Ben Larson

23 May 2012

You did this?

This film takes a whole lot of time to get started. There is a lot oftalking, and nothing else in the first hour.It isn't until the end that we see the slasher. Anyone looking fordisplays of flesh that is typical of slasher films in the past aregoing to be sorely disappointed. Despite numerous opportunities, thefilm is as chaste as a nunnery.Lots of blood and a predictable ending.The acting is pretty good throughout, so it will keep you interestedenough to stay the course and find out who the killer is, if youhaven't guessed before.

23 May 2012

The film started off strong and then fast forwarded to a slow let down

Red Hook is a slightly more independent film that was both written and directed by newcomer Elizabeth Lucas. Elizabeth has a couple other smaller titles under her belt but this is the first that I believe was able to get any meaningful distribution and I'm glad it was able to see the light of day. I'm going to start off by saying that this is not a great movie. Wait. Don't run away quite yet. Just because it doesn't bring anything overly original to the table does not however mean it is a bad movie because quite frankly it's not.We open with the film watching a young girl named Jenny (who when grown up is played by Christina Brucato, an actress who really should get more rolls in horror films) watchs her older sister be brutally murdered right before her eyes. Well of course this is a great reason for her to grow up and become partially agoraphobic. Fortunately though it's not so severe that she can never leave her room as she is away at college and while she tries to go out as little as possible outside of classes what fun would that be for a movie? (Actually a slasher trying to stalk an agoraphobic person through a giant house could be a ton of fun...)Jenny's roommate, Angela(Hollis Scarborough), is a theater major and at first tries to be friends with Jenny, quickly gets bored with her, then becomes interested in using her as a character model when she finds out about her sister's killing. She's a pest through most of the film and while she provides some plot movement the main source comes from a young man named Gavin (Tate Ellington) that she develops a relationship with. Gavin also had a death in the family when he was young so she is able to relate to him and they both just click when getting to know each other. He is able to partially break through her agoraphobia and is even able to talk her into joining a scavenger hunt that the entire floor is going to be participating in.The entire scavenger hunt is being filmed to be a reality TV show promotion, however someone involved in the hunt has a hunting idea of their own. This is where the movie finally picks up as one by one each of the participants are slowly killed and as the cast is narrowed down so is the identity of the killer. The killer quickly both takes over the show and starts leaving clues of his own to motivate them to act out what he wants to see happen.Red Hook may be a highly predictable movie to many horror fans out there. It is very much a slasher that follows the classic formula and while you aren't going to have a lot of surprises watching the film you WILL have fun watching the film. I would say the perfect scenario for checking this one out is with a group of friends (preferably in a night made just for watching horror films) to be able to harass any of your mutual friends who jump or to just have a good time while guessing what's coming next.

21 May 2012

Its not so bad

By no means is this on my list of favorite horror movies, but it wasn't bad. It is fairly predictable but I didn't feel like it was a waste of time. The film quality is okay, the acting has some hits and misses, and there are a couple of good kills. The DVD cover is more menacing than the actual movie, but if you keep your expectations low, you might like this one.

21 May 2012

The DVD Cover is More Interesting than the Movie

There's really no other way to sum it up, Red Hook is easily one of the least interesting horror movies I've seen in years. It's a scavenger hunt gone wrong, with a predictable ending. The writers attempt to misdirect the audience halfway through the movie to lead up to a twist ending, but they try a little too hard, making the conclusion obvious. The film's production quality is poor, and the directing is below average. The cast does a decent job, as most were relatively experienced television actors. I have no idea why the word "unrated" was thrown on the cover, as the kill scenes will only make the average horror fan yawn. The only reason I gave the film two stars instead of one was because I enjoyed the movie's score.I write this review with the understanding that anyone who worked on the movie will probably rate my review as "unhelpful", but I'm just being honest. I thought it was painfully boring, and I'd suggest that you at least rent it before buying the DVD.