Reviews From The Horror Chamber -- Cruel World, The Cellar Door, Magus

Welcome to Reviews from the Horror Chamber. I am your chamber keeper, Anthony Thurber. Different day this week as the three films that I’m about to review come out on DVD today. Nothing to rant about, so yours truly is trying something new with Horror News and Thoughts. This will appear when I have nothing to rant about, so without any more explanation, here is News and Thoughts.

News (N): According to Variety, Amanda Righetti (Return to the House of Haunted Hill) is in talks to star in the Friday the 13th remake executive produced by “Everyone’s Favorite Director” Michael Bay with Jared Padalecki and Derke Mears co-starring.

Thoughts (T): Why do I have a feeling this is going to absolutely suck?

N: According to Fangoria.com, Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles is set in Liongate’s remake of My Bloody Valentine in 3D.

T: Just what we need another horror classic being remade. And this times it’s in 3D.

N: According to Fangoria.com, Anchor Bay picks up the home video rights to Breathing Room and film festival favorite Five Across the Eyes.

T: Don’t know much about Breathing Room, but I’ve been looking forward to Five Across the Eyes. Hopefully I’ll have a review for that film when it hits DVD.

That’s it for News and Thoughts, now to the Reviews.


Cruel World
Year: 2008
Director: Kelsey T. Howard
Stars: Edward Furlong, Jamie Presley, Andrew Keegan
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Running Time: 87 Mins
Review Rating: 1 Star

(Please take this review as a Public Service Announcement)

Cruel World is reality TV gone wrong for Philip Markham (Edward Furlong) when a beautiful star of a dating show dumps him on TV while million of people were watching. Several years late, he is out for revenge. He kidnaps his ex-girlfriend and keeps her captive. He then, decides to lures nine young people to her mansion where they are forced to compete in his twisted reality TV game show where the death happens to the contestants who lose.

After watching Cruel World, it proved me point again that reality TV just fucking sucks. If this film didn’t have Edward Furlong and Jamie Presley in it, people like me wouldn’t give this film a look. Let alone, the feature film in this week’s column because this was horrible from the beginning on. Cruel World was just boring and plainly awful. Director Kelsey T Howard really didn’t do too much with his directors. His direction of the actors was not good as they came off as annoying and very stupid characters. I wanted so bad to get into the TV and kick the fucking crap out of the main character as he’s felt like he was the brother of one of those rich kids in Funny Games (haven’t seen it yet, but I get that idea from its trailer). Also I didn’t care for the any of the action in the film, as it was predictable and just repetitive.

The screenplay written by, count them, three screenwriters (Eugene Hess, Paul Lawrence, Paul T. Murray) and it seemed like each one found something to make this film a horrible experience. Whatever plot this film had, it was thrown away ten minutes into the film. The screenwriters don’t develop any of its characters or any back-story regarding its main villain as this quickly turns into one of these hack and slash films. Instead, the screenwriters used almost every fucking reality TV cliché for it’s characters and a main villain who is someone that I could punch in the face very easily, as he’s more of a dork then a menacing villain. They also had a good story that they quickly abandon in order to get nine pretty faces in house, so the viewer can spend a lot of time with these uninteresting and boring characters.

The acting, well it’s the same as everything else in the film. Fucking Awful. Is this the best that Edward Furlong could get in the way of projects? The same actor that was in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and American History X? Come on. Has Edward Furlong has lost his talent? He performance was fucking annoying, as he comes off as more of a whiny little dork then a horror villain. And the rest of the cast was just awful. I’d go more into it but right now I’m just fed up with this film that I just want to talk about a film that deserve your attention and time instead of this piece of crap.

Cruel World was nothing but a brutal waste of time, for yours truly.

DVD Extras:

Trailers

The Cellar Door
Year: 2008
Director: Matt Zettell
Stars: James Dumont, Michelle Tomlinson, Heather Sconyers
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Monterey Media
Running Time: 85 Mins
Review Rating: 5 Stars
Official Website: http://www.cellardoorthemovie.com/

The Cellar Door is about a young woman who wakes up in a basement of a serial killer. She isn’t the first woman to play his twisted games. Soon, she finds his personal treasures that include a clunk of hair, a finger and jar of blood. Stuck in the wooden box and refusing to play his games, the young woman must find a way to outwit her captor before she becomes another trophy in his personal collection. The film won four awards at the 2007 Shriekfest Film Festival including Best Actor, Best Actress, the Audience Choice Award and the Pretty/Scary Award.

