As with all of my reviews of films for The Creepercast, I fully recommend that you check each and every one of them out. I am one man and this is my opinion. I've seen plenty of movies that received reviews that were the complete opposite of how I saw the film. These writers, directors, producers and actors all put a lot of time and love into these projects. They deserve to be seen and appreciated for what they are. Everyone has a dream and I fully support the people that take the time to make theirs a reality. With that being said....
I remember a time, back in 2005, where I stumbled across a little horror film by Neil Marshall called 'The Descent'. It was an all female led, claustrophobic film about underground monsters that prey upon these unknowing amateur spelunkers. It caught me be surprise and set a new standard for horror films. It also introduced me to a wonderful actress by the name of Shauna MacDonald. She stole the show as the lead in the film and seemed to be a force to reckon with. Because of this, when I heard of a recent horror film called 'Nails', also starring Shauna, I was intrigued to say the least. It finally hit Netflix a couple of weeks ago and I finally had to chance to see what she had been up to recently. It seemed like a simple premise and I liked the idea of a straightforward kind of story that keep things all in one place. Sometimes those are the most promising ways to tell a scary story. Put our protagonist in a situation where the antagonist is always around the next corner, but there are only so many corners you can run too. In an effort to keep this one kind of short, let's delve into the plot.
Shauna's character is a woman who seems to have her life all together, until she gets hit by a car and ends up in a rehab hospital. Not the good kind, but the kind that's haunted by some evil forces and not just the ones who are running the place. While she's laid up recovering, she's got no ability to move and can't even talk. She relies on the staff to take care of her and a little computer to do the speaking for her. During the course of her stay, strange things begin to happen. She seems to be the target of some sort of stalker or potential murderer. No one believes her though. No one has seen this person and just chalk it up to her being a little loopy from the medications. Her husband doesn't believe her either. He initially tries to help with her paranoia, by having cameras placed on and around her room. This leads to people doubting her even more, as when the person shows up, there's nothing on the camera to prove it. Since she has a lot of time on her hands, she begins researching the hospital and comes to find out that a former employee used to steal little kids fingernails and also murdered 5 of them. He did it as an “angel of mercy”, but was a murderer none the less. He killed himself in the closet in her room and had earned the nickname, Nails, prior to his death. The woman then believes that this is the man who is trying to do the same to her. Everything begins to spiral out of control as we soon start to question everything. That is, until the final showdown between Nails and the woman and her daughter. Who will be victorious? The results may surprise you.
This is Dennis Bartok's directorial debut. I will say this, the film's pacing and overall tone was solid. There was a lot good to be said for the basic structure of the film. The main problem was with the villain. He was.... lame. In the shadows, he created a bit an imposing stature, but as soon as he was in full view then it all fell apart. There's also a scene at the very end that was quite possibly one of the dumbest deaths I've ever seen committed to celluloid. It was incredibly cringe worthy and made me lose what little faith was left in the film. Another thing that was a bit problematic about this movie, was that no one is really killed until the end. At that point, literally every one is fair game for Nails to kill. Despite the entire premise being set up around his desire to kill our main character. It's like all bets are off and he's going to go on a rampage and just forget the other 80 minutes that just happened. That's a horror movie no no. Shauna really does the best that she can with this role. She doesn't really have much speaking and her primary form of communication is the little lap top and her body language. Despite these limitations, she was excellent. That's not an easy undertaking and she took it like a champ. The rest of the cast seemed a bit unlikable and you don't really care too much about them. Even her male nurse, that kind of befriends her, isn't much in the good guy mode. I'm not sure why Tom Abrams and Dennis Bartok made this creative decision, but in order to make horror movie deaths have an impact, you have to care about the people getting killed.
Finally, when the credits rolled, I realized how little I felt about this film. It started off with some great potential. It had really solid atmosphere and good direction. The hospital itself was a creepy character all on its own, but there were so many other wasted opportunities that I left the whole experience feeling let down. I'm not sure if the plan was to try and franchise this idea, but I'm hoping this ends up just being a one off outing for 'Nails'. I'm hoping that Mr. Bartok continues playing around in our horror sandbox. I think he's got potential, he just needs a better story and maybe something without a primary villain that seems so designed to be an icon. Just make a scary movie and focus and making us pee our pants. The rest will fall in line, if the film is strong enough. Horror franchises aren't generally created, they're just born. I'd give 'Nail's a 2 out of 5 start rating. It's not the worst I've seen, but it doesn't ever need to be seen again. P.S. Shauna MacDonald, please keep making movies. Thank you.
If you would like to see some other, better horror, check out: 'The Descent', 'Fritt Vilt aka Cold Prey' or 'Halloween 2' (1981)
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