Dragging the depths of my old horror reviews, I thought they might need to see the light of day again. So, I bring you some of Joel's 'Classic' horror reviews....
With my ongoing trend of watching low budget slasher flicks, I came across this little gem of a movie. The poster was enough to gain my attention and the premise seemed interesting enough. So, once again, Netflix provided me with another nights entertainment. Now, it's not your typical scary movie. It feels a bit disjointed and uneven, but there are enough good things about it, to make it worth your time to watch it at least once. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie 'Dead Silence' by James Wan? That film had a cool poster, an interesting premise and seemed to offer some serious promise. The first scene was glorious, the middle parts were decent, but on the whole.... it was kind of a let down and got washed away into the bland world of horror film cliches. This is kind of how I felt about 'Amusement'. It held a lot of promise, but gets overshadowed by cliches and a lack of direction.
The basic premise is that the kid in grade school, that everyone thought was a weirdo and nobody wanted to hang out with, grew up. Along the way, he made an effort to shock everyone and seemed to have a bit of a screw loose. Meanwhile, three girls that were at the center of the whole situation and one of them ends up being the focus of the film. There are no really big name actors in this movie and that ends up lending a little bit more credibility to the story line. Although, one of the characters from the opening scene, was also in my previous movie I reviewed, 'Laid To Rest'.
Alright, now for the good and bad points of the film. The bad points start with the opening scene, that makes no sense with the rest of the story. Although, if my theory is correct and it would have been explained better, I guess it's not a total waste of time. There are also some serious plot holes and some jumps in logic. Not too mention, I want to know where all of these unstable killers find these awesome place to hold up and kill people with no one being the wiser! Now, the good point of the movie. And by this, I mean the really only bright and shining part. It involves the poster and one of the photos included in this review. The main character is babysitting and finds out the master bedroom is full of clowns. One, in particular, is life sized and sitting in a rocking chair just looking really creepy. We soon find out that the owners have no idea where that clown came from and it just gets scarier from there. This is the one big reason I even recommend this movie. Not unlike the reason I would recommend 'Dead Silence'. One good scene might just be able to justify and hour and a half of your life getting used up.
Overall, I wasn't happy with this movie, but I wasn't totally let down either. It's a popcorn movie and would make a good double feature with 'Laid To Rest'. Both were pretty solid 2 out of 5 star films. Decent stories, decent gore and scares and decent acting and not skimping too much on the quality of film making. Not a bad way to waste some time. Also, you don't have to think too much. I think if the film maker comes up with another good idea and spends a bit more time developing the truly scary parts and leaving out the filler.... we might just have an above average horror film. It could even gain some serious buzz. (Editors note: Sadly, this never happened.) So pop it in and let me know what you think? Maybe I'm jaded and over critical of it, but when I see a movie and I don't want to see the same things I've seen 100 times before, it would be nice to be surprised. All in all, the scene with the clown, at the beginning, did put me on edge and offer a nice little surprise. Too bad the rest of the film didn't do the same thing.
If you enjoy this movie, check out: 'Dead Silence', 'Clownhouse' and 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space'
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