11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The original alone is worth more than the price, April 11, 2002
This review is from: Cabin by the Lake / Return to Cabin by the Lake (DVD)
Cabin by the Lake:
Very original take on a guy with writer's block.
Stanley makes a living writing the common slasher flicks but his latest project has been a rather slow process, and in order to fix this he kills teen girls to get an inside look at what it's really like for them to be murdered, then he meets a fighter.
Mallory, afraid of water, is captured by Stanley, he takes her to his cabin and locks her in the hidden room to sort of get to know her and how she feels (there's a wall and a marker for writing on it).
So, it comes time to drown her now but thanks to Boone, the local policeman, and the people who are signed on to make the fake bodies for Stanley's new film, she survives and grows closer to Boone.
Without giving too much away, Mallory faces Stanley again...
The acting is really good and the directing was cool. Overall this was a really entertaining movie.
Return to Cabin by the Lake:
Definately not as good as the first, but entertaining nonetheless.
I think it could have been much better had the acting of the supporting cast been any better.
I love him on Charmed but Brian Krause is just, ugh, in this movie.
Aside from that...
Stanley, back for the sequel to his previous movie wants to be on set so he takes the place of an unknown producer and slowly takes over as director, changing the movie to his liking and killing the cast and crew as well.
He meets Alison, a girl who thinks she knows the real Stanley and understands the man behind the killer - she later learns she's been working alongside the real Stanley all along and becomes another target...
I'd definately recommend buying this for the original, but since they come together (and at such a low price for the two) you're getting 2-for-1, although the second is a bit... Well either way the first is truly worth it and the second is cool because it's more and if you're anything like me and sequels, then you're getting a good bargain. Just think of it as getting a good movie with an extra... lol
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cabin by the lake two-fer dvd set is a winner!, December 16, 2001
This review is from: Cabin by the Lake / Return to Cabin by the Lake (DVD)
T his is the best to date made for tv movie with judd nelson i have seen. it is really good for a televized film. nelson stars as Stanley, a twisted writer who pens his novels that he actually commits, and stores his victims bodies in his " underwater garden" in the middle of a lake. very suspenseful, wish a third was in the works. an excellent performance by nelson.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Judd Nelson Creeps, March 3, 2005
This review is from: Cabin by the Lake / Return to Cabin by the Lake (DVD)
This pair of movies makes for a nice evening's entertainment. They both center around Judd Nelson who plays a scriptwriter who goes overboard when writing a dead teenager script.
Nelson is excellent as a low-key psycho who kidnaps women and drowns them, keeping their bodies underwater as a garden. At first he seems very clinical, analyzing victims' reactions to better his screenplay. But slowly we see true madness creep in.
In the second movie, Nelson infiltrates a movie set where his screenplay is finally going to be realized. His own vision and that of the rewriter come together but his own madness can not be kept in check.
Of the two movies, the original is still the best. Nelsons acting combined with the visuals makes for a very original horror film. The second movie, while good, suffers from production values. Film formats change ever few seconds flashing between theater-looking footage and stuff that looks like it was filmed on COPS. This was jarring at first and I feel it really detracted from the feel and atmosphere of the film; two aspects that contributed so much to the success of the first film.
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