is Dead, those 2 questions will linger in your mind for a long time. What would you do?

Gore-ipedia

Some ripped intestines
Blood trauma to the back of the head

WTF moment

The ending

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

Check out the official site and Facebook page for more information. Thanks to Alex Horwitz for sending me a screener of the short film. Hopefully the short will make its go around in festivals soon. People need to see this if they even consider themselves a fan of zombie movies.

Check out the review of this short on Planet of Terror as well.

Rating:
Check out the trailer below.

Categories: 2009 horror trailers, george romero, the shortround, zombies

Dollhouse (Reviews of the last 4 episodes)

I've been a little mainstreamy this week and I really don't know why. Well actually I do. December is the month where I try to catch up on all my Hollywood horror movie viewing so I can create a solid Top 10 horror movies of 2009 list. So I've been trying to view all the stuff I missed or is being released on DVD.

But I've been tubing it up as well. If you haven't noticed, I'm a big Joss Whedon fan and I've been reviewing Dollhouse for UGO.com. I've reviewed every single Dollhouse episode (except Epitaph One). I really admit, I'm proud of the fact that I haven't missed reviewing a single episode. Trust me, there were times the show was out right terri-awful, I had no motivation to do it.

If you're a Dollhouse fan, you can check out my reviews of the last 4 episodes by heading over to UGO.com.

• 12/4/09:"The Public Eye" and "The Left Hand"
• 12/11/09: "Meet Jane Doe and "A Love Supreme"
  

Categories: dichen lachman, dollhouse, dollhouse quotes, dollhouse review, eliza dushku, joss whedon, liza lapira

Kick-Ass (Exclusive Clip and Trailer!)

Mark Millar's Kick-Ass has been getting Twittered and hyped recently (after an early screening) and I too am a little intrigued by this little tweeny comic book movie. I hated the live action Wanted movie with Angelina but loved the graphic novel. I usually will read the graphic novel before I see any adaptation of a comic. Having done so with Watchmen, I plan to read all Y The Last Man before it gets to be a movie.

But this funny ass clip with Nicholas Cage as Big Daddy may actually convince me to do the opposite. Watch the movie then read the graphic novel. It does look different than the other comic adaptations to be released. Funny, goofy, quirky, silly and outright kick ass. Nuff said.

A good movie with Nic Cage? Can it be? Really?

Here be the plot.

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training.

Check out the exclusive clip and poster courtesy of UGO.com.





Check out the teaser trailer below.





All the posters are also available to check out.

Categories: comic books. graphic novels, comics, graphic novel, kick-ass, kick-ass exclusive clip, kick-ass trailer, nicholas cage

Christmas Themed Horror Movies You May Have Forgotten

Last week my post for HorrorBlips "Horror for the Holiday" blog-o-thon went up. But today, I stick with the holiday theme and dig up some of the lesser known Christmas themed holiday movies.

Sure you know of Silent Night, Deadly Night, Black Christmas, Santa's Slay, Jack Frost and Child's Play but I've tried to dig up the more obscure and forgotten of the Christmas slate of horror. Hmm. Maybe you have heard of some of these but hell it's good to just go into the time machine and reminisce. Most of these are terri-crappy but Treevenge is by far one of the best shorts I've seen in a while. I haven't seen most of these but egads if you have, let me know if they are MST3K worthy or pure garbage. Come to think of it, I may see P2 because of Rachel "Orion Slave Girl/Scarlett" Nichols.

Merry Slaymas!

1.) Psycho Santa





2.) Two Front Teeth





3.) Gingerdead Man





4.) P2





5.) Treevenge

Categories: christmas, horrorblips, p2, silent night deadly night trailer, treevenge

Top 10 Holiday Characters That Could Be Turned Into Unstoppable Killing Machines

I was asked to participate in HorrorBlips "Horror for the Holidays" blog event and I was more than willing to come up with some holiday themed post for today. I had to really think about what I was going to write about. I mean it isn't easy to come up with something that you'd hope people would enjoy reading but had a holiday angle. I came up with a lot of stuff and I inevitably came up with Top 10 Holiday Characters That Could Be Turned Into Unstoppable Killing Machines. But just for shits and giggles here were some of my rejected ideas:

• Jack Frost (that killer snowman movie with Shannon Elizabeth) frame by frame review
• Black Christmas (Original vs Remake)
• A week's worth of reviews of the Silent Night, Deadly Night series
• Bill Goldberg's Santa's Slay Review
  
• Gremlins Retrospective
  

That Gremlins retrospective would have been cute. Oh that Gizmo! Instead, I've decided to just write about how we can turn nice, wholesome, family Christmas themed characters and mythology into unstoppable killing machines.

