KILLER MOVIE
2008
R
(Disclaimer: this is the redband trailer)
R
(Disclaimer: this is the redband trailer)
I'm not quite sure how I found out about Killer Movie, but as soon as I did, I looked it up on my trusty pal NetFlix and found it to be streaming instantly. Seriously, the 21st century is fantastic.
Killer Movie is a 2008 film directed by Jeff Fisher that follows a television crew filming a new reality series about an up-and-coming high school hockey team in North Dakota. When Jake Tanner (Paul Wesley) arrives as the new director - his agent had conveniently forgotten to tell him that the last director (who was inexplicably played by 'N Sync's J.C. Chasez) had been canned - he tries to fall into step and take over the production where it had been left. The small town was reeling over the death of a young woman which was said to be an accident, but the outsiders from Hollywood suspect foul play. Jake tries to continue with the production as scripted, but his producer Lee (Cyia Batten) is hell-bent on following the story of the death. To make matters worse, Jake's agent has sent socialite Blanca Champion (Kaley Cuoco) to the shoot so she can help as a production assistant in preparation for a film role as a reality TV host. As the crew continues to get closer and closer to the story, more people start dying, including some of the members of the film crew. What started as a simple shoot of a hockey team on its way to a state championship quickly turns into a life-or-death game with a murderous madman.
On the surface, there's absolutely nothing appealing about this movie. The story is about as cliché as they come, the "horror" isn't entirely there (if you don't know me or my reviews, I'm more a fan of suspense than the cheap thrills of which this movie is rife). We've got some gore that will satisfy fans of bloody violence, but aside from that, there's really nothing that stands out from Killer Movie that makes it...well, killer.
That being said, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. From the opening moments, I was glued to the screen, watching everything unfold right in front of me. For starters, we've actually got some okay acting in this flick. Sure, it's no Shawshank Redemption or anything like that, but the characters are believable enough to be followed. Sure, I didn't necessarily care about them enough to want them all to make it in the end - I mean, it IS a horror movie - but they were strong enough performances to keep the movie going forward without me mocking every word they spouted. Wesley gives the best performance from his central role where half the time you can argue that, while his character is questioning whether he should've taken this reality TV gig, the real Paul Wesley is questioning whether he should have taken this role in the movie. Method acting at its finest, my friends (read: slight sarcasm). To top it off, there's not one "bad" performance here. Normally in a movie like this, you're bound to have one over-the-top, utterly useless character who somehow survives for three-quarters of the movie before being offed in extremely gory fashion for the audience's satisfaction, but we don't have that guy here. To be honest, the only downfall of the characters in the film is that there just may be too many of them. Take away three or four, and the filmmakers could have given us some real emotion behind wanting these people to make it to the end.
Like I said, the screenplay is extremely cliché and predictable (I figured out with certainty who the killer was about half an hour into the movie, but there were inklings that it was him/her even earlier than that), but I still kept watching. It has one of the most cliché endings you'll ever see (and boy is it one that I hate considering it's such an easy fix for an on-screen character), but I won't give it all away here. Based on the other reviews I've seen for Killer Movie, I may be one of the few who actually found a way to enjoy it, but I think that people who have slammed it weren't cutting it enough slack. Don't think this one through - just watch it and enjoy.
Killer Movie is a 2008 film directed by Jeff Fisher that follows a television crew filming a new reality series about an up-and-coming high school hockey team in North Dakota. When Jake Tanner (Paul Wesley) arrives as the new director - his agent had conveniently forgotten to tell him that the last director (who was inexplicably played by 'N Sync's J.C. Chasez) had been canned - he tries to fall into step and take over the production where it had been left. The small town was reeling over the death of a young woman which was said to be an accident, but the outsiders from Hollywood suspect foul play. Jake tries to continue with the production as scripted, but his producer Lee (Cyia Batten) is hell-bent on following the story of the death. To make matters worse, Jake's agent has sent socialite Blanca Champion (Kaley Cuoco) to the shoot so she can help as a production assistant in preparation for a film role as a reality TV host. As the crew continues to get closer and closer to the story, more people start dying, including some of the members of the film crew. What started as a simple shoot of a hockey team on its way to a state championship quickly turns into a life-or-death game with a murderous madman.
On the surface, there's absolutely nothing appealing about this movie. The story is about as cliché as they come, the "horror" isn't entirely there (if you don't know me or my reviews, I'm more a fan of suspense than the cheap thrills of which this movie is rife). We've got some gore that will satisfy fans of bloody violence, but aside from that, there's really nothing that stands out from Killer Movie that makes it...well, killer.
That being said, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. From the opening moments, I was glued to the screen, watching everything unfold right in front of me. For starters, we've actually got some okay acting in this flick. Sure, it's no Shawshank Redemption or anything like that, but the characters are believable enough to be followed. Sure, I didn't necessarily care about them enough to want them all to make it in the end - I mean, it IS a horror movie - but they were strong enough performances to keep the movie going forward without me mocking every word they spouted. Wesley gives the best performance from his central role where half the time you can argue that, while his character is questioning whether he should've taken this reality TV gig, the real Paul Wesley is questioning whether he should have taken this role in the movie. Method acting at its finest, my friends (read: slight sarcasm). To top it off, there's not one "bad" performance here. Normally in a movie like this, you're bound to have one over-the-top, utterly useless character who somehow survives for three-quarters of the movie before being offed in extremely gory fashion for the audience's satisfaction, but we don't have that guy here. To be honest, the only downfall of the characters in the film is that there just may be too many of them. Take away three or four, and the filmmakers could have given us some real emotion behind wanting these people to make it to the end.
Like I said, the screenplay is extremely cliché and predictable (I figured out with certainty who the killer was about half an hour into the movie, but there were inklings that it was him/her even earlier than that), but I still kept watching. It has one of the most cliché endings you'll ever see (and boy is it one that I hate considering it's such an easy fix for an on-screen character), but I won't give it all away here. Based on the other reviews I've seen for Killer Movie, I may be one of the few who actually found a way to enjoy it, but I think that people who have slammed it weren't cutting it enough slack. Don't think this one through - just watch it and enjoy.
Movie Review Summary:
Grade: C
1.5 Thumbs Up
Grade: C
1.5 Thumbs Up
No comments:
Post a Comment