Still amazing to see, after so many years, how the "Saw" franchise has
changed and influenced the genre. Yes, you could call this another,
cheap, "Saw" ripoff but in all honesty, it's simply a good genre movie,
that still manages to be original on its own as well.
There are a couple of things that are still keeping this movie down but
overall I liked this movie more than I didn't.
Good thing about the movie is that it's for most part set in just one
room but yet the movie never becomes a slow or boring one, or one that
ever starts to repeat itself. There are plenty of developments and
other interesting story aspects that help to keep the movie going.
And the main concept of the movie is a pretty good and interesting one
as well. It's not really a movie to take serious, so you also more or
less forgive it for some of its inconsistencies and flaws, in regard to
the story. I mean, when you start analyzing the story, it's totally
ridicules and doesn't always make a lot of sense but this luckily
really isn't the type of movie that takes itself too seriously.
But at the same time, this also goes at the expense of the movie its
tension and other horror elements. This is not the type of
horror/thriller that shall ever scare you, or puts you on the edge of
your seat and makes you want to bite your nails. The movie draws most
of its horror from its gore, which got done by Tom Savini, among
others, which is always good news for any horror fan out there. He also
has a small part in the movie and still manages to look as young as
ever. Makes you wonder it he isn't using any makeup effects on himself,
to constantly keep looking the same throughout the decades. And yes,
the gore in the movie looks pretty good and adds to the fun but at the
same time, it doesn't ever work out as anything effective really.
Despite all of the gore, this movie most likely won't gross you out or
make you cringe. You just don't ever 'feel' it when someone's head or
another head limb gets cut off. I mostly blame the actors this.
Nicholas Hope is fine as the movie its psychopathic and sadistic
villain but everybody else in this movie is giving a very mediocre
performance. They never seem to be in fear, even though their lives are
in very clear danger and they just don't ever react convincingly enough
to some of the gruesome and extreme situations. It takes so much away
from the movie its tension and gory moments and it's the main thing
that's keeping this movie down and is preventing it from ever becoming
a true must-see for the horror lovers out there.
Other than that, I truly had a good time with this movie and never felt
bored with it, not even during the more formulaic and predictable
moments. The movie still has plenty of originally to its story and
interesting good ideas in it, that didn't always got handled equally
well but overall still make this a perfectly watchable, little, genre
movie, from Australia.