This is the stuff I think about when the TV and Internet are broken and I'm eating a Twinkie. So check out the list below!

Top 10 Holiday Characters That Could Be Turned Into Unstoppable Killing Machines

10.) Snowflakes

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn snowflakes into unstoppable killing machines? By going and turning them into diamond sharp, ninja stars of death! Nature has taken every opportunity to rid the Earth of this human pestilence. Now, they've turned snowflakes into razor sharp daggers falling from the sky!

9.) Jigsaw traps in gifts

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn Christmas gifts into unstoppable killing machines? By inserting Jigsaw like traps with timing mechanisms in them. Wouldn't you like to see a scene where a tweeny kid opens his present expecting to see a Wii but instead has to dismantle a device in less than 30 seconds or he gets mutilated? OK, well then that's just my bag I guess.

8.) Gingerbread Men

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn Gingerbread Men into unstoppable killing machines? By arming them with machine guns of course. Here's the quick synopsis. Witches have made gingerbread men come to life using magical dough. And instead of frosting with a smile, they've got machine guns and are marching down every suburban neighborhood seeking their revenge for their brothers and sisters who've been devoured by happy families. Logic problem: They may have trouble walking. Of course we could also watch The Gingerdead Man.

7.) Mrs. Claus

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn Mrs. Claus into a unstoppable killing machine? We turn her into a sexy vixen of course. Imagine an Anna Nicole Smith type marrying Santa for his power and money. This is our new version of Mrs. Claus. She seduces men with candy canes and mistletoe and takes their souls! Megan Fox would be perfect in this role!

6.) Robotic Santa Claus

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn Santa Claus into a unstoppable killing machine? We make him into a cyborg of course! Think Terminator meets Silent Night, Deadly Night. He'd be armed with a futuristic sleigh of course and robotic reindeer. His bag would have an arsenal of weapons. Yes Virgina, there is a Santa Claus...and he's self aware.

5.) Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn ghosts of Christmas past, present and future into a unstoppable killing machines? Well we make them not ghosts, but pure, evil demons of course. Oh yes, they do give you glimpses of your life as it could have been, and once they do each of the ghosts takes you into your worst nightmare. By the time Future gets through with you, you'll wish you were nice to Timmy and gave him a bike...but that will be too late when your being decapitated.

4.) Rabid Elves

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn elves into unstoppable killing machines? We make them rabid elves of course. Elves with a thirst for human blood. These elves despise making cookies and have secretly made faulty toys and poisoned the water supply. When the human population is confused and sick, they attack like locusts. Oh btw, they have magic powers too. Seems like they made an Elves movie back in the 80s. How about that?

3.) Christmas Trees (see Treevenge)

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn Christmas trees into a unstoppable killing machines? By making them into devouring, monsters from hell. After decades of being decorated with worthless ornaments and wearing a ridiculous star as makeshift hats, they've had enough. They are hellbent on killing millions of happy go lucky families on Christmas morning. And it's 100% glorious this has been made into a live action short. See all the carnage here.

2.) Killer Reindeer

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn reindeer into a unstoppable killing machines? By making Rudolph the deadliest reindeer of all! Rudolph is still sore that he never played any of those reindeer games so he's hell bent on revenge. After making all the others bow before him (via his nose which is laser enabled); Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen, they are going to wreak havoc by killing Santa (they drop him into the ocean mid flight) and start bombing cities. Santa's Reindeer from Hell are not going to stop until every major city has been leveled. See? Santa should have paid them better.

1.) Zombie Santa

the jaded viewer says: How do we turn lovable Santa into a unstoppable killing machine? Zombiefication of course. There is no effin way you can stop a Zombie Santa. Oh you can try to put a bullet in his head, but Santa still has some limited brain function and can do that magic chimney thing. Leaving cookies and milk won't do any good when he is craving the taste of human flesh. The damage he will do on Christmas Eve will be catastrophic. He will infect millions of kids in hours, kids will infect parents, parents will infect more kids.

Yes fellow horror minions, Zombie Santa will lead to the eventual end of the world.

Ho Ho Ho!

