Customer Reviews

The 8th Plague

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The 8th Plague is a buckets-of-blood, no-holds-barred zombie fest. With first-rate acting from Leslie Valenza, a moody atmosphere, excellent editing, and stunning visuals, the movie delivers on the promise of its chilling opening moments. Horror fans will not be disappointed.

There are some issues with The 8th Plague (2006), but the film does deliver some gruesome and shocking gore scenes that should satisfy horror fans with a taste for blood. As evidenced here, and in his subsequent film Carver (2008), writer/director Franklin Guerrero Jr. has a flair for shooting horror. Budgetary constraints are probably also a factor, but the 8th Plague suffers from not having a better written screenplay that ties events together more smoothly. While the story still works, some rough edges keep it from being a much better film.

After her sister Nikki (Laura Chaves) turns up missing while on a camping trip, Launa Romero (Leslie Anne Valenza) gets her friend Crystal (Hollis McLachlan) and her boyfriend Gavin (Jonathan Rockett) to head up to Halcyon Ridge to search for her. When they inform the local sheriff Jack Stiver (Paul Bugelski) that Nikki may have been exploring an abandoned prison, he assigns Buck (Terry Jernigan) a deputy to take the group up there to take a look around. On the way, they pick up Mason (D.J. Perry) a former guard at the facility, and Curtis (Charles Edwin Powell) a drunk, who has a crazy story to tell about evil writings on the walls of the prison that takes people's souls.

The prison should have a road leading to it, but does not. Instead the group has to walk through some woods to get there. Entering the grounds, the group of five splits up, and in turn the evil present in the prison is unleashed. Separating the group allows for different things to happen, and for thinning the heard. The evil takes effect when a person reads the particular writing on the walls, which turns them into a red-eyed zombie-like killer. The kills get messy when tools like an axe and a drill are employed, and the gore cranks up to a whole new level, when one character cuts out their own eyes.

The gore scenes are mostly well done with some really eerie imagery, and also some unnerving scenes related to the blind survivor. Guerrero has a solid basic story, and he makes pretty good use of the prison location, however the action is spread out a bit, and some of the transitions between scenes don't quite fit. Also the plot flow is disrupted at various times by nonsensical plot quirks and silly actions by the characters. A little better focus, and more attention to detail in the writing, would have improved what is a pretty edgy thriller. If you enjoyed the bloody mayhem of The 8th Plague, take a look at Carver- UNRATED, Guerrero's return to the Halcyon Ridge area.

This movie starts out so slow you think you've definitely made a mistake by wasting your time watching it. Just wait, it gets better. The last half hour makes up for all the tedium you have to sit through to get to that point. There is some really gushy gory parts that anyone who is a fan of blood and guts should enjoy. You just have to wait for it.

This movie was refreshingly well done. I saw the trailer for this online and it looked awesome, but you know how that can go. To my pleasant surprise the 8th plague totally lived up to its trailer hype. Now to be honest I may be looking at this a bit skewed because I watch a lot of b-horror movies (most of which are not so great), so that set the bar pretty low... That said, I was still genuinely creeped out and entertained with this flick. It's hard not to be creeped out with all the grimy crap in that prison. The blood action and scares were top notch for indie horror (even for bigger budget flicks really). Not to mention we get treated to some obligitory prison sex they manged to sqeeze in with a pretty hot little gal getting down to her birthday suit. I do thank them for that! Overall this was a nice break from a lot of the other stuff out there with no budget and no production value... they definitely got the most bang for their bucks with above-par production values, acting, camera and lighting. Top notch stuff for the horror heads.

this is a good horror flick, has good acting likable characters. It is violent and grusome. Does'nt have a low budget look to it.

Another low-budget horror movie, but a pretty decent one that makes good use of it's limited resources. As others have already pointed out, the film's biggest flaw is the pacing, which is way off and it takes forever to get going.

The story isn't too bad for a supernatural zombie movie and could probably be quite good with some extra work spent on it. Acting is wooden and stiff. All the characters seem to accept that flesh-eating zombies are all over the place without showing too much surprise or concern, but with all the zombie movies coming out these days, who can blame them?

The gore fx are acceptable, but nothing remarkable. I did smile at one of the characters when he stomped on a zombie skull Resident Evil-style, though. The ending when the two sisters met was probably intended to be tragic and emotional, but instead became comedic when one of them tried a little too hard to look like a zombie. :)

All in all, it's not a bad film, but there are much better ones around. This one is much too slow for it's own good.

Production was awesome for an Indie and story line was interesting and as scary as any I have seen in recent times. Great flick for anyone who likes great Horror Stories.

The filming was great; I attended the movie premier in Northern Virginia and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. Some parts of the movie were somewhat predictable - as most horror flicks are - but it was wonderfully gruesome and fabulously frightening.

excellent movie...plays more like a zombie movie...but extremly creepy movie..well worth the money,also very violent i would deff recomend this movie...well worth a buy

Good production values and a number of fun scares. For an Indie production, it's better than most.