The Cellar Door is very intense, shocking, and methodical thriller. Director Matt Zettel also does a good job working from the screenplay from writer Christopher Nelson He does that by making use of the limited surroundings that he had to shoot with, as it helped with the tone of the film. The limited surroundings helped made this film dark and unsettling. His direction of the actors was great. He made sure that their performances were dark, intense, and nerving.

Christopher Nelson’s screenplay was very suspenseful for this type of genre film. He makes this film suspenseful by focusing on the psychological aspects on both the killer and the kidnapped woman. He allows the relationship between the main characters develop, instead of just seeing how much shock factor he can cram into a script. Nelson also focuses in the psychology of the victim/captor relationship. This is something that’s rarely seen in these torture-porn films. One of the things that I really liked was that he made his killer intelligent and disturbing instead of the typical killer that you see in most films just killing people. Christopher Nelson clearly focuses on those two and the cerebral aspects of the killer very well instead of focusing on how many characters can this killer kill.

The acting is very good. This is clearly one the better-acted horror films so far this year. Both James Dumont and Michelle Tomlinson were great in their roles. Their chemistry with each other was very good which help the psychology of the film. Both actors bought different aspects to their characters. James Dumont performance right now has to go down as one creepiest villains of this year. He does a great job making his character downright disturbing which help sells the film as a whole. Also I liked how Michelle Tomlinson making her character both terrified and smart for most of the film, as she help sell her character who is trying to get out of a horrible situation. She pulls it off very well, as it’s also why this film was very good.

The Cellar Door will you leave in suspense and shock, by the time its over.

DVD Extras:

Original theatrical trailer
Trailers
Interviews:
Actor James Dumont and Actress Michelle Tomlinson
Director of Photography Sky Borgman and Editor Franklin Peterson
Horror on the Silver Screen.

Magus
Year: 2008
Director: John Lechago
Stars: Lizzy Strain, Ron Fitzgerald, Bill Steele
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: MTI Home Video
Running Time: 91 Mins
Review Rating: 3 Stars
Official Website: http://www.magusthemovie.com/

Magic has been around since the beginning of time. Wizards and sorcerers and healers have used it to help themselves heal and fend off the forces of evil. But some of them want to master their magic and use it for pure evil. This is the case when one of them known as Magus (Ron Fitzgerald) abandons the code to use his powers for his personal gains. Now it’s up to a broken down healer (Bill Steele) who lives in reclusion, to stop him. But in order to do that, he must turn his positive healing energy into unstoppable killing force.

Magus felt like a tale of two films. Writer/Director John Lechago did mostly a good job here even though there were a couple of things that weren’t good. Lechago does a good job with the action sequences. The action was good and entertaining which helped cover up some of the film’s flaws. His direction of the actors was good for the most part even though I thought Fitzgerald’s performance wasn’t directed well but I touch more on that later. Lechago develops the relationship between Bill Steele and Lizzy Stain’s characters very well. The subplot really saved the movie for me, as I was invested in those two characters.

What didn’t work for me was the fact that I felt like Magus wasn’t developed enough which was a serious problem for me both in the script and in Fitzgerald’s performance. I would have liked for a little more time spend on the character’s history, as he didn’t feel menacing enough. The character felt like a villain out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at times with the character’s rambling.

The acting was good. Lizzy Strain (half-sister of Julia Strain (who also co-stars in the movie)) and Bill Steel’s performances were good. They both had very good chemistry with each other, as they sell the point that their characters were related. Ron Fitzgerald ‘s performance, on the other hand felt over-acted as I really didn’t buy his performance. Then again, maybe was the direction.

Even though Magus felt like two different movies, there is enough good material to warrant this a good film.

DVD Extras:

Commentary with Director/Writer John Lechago and Actor Ron Fitzgerald.
Trailers


If you’re a filmmaker and interested in having your horror film reviewed in the horror chamber, you can reach the Chamber Keeper himself at Anthonythurber@filmarcade.net or if you have any film in any genres that you want Film Arcade to review, send us an email at screeners@filmarcade.net.

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Well that’s it for this special edition of Reviews From the Horror Chamber. I'll be back this sunday with reviews of Fear House and Kinky Killers (which comes out on DVD next Tuesday) Until then, have a frightning day.