Categories: christmas, horrorblips, jadedviewer.com, santa claus, the jaded viewer, treevenge

Born (A ScreenShot Review with 20% nudity!)

Born

Born (2007)

Directed by Richard Friedman

Look what I got for free at work! Probably the worst screener in the history of screeners.

Born is some sort of Rosemary's Baby straight to DVD ripoff. It stars Alison Brie from Mad Men (I've never watched this show) and Kane fuckin Hodder.

In all honesty, I knew I wouldn't be able to come up with a regular review so I am going to attempt my first picture plus funny comment review. I've seen a lot of picture reviews on other horror blogs but I've never actually tried it before. This should be quite enjoyable for you and for me.

Seriously, don't worry. Go ahead and read the post. You're never going to see this movie...ever. And you really wouldn't want to.

So without further ado, here we go. Some the pics are NSFW!!!

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Mary Elizabeth goes to bed alone one night, still a 21 year old virgin, and wakes up the next morning...pregnant. Possessed by the demon fetus growing within her womb, Mary Elizabeth obeys her homicidal cravings to kill...for the sake of her unborn spawn. Mary Elizabeth's dark transformation, controlled by her unborn demon child, is driven by it's dark cravings. Once the child is born there will be hell on earth. From this apparent immaculate conception comes edge of your seat terror.

Awesome Picture Review-O-Matic

Look! It's Kane Hodder looking like he just got out of prison
(he just told a psychiatrist he's a demon) Good one Kane!

Meet the family. Dad (seen here smoking) OMG Is that Denise Crosby! Yes it's Tasha freakin Yar! And there is our fearless virgin soon to be bearing a demon child, May Elizabeth. BTW her mommy died :-(

She's so distraught by her mommy's death, she starts seeing hot blondes in Victoria Secret lingere. I wish that would happen to me when I'm sad.

In the cemetary, she gets impregnated by demon lightning! Fake CGI lightning at that.

After her lightning sex, she's rescued by a crazy albino that looks like Dr. Evil. Lets call him Evil Albino guy.

Insert gratuitous nudity. Look its stunt double boobies!

Holy twinkies! Mary Elizabeth just woke up pregnant...right her sis Catherine tries to drown her in the tub. I think that happened in Juno too.

Here her dad goes all gynecology on his daughter.In some states this is illegal.

In order to feed her demon child, she has to go all killer insane. In this scene, the little tyke wants a closeup look as mommy electrocutes some poor schmuck. I saw this same thing happen on Jon and Kate plus 8.

Wow she's totally evil now. She even decaps and rips this poor guy's heart out. Good times.

It's bad enough with the fake CGI lightning but here they outdo themselves with a fake CGI sonogram. It's the cable access fetus channel!

What happens when you get a craving for a late night snack? Raven's blood of course! The late night snack of the netherworld.

Soon after, Mary Elizabeth goes all Natasha Henstridge in Species and starts getting horny. She books a gigolo date and they go on a extreme grunt-a-thon. If you're a Deuce Bigalow, I think you should avoid servicing pregnant demon chicks. It just leads to a loss of Mr. Willy.

So how do you top that? Add a lesbian scene of course. Seems Mary Elizabeth has been imprisoned in her house by her sister and she decides to get her groove on with her friend.

But that of course leads to kissing her baby bump which of course enables her demon kid to kill her by oral fixation. The best part is when they had horrible fake CGI blood come 3D-ing straight at the screen. George Lucas. Hire these guys immediately!

Oh that awesome sonogram machine. Check out baby demon smile. Isn't he the cutest little thing you ever did see. He's got mommy's eyes and daddy's horns and tail. Awwww. Coochie coo.

So after finding out she's carrying a devil spawn and battling the internal cravings to kill, she has her dad try to perform surgery to kill this unholy fetus. Doesn't it look like the baby devil spawn is taking a dump? A very satisfying #2.

"Yo wuz up grandpa? WTF homey, I wasn't ready to come out yet, you know what I'm sayin? Fuck y'all. I'm gonna bust a cap in your ass."

It's the twist! Catherine and Evil Albino are doing the bidding of Kane Hodder. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you if you've made it this far in reading this review. Your next purchase of any Raven's Blood is on me.

The hot, blonde Victoria Secret models are back.And now their naked! This is the epitome of gratuitous nudity.

This is an actual line from the movie uttered by Mr. Hodder: "I'm the torturer of the 13th level of hell. I fuck with people. That's what I do."

