Customer Reviews

Furnace [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

michael turner has begun an investigation involving mysterious drug related deaths in a maxium security prison and while the guards bring out body after body the guards and detective all seem at a loss until clues begin to appear as to whom or what might be killing the inmates!

**spoilers below**
this film was a bit of a surprise when I began watching it, it seemed a little slow in the beginning.
after that you begin to wonder "what the heck is killing the prisoners?" after that you get drawn in to the movie.
well come to find out the inmates are not taking drugs, turns out, the former warden had been killed inside the Furnace, and has come back for revenge to those that burned him Alive!
a pretty good film that I think most whom enjoy the supernatural and cop type films will most likely like this film. I think it was pretty good 4 stars.
*Widescreen*

buy it here!
Furnace (Unrated)

I bought this film..and really really wanted to love it. I love Tom Seizemore..and Danny Trejo is simply a modern cult star. It starts out very good with interesting character development and pretty eerie setting. Though the horror aspect of this film is derivative of much better films like the Ring, and the elm street series..it does try to put it's own signature on it. The movie was entertaining enough to keep me interested...however when the credits rolled I was ultimately disappointed as in my opinion poor writing made the flick fall apart and squandered a good opportunity for a good film.

When rating a horror movie, I go by the chill factor (no pun intended) and the "grip" it keeps on me throughout the viewing. Furnace (Unrated) was creepily chilling, gripping me from the beginning: yellowed newspaper clippings against a dark prison background with shooting flames devouring everything in sight. The stories headlined a warden's daughter "gone missing," an old prison closing under mysterious circumstances and something about an Indian burial ground. It was an eerie start to a thrilling, supernatural horror film.

Furnace (Unrated) opens with a guard smashing his fingers while aiding in the re-opening of the walled-off section of the prison, then going home and doing something horrible, leaving his young wife devastated.

Bad things are happening to so many of the prisoners that the detective played by actor Michael Pare opens an investigation to determine what's going on in order to stop the death and destruction.

The main female lead is played by lovely, talented Jenny McShane who plays a prison psychiatrist. McShane and Pare are well cast in these roles.

What happens when the detective calls on "The Doc" to help get to the bottom of the mystery? What is one of her aging patients hiding? He's an inmate named Simon and knows something about the warden and his daughter from long ago? But what? Is he the killer or is it something more sinister? Are supernatural forces at work? And what does the prison furnace have to do with the tragedies?

One predictable outcome is that Pare and McShane's characters are attracted to each other, but the bedroom scene is not what you would expect. The evil finds them and causes one of the most frightening scenes in the movie. McShane's dramatic skills dominate this scene, which is my favorite scene in the entire movie. Realistic performance!

A performance you'll have to see for yourself to find out what happens and learn the answers to the above questions.

I highly recommend this movie--on the stipulation that you lock all your windows and doors before it commences. You might start jumping at your own shadow.

In addition to McShane and Pare, Ja Rule puts in a surprisingly good performance as a troubled prisoner. But it's no surprise that veteran actor Tom Sizemore gives a great performance as the prison guard you love to hate. He has it "in" for our brave detective so causes more twists in this chilling horror.

True horror buffs will not want to miss this one! Great graphics!

ENDNOTE:The cover fits the movie, but I was disappointed that it had pictures of four male actors on front, but relegated Jenny McShane to the back; she was, after all, the lead actress. Hmmmmm...

Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, August 2009
Author of "Dream Reachers" (with Chase Von)

Furnace was a bit of a surprise. It starts out a little slow and then finds its' pace. The story is solid, as is the acting. There are a couple of holes, but it covers its' bases.
Pare plays a homicide detective named Turner who, while investigating the apparent suicide of a guard from Blackgate Prison, stumbles onto a rash of suicides and unexplained deaths at the prison. The administration wants to blame it on drugs, but the inmates know something worse is going on. The administration had a sealed section of the prison reopened after it had been closed for over fifty years. The something inside that section is disturbed by the activity and starts hunting. Turner needs to find out the truth behind the section being sealed, and how to stop what is happening.

