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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Demand more than death here. Demand some quality!, July 12, 2008
This review is from: Death on Demand (DVD)
Playing like a bad mix of 'House on Haunted Hill' and 'Halloween: Resurrection' (yes, worse than 'Halloween: Resurrection'), we follow the story of three couples (including a couple football players, an emo lesbian, and a porn star. . . seriously) who are invited to the former home of amateur mountain climber & psychotic murderer Sean McIntyre (which might be the lamest name for a killer in the history of horror). Why? Because some rich guy (who looks like the prickish lovechild of Eli Roth and Colin Farrell) promised them $5,000 if they'd participate in his live-stream webcast at the haunted house. As expected, the ghost of McIntyre is brought back during a séance (why do I even bother?) and begins to stalk down his house guests. Well, what's there to say? I wasn't expecting much here, and I got what I was expecting. This simply is not a good film. The premise isn't awful, I suppose. Worse ideas have made better films. But, though it's said too much: The execution was just plain bad. The writing was stale, clunky, and chock-full of clichés; and it wasn't helped by the laughably bad acting. Sadly, unlike many other modern straight-to-video horrors, the cast that kept their clothes on isn't even attractive enough to make up for their lack of talent. I will give the film one compliment: the gore FX were pretty good. . . even though the violence was unrealistic (I mean, severing a head with a kitchen knife? C'mon). The direction (by someone who'd previously been into 'Sesame Street' videos) isn't terrible, but it seemed he didn't know which way he wanted to go with it, as it blends hand-held, steadicam, and realistic video. . . then there are jumping camera effects (including some little girl with cataracts or something) in only one scene that never show their face again. One style would've done better. . . at least we could've depended on SOMETHING in the film. Beyond some good gore/violence, there really isn't much else to see in this amateurish film. There's better gore and better violence in better films. No need to bother with this one. Final Verdict: 2/10.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
So dumb., February 15, 2012
This review is from: Death on Demand (DVD)
<strong>Death on Demand</strong> (Adam Matalon, 2008) Before helming the terminally stupid <em>Death on Demand</em>, Adam Matalon had directed two things: Sesame Street skits and a short called <em>Sex and Camping</em>. No, I can't figure it out, either. But it makes a lot more sense than <em>Death on Demand</em>, whose continuity issues in the first half-hour would really be a problem if you could somehow bring yourself to give half a fig about the goings-on therein. Plot: Sean McIntyre (<em>Sixty Cups of Coffee</em>'s Jerry Broome) was a mountaineer who went nuts and killed his family twenty years ago. Ever since, his house has stood abandoned, rumored to be haunted. Fast-forward to the present day, and college student Richard DeNola (<em>Over the G.W.</em>'s Dan Falcone), looking for a way to make some quick cash, comes up with the idea of doing a webcast from the house, offering five grand to anyone who manages to stay the night without fleeing. His dad (Ralph Bernard in his first feature appearance), a self-made millionaire, thinks he's nuts, but you know fathers--as long as Richard can get a thousand subscriptions to the webcast, he clears the prize money and makes a nifty profit. In order to massage the numbers, Richard comes up with three teams guaranteed to pull in the local viewers. There are two rival football stars from the team, Biff (<em>All God's Creatures</em>' Josh Folan) and Brad (<em>What Happens in Vegas</em>' Brandon Goins) and their girlfriends, aspiring psychic Darla (<em>The Flying Scissors</em>' Elizabeth Jamison) and Tammy (<em>Apocalypse, CA</em>'s Anne McDaniels). The fifth respondent is something of a geek, and subscriptions are flagging, so Richard makes the decision to dump his partner and substitute Velvet Luv (<em>Emerging Past</em>'s Krista Grotte), a porn star he's hired. Subscriptions go through the roof--and really explode when a séance held by Darla, engineered by Richard, inadvertently causes the group to bring the spirit of Sean McIntyre back into our world to kill again. I'm pretty sure "dumb" is not the right word to use for this. (I have read a number of reviews that say it's a direct rip-off of <em>Halloween: Resurrection</em>; I haven't seen that one and so can't say, but I'll put it out there just in case.) It has all the hallmarks of exactly the kind of movie you want to avoid: the plot is lame and predictable, the acting is worthless, the direction is fumble-fingered. And if you can make sense out of the opening sequence before halfway through the movie, you did better than I. If you're looking for a turn-your-brain-off horror movie and your video rental store is out of every other possible choice, grab this. Otherwise, go with something, anything, else. * ½
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4.0 out of 5 stars
YOU DON'T LIKE VELVET?, December 23, 2011
This review is from: Death on Demand (DVD)
The movie opens with the McIntyre murders, a black and white scene of a guy killing his family, then himself. 20 years later the house becomes a scene for a reality show where contestants must spend the night in the house equipped with sound (screams) and cameras. The characters entertain us with some "good" cheesy dialouge. The contest takes place on Halloween night with live streaming. In order to get viewers, they add a porn star to the group. The group includes two rival football players and their girlfriends along with a lesbian who is paired up with the porn star. The couples initially hold a seance lead by Daphne Ciccarelle who dabbles in the occult...now it is a matter of who lives and dies and whatever plot twists they can come up with. I liked the overall "B" movie quality to this film. While it isn't anything new to the horror film genre, I enjoy rip off movies that are done well with characters and dialouge. Sex, nudity (cutie Anne McDaniels, Krista Grotte)
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