Decapitated heads and pentagrams. You gotta love your Satanic rituals complete with nude models. So 80s! The heads also start talking for no apparent reason because that's normal.

Kane Hodder starts to bleed inexplicably for no reason. Seems the psychiatrist was the devil and took the baby to be the anti-Christ. Seriously it doesn't really matter.

Let's look at the blonde, nude models holding a baby to end this. Seems only appropriate.

Well that's it. Born was the perfect movie to make fun of. Has been stars, over the top acting (Alison Brie talking to herself as she played good Mary vs evil demon baby is freakin hilarious) and one of the worst CGI I have ever seen.

Denise Crosby will act for food. So will Kane Hodder. If MST3K was still around, this would be perfect (ahem Rifftrax anyone?). Also it was 147 minutes long. Jeezus, it takes that long to have a baby on film??

The worst part is at the end of the movie they hinted towards a sequel!

Well I hope you enjoyed my first picture review. I'm sure there will be more of these in the future if I can get my hands on some B movies to review. Born should have never been born. But it was, so at least this awesome review came out of it. Coochie coo.

0 Spinkicks

If these picture snapshots weren't enough for you check out the trailer below.

Categories: 2009 horror dvd, 2009 horror movies, 2009 horror trailers, born review, devil worshipping, gratuitous nudity, kane hodder

The Shortround: Black Santa's Revenge (Teaser Trailer)

What happens when you mix blaxploitation and Christmas? Oh you get Ken Foree kicking freakin ass as Black Santa in Black Santa's Revenge, a short from David Walker.

The teaser trailer is chock full of chocolate chip badass goodness. Fuck Milk! I think we all need to see this for the taglines and one liners.

"In a city where crimes runs rampant and despair rules the streets, one man delivers hope with a VENGEANCE!"

(sounds like Detroit)

"He Knows When You've Been Naughty"

(Nice people get shot by the naughty)

"Merry Christmas you naughty motherf*cker!"

(he's got a shotgun!)

Check out the teaser trailer below.





For more inforama, check out the official site. It's now available for digital download as well. It's also premiering at the Horror Society Holiday of Horrors Film Festival on December 12th in Chicago.

Categories: 2009 horror movies, black devil doll, black santa's revenge, blaxploitation, christmas, santa claus, the shortround

Sick Girl (Review)

Sick Girl

Sick Girl (2009)

Directed by Eben McGarr

The anticipation I had for Sick Girl is easily documented. The PSA trailer is black humor genius. So it was my assumption we'd get the same tone for the movie. We'd see a sadistic serial killer, with a dark sense of humor killing for illogical reasons and ending in a pinnacle of extreme violence.

Well sometimes what you think in your head comes out way cooler than what you see in the movie.

Sick Girl does have moments of gore and splatter that gorehounds would vote in the sick shit Hall of Fame. Izzy is easily one of the most demented serial killers ever to come to life on film. Her acts of brutality are so shocking it's hard to put in words (don't worry I'll try). But that's the extent of wow factor. The story, the characters and the acting are a little boring and the ending a little blah.

So what does this all equal? Sick Girl accomplishes what it set out to do. Make you wince, make you sick and definitely makes you feel uncomfortable.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Sick Girl is the story of Izzy, a girl that wants to protect her little brother, bang her older brother and torture everyone else out in the barn. Izzy is raising her younger brother, Kevin, by herself.

Their parents are deceased and her older brother, Rusty, (who she has incestuous fantasies about), is away in the Marines. When Izzy learns that her little brother is being bullied at school, she does what any unstable, psychopathic, homicidal sister (with no impulse control) would do.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Let's get the inevitable comparisons out of the way. Sick Girl closely resembles Eric Stanze's Scrapbook which is the pinnacle of indie horror fuckedupness. It's serial killing, done in Rural Town, USA and the mundane turning insane.

Shot on video and armed with a shoestring budget McGarr shows us the simple story of Izzy (short for Isabella) and her life when she's sane and her life when she's insane. The tragedy here is Sick Girl is like 65% normal life, and 35% looney tunes. As a jaded viewer, I've seen shit most people would think warrants prison. So if McGarr's first feature is designed to shock, he's got to get over that 50% threshold of amping his movie with 1 and half hour energy drink of fuckedupness.

Sick Girl almost plays out like a porn movie. Think of this as "Gorn". Each normal scene sets up a scene of pure, uncensored torturous gore and splatter. As much as you'd like to fast forward and get to the good stuff, you feel the need to watch the set up. I mean technically it's not necessary but for horror, its best to know the motivation for the kill scenes.