I purchased this movie, and I am glad I did. It is a very good horror movie. I dont want to give to much away about the movie, but all I will say is the best part is the mystery of trying to figure out who or what is doing all the killings.

A particular piece of land has been cursed since a Dutch colony mysteriously disappeared on it in 1611. Eventually, it becomes the perfect location for a prison (fitting, right?), where strange occurrences continued to take place in the forms of accidents, executions gone awry, mass suicides, etc. The last such unnatural incident culminated in a dead warden, his missing daughter and the South Ward in flames. Bricked up for 50 years, the South Ward is reopened, thus allowing supernatural contents within to be free once more... Ja Rule and Danny "Machete" Trejo ponder if the deteriorating ward offers freedom for them as well. As you'll soon find out in this not bad chiller (that moves at a slow, brooding pace most of the time and resorts to "Ring"-type FX for our burnt to a crisp spirits), the only freedom available seems to be from one's body by way of a variety of burning deaths. You will check the oven and space heater before retiring to bed tonight.... won't you? 5.75/10

Awhile back, Japanese Horror or J-horror, was all the rage. It kicked off with The Ring, a movie that scared the daylights out of me, and spiraled downward from there. By the time The Ring Two came out, the tropes of evil little ghost girls with long black hair infecting your brain were passé. This is partially because American audiences perceive ghosts as people, not concepts. So the idea of getting "infected" by a ghost is foreign, and Ring Two made the mistake of turning its subject into a villain rather than a contagion. Once that happened, J-horror was doomed in the U.S.

And thus we have Furnace, which is ashamed of its J-horror roots because it was released after Ring Two put the final nail in the coffin. Instead of being about creepy little girls it tries to convince the audience it's about a down on his luck convict (Ja Rule as Terrence Dufresne) in a haunted maximum-security prison. It isn't.

Furnace is really about Detective Michael Turner (played by mumbled-mouthed Michael Pare who previously starred in such gems as Komodo vs. Cobra) and his relationship with prison psychologist Dr. Ashley Carter (Jenny McShane). It's also about Frank Miller (played by the obviously high Tom Sizemore), a dirty prison guard who controls the prisoners through drug deals. Finally, it's about the relationship between the former warden of Blackgate Prison and his daughter.

There isn't one but two ghosts in this film, and that just gives you a sense of the disorganized mess that is Furnace. Dufresne is fighting Miller, Miller's fighting Turner, Turner has a romance with Carter, and the ghosts are fighting each other. The one plot line that should be front and center involves one of the cutest forensics examiners on film, Karen Bolding (the delicious Kelly Stables). Although a romance between Bolding and Turner is hinted at throughout the film, we instead get the much less believable (and lukewarm) Turner/Carter dalliance that isn't nearly as rewarding.

Eventually, all these threads collide in the ghostly furnace beneath the prison. Promising characters - you know, the ones played by decent actors - suffer unsatisfying deaths off-screen. Less interesting characters live. Miller actually stumbles out of the film like a zombie. And the end pieces during the credits contradict everything we know about the ghosts.

Furnace has its moments. Both ghosts are creepy manifestations of ghastly burn victims and their methods of killing their prey are interesting. Unfortunately, the ghosts are all that's interesting. Unless you count Danny Trejo, who is awesome in all things.

Furnace went through a lot of rewrites and it shows. The romances are cool when they should be hot, the acting overheated when it should be cool, and the ending is a hot mess.

I really enjoyed this movie, and unlike most up to date horror movies, this has a great story line. If your a Micheal Pare' fan , you will love this one.

I saw this movie on TV.It was pretty good so I had to see it for myself and get it to see if I had missed anything in the original version.

Pretty good material here with Michael Pare of 'Eddie and the Cruisers' and a few other familiar faces. Better than the campy, no-name horror films, but not in the category of some of the better ones