2 1/4 /5
Okay, cinemagoers. You want to really know what I thought of this gorefest? Here goes. This movie is about an hour and a half long. For the first 30 or so minutes the audience gets to see a few horny boys chase after women and try to have sex with them, expose their rear ends on public transportation, and get high on drugs they slurp up greedily. I tried to be patient, even though I just wanted to get up and leave. Where was the dang horror movie I was wanting to see? I didn't pay money for this load of garbage. Ick.
But then, oh, but then, I guess I was asking for it. Because then I was all of a sudden assaulted by some of the most graphic, gory images I have ever been exposed to on film. Many people will try and compare this movie to the Saw films. Well, I got some news for you buddies. This movie isn't as creative as Saw, it isn't as thrilling as Saw, it isn't as visceral as Saw, it isn't even as, God help me, sophisticated as Saw. This is a gritty movie that doesn't realize that the audience needs to be able to sympathize with its protagonists before we can get reeled into their story enough. Yes, in light of these sudden dark events these people realize what they've been doing with their lives is wrong. But by then, we don't care. We've already wasted enough time pushing our way through these immature boys' sexual fantasies, and with only an hour left on the clock, we just want to be be scared already. Plus, there are also a few times where I think they were trying to convey anti-American sentiment, but it gets washed away with the real theme: All people in general tend to be foul expletives.
Yes, this movie does have some pluses. That's why it doesn't go below 2 stars. Some torture techniques and images seem unique and bold for cinema, the atmosphere is most certainly surreal in the death warehouse, and a few scenes try to promise a sly, dark comedy like the original (The) Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Oh, how I wished that the writers and director would have given us more scenes with the gang of young, gum-chewing kids that aren't afraid to bash and stomp a few heads in when people don't pay the toll.
But again, it all comes down to how we feel about the characters and if the movie does a good enough job of scaring us. Just when we are about to start cheering the protagonists on the film ends. We're just left hanging. If the movie supplied another 20 to 40 minutes the suspense would have been allowed to start kicking in. But, because we aren't given time to get excited, neither are we allowed the time to be scared. This movie, with the proper script, might have been so much better. Sadly, the closest I got to being scared was at the end of those first 30 minutes, when I was worried that the movie wasn't just torture porn, but simply a pornography movie in disguise as horror.
Okay, cinemagoers. You want to really know what I thought of this gorefest? Here goes. This movie is about an hour and a half long. For the first 30 or so minutes the audience gets to see a few horny boys chase after women and try to have sex with them, expose their rear ends on public transportation, and get high on drugs they slurp up greedily. I tried to be patient, even though I just wanted to get up and leave. Where was the dang horror movie I was wanting to see? I didn't pay money for this load of garbage. Ick.
But then, oh, but then, I guess I was asking for it. Because then I was all of a sudden assaulted by some of the most graphic, gory images I have ever been exposed to on film. Many people will try and compare this movie to the Saw films. Well, I got some news for you buddies. This movie isn't as creative as Saw, it isn't as thrilling as Saw, it isn't as visceral as Saw, it isn't even as, God help me, sophisticated as Saw. This is a gritty movie that doesn't realize that the audience needs to be able to sympathize with its protagonists before we can get reeled into their story enough. Yes, in light of these sudden dark events these people realize what they've been doing with their lives is wrong. But by then, we don't care. We've already wasted enough time pushing our way through these immature boys' sexual fantasies, and with only an hour left on the clock, we just want to be be scared already. Plus, there are also a few times where I think they were trying to convey anti-American sentiment, but it gets washed away with the real theme: All people in general tend to be foul expletives.
Yes, this movie does have some pluses. That's why it doesn't go below 2 stars. Some torture techniques and images seem unique and bold for cinema, the atmosphere is most certainly surreal in the death warehouse, and a few scenes try to promise a sly, dark comedy like the original (The) Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Oh, how I wished that the writers and director would have given us more scenes with the gang of young, gum-chewing kids that aren't afraid to bash and stomp a few heads in when people don't pay the toll.
But again, it all comes down to how we feel about the characters and if the movie does a good enough job of scaring us. Just when we are about to start cheering the protagonists on the film ends. We're just left hanging. If the movie supplied another 20 to 40 minutes the suspense would have been allowed to start kicking in. But, because we aren't given time to get excited, neither are we allowed the time to be scared. This movie, with the proper script, might have been so much better. Sadly, the closest I got to being scared was at the end of those first 30 minutes, when I was worried that the movie wasn't just torture porn, but simply a pornography movie in disguise as horror.
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