So what do we see when Izzy isn't maiming and going all Jigsaw?

Izzy has flashbacks of her brother training on some kung fu
Izzy tickles and plays with her little brother
Izzy visit's her brother's teacher
Izzy has Christmas gift exchange with her brother and her late father's best friend Barney
Izzy rides with a stranger who gives her a lift
Izzy has flashbacks of her late brother and his GF

As much as these scenes are suppose to give us some insight into Izzy's head...it actually doesn't do shit. We all know Izzy is mentally unstable and we, the viewer are here to see her be mentally unstable. Its like watching a movie that's designed to shock and punch you mentally in the face nards. So what are these WTF moments that closely resemble gorn?


Read on gorn-hounds!

Izzy pees on a nun
Izzy slits a dude's throat
Izzy goes postal on a school bus
Izzy kisses her brother (incest alert!)
Izzy makes a tweeny boy kill his BFFs (by making him drown and stab them)
Izzy holds survivors hostage in a barn
Izzy smashes tweeny bully's head with a sledgehammer
Izzy makes the hostages pee in a bucket
Izzy breaks tweeny boy's arm and dresses him as a Christmas tree
Izzy castrates a dude
Izzy rapes a girl with dude's castrated penis (yeah you read that right)

So like seeing an orgy of flesh, we see an orgy of death. And I'm not going to lie, it's truly disturbing to witness such depravity and uber violence especially coming from Izzy. Which goes to say something about Leslie Andrew's performance. At times, the dialogue she recites sounds like a 3rd grade play, at other times she delivers lines that amp up and portray a very disturbed Manson like killer. The times we do see what was promised by the PSA trailer of trademarked black humor, is the time Andrew's performance generates some comfortable ha ha's and LOLs. She's got that Ellen Page Hard Candy look that can make you fall in love. A hooded sweatshirt, short hair can only equal somebody who is a sadistic little monster and for some unknown reason it's slightly infatuating. Izzy's little brother Kevin (Charlie Trepany) does a decent job playing the lovable innocent as does Barney (John McGarr) who plays a pseudo father figure to both Barney and Izzy.

But whereas indie shock horror goes beyond the usual torture porn is when we sense the motives of the slasher are developed. I can watch the movie 2-3 more times and I still wouldn't understand why Izzy has gone all ballistic (though at the end, some reason is given). Did she snap? Is she reveng-ing everybody who she hates or has ridiculed her and her family? Does she hate the Marines? Does she hate farm animals? Trust me, it's not clear at all.

Sick Girl is gorn at its finest. But an awesome movie it is not. It falls right in place in the middle and as much as I tried to find something that could give it a better "ooomph" in the spinkick department, I could not. I mean when was the last time you went, "that sex scene in that porno is awesome...I gotta share this with others." See what I mean?

Sick Girl is mock and shock movie that purees mundane Americana and unrelenting violence into a cocktail of visual splatter overdrive. Eben McGarr is clearly going to not make a movie as insane as this, I'm hoping he doesn't. But the one thing Sick Girl has accomplished, it's making sure you feel dirty after watching it.

Just like porn.

Gore-ipedia

See Izzy's list of torture

Nude-ipedia

It's not porn..it's gorn!

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

Straight out of Synapse Films, Sick Girl is now out on DVD. It's also available on Amazon.com. Check out the MySpace site for more info.

If you are a fringe fan of extreme horror, I'd say go watch Sick Girl. It would definitely be a movie that would be traded for back before DVDs and the Interwebs. I would even go as far to say that it may reach cult classic status like Scrapbook has.

The MySpace site has a nice interview with Leslie Andrews which is definitely worth a listen.

So in conclusion, if you don't feel like porn, watch some gorn. And Sick Girl is the perfect movie for it.

Rating:

Check out the trailers.

Sick Girl "Thank You For Not Talking" PSA

Teaser Trailer




The Trailer



Tags:
sick girl, sick girl trailer , sick girl review , 2009 horror movies, leslie andrews, 2009 horror dvd, splatter movies, horror blog

Categories: gore, gratuitous nudity, incest death squad, juno, sick girl, sick girl psa trailer, sick girl teaser, sick girl trailer

The Killing Room (Review)

The Killing Room

The Killing Room (2009)

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

"The Most Valuable Asset Any Country Can Attain Is Control Of The Human Mind"

"Once You're In, There's No Way Out"

Those are the two taglines for The Killing Room. Which one do you like better?

Hint: One of them tells you what the movie is about.

Jonathan Liebesman (who directed Darkness Falls and TCM: The Beginning) new movie stars a collection of letter grade movie stars including Timothy Hutton, Clea Duvall, Chloe Sevigny and Nick Cannon. It's not your gore score or teenage slasher fodder flick. It's a highly intellectual psychological thriller that though simply made turns out highly effective.

The Killing Room is basically Cube without the elaborate traps and prime number mumbo jumbo. Instead we get other puzzles to keep our prisoners occupied. All in all, The Killing Room doesn't have the same pizazz as Cube but does make for an interesting watch.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Four volunteers sign up for what initially appears to be a typical paid research study, only to discover that they've unwittingly become involved with a classified government program that was said to have been terminated nearly two decades ago, in this tense psychological thriller.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

We've all done psychological experiments in some form haven't we? I know I have when I was in college. In the experiment I participated in, they sat me in a room by myself and had me perform tasks, telling me another participant was performing the same test. I was suppose to match the same answers as the other person. I did the best I could, thinking this other person was in the same boat. From what I remember, he kept getting the answer wrong (and NO I didn't get an electric shock). It seemed he or she always got the answer wrong. By the end I was so frustrated I decided my answers would be random.

At the end of the experiment I was given some shocking news. There was no one actually taking the test with me. It was all a recording, the same recording they give to everyone. I'm not sure what the point was, maybe something to do with working with others or individualism. I just remember they paid me and I was a little ticked.

At least I didn't die.

That's not the case for our 4 participants in The Killing Room. Paul (Nick Cannon), Kerry (Clea Duvall), Crawford (Timothy Hutton) and Tony (Shea Whigham) sign up for an experiment like no other. They are given a written test while they are monitored by a Dr. Phillips (Peter Stormare) and Ms. Reilly (Chloe Sevigny). Seems the CIA has been performing these experiments in the past and they've restarted them again.

Suffice it to say, the new guneau pigs start the experiment with a shocker and it goes into survival mode from there. They are given questions in which their answers will determine who lives or dies. Cannon's Paul seems to be a the quiet, "do what they tell us" persona, while the others like Hutton's Crawford find a way out of this white painted prison room.

It's a slow burn that builds up the tension nicely. The elimination of each participant isn't that creative as Cube, but more like a Area 51 secret grounded reality. Many of the clues about why this is happening to them are laid out during the movie so attention to detail is important when watching.

As the chaos in the room heightens, Reilly and Dr. Phillips converse on the goals of the experiment. Sevigny's performance as she struggles with the moral and ethical issues of such a experiment is quite decent. Stormare (does he always play a doctor in a movie?) plays the calm doctor who even tries to legitimize the test by saying: "Somebody else is doing exactly what we're doing". Like Das Experiment and Breathing Room, its interesting to see how the doctors cope with their actions as well as the test subjects.

The gripes are a plenty with the movie as well when the reason for the experiment is made clear. I mean seriously. Are all these deaths necessary to recruit one subject? I think it would be a little more easier to get the information you needed.

Also, as much as this is a secret government project, a conspiracy of this magnitude I would think would be hard to control. I like to think people are the ultimate variable and that somebody would defect (though they would probably be killed if they did). Finally, it's proven that nothing can be controlled to a certainty, even a human being. Hmmm. I just think Americans are a little more indivualistic to a degree.

But then again, I don't live in the Midwest.

It's a good watch and it's now even playing on Showtime. It's funny how a movie like this goes under the radar when it stars a wide collection of somebodys. I think The Killing Room is a one of those movies that you watch, you get into it early on and then figure out if the ending has the kaboom your looking for. For me, it does. For you, well that's an answer you'll have to figure out yourself.

Don't worry, the wrong answer won't result in your death....well I hope not.

Gore-ipedia

Some blood and gunshots

Nude-ipedia

Negative zero

WTF moment

Phase 1 begins....you'll see.

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

What's Phase IV going to involve? That's what I want to know. The Killing Room is available on DVD via Amazon.com. I believe it's also on Showtime as well.

If your looking for a psychological mind bender, The Killing Room will test your IQ. Sometimes it's good to exercise your brain. Also, don't ever participate in any secret government medical experiments....just something to keep in mind.

Rating:

1/2

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