4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth it for Patsy Kensit, July 16, 2002
This review is from: Hell's Gate (DVD)
It's unfortunate that the movie doesn't stick closer to the excellent book it's based on (Bad Karma by Andrew Harper, which is a pseodonym for bestselling horror author Douglas Clegg). And it certainly is a cheesy movie in a lot of respects. But Patsy Kensit is a phenomenal actress and in some ways, her acting is so good that it makes the movie a really campy delight -- everything else in the movie is poorly directed and poorly written/acted, but Kensit is phenomenal and ultimately makes for a terrific nutcase. As far as low-budget, straight to video horror goes, this one's a hoot/
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
PEPPERMINT PATSY SHE AIN'T, January 17, 2004
Move over Glenn Close, here comes Patsy. Kensit is riveting and dynamic in her role as the really wacked out "Agnes" in this unusually graphic and tense movie. From the opening sequence in which the young Kensit is tortured and almost raped by a looney who thinks he's Jack the Ripper, the movie descends into the sheer depths of madness. Kensit reminds me both of a young Donna Mills or even more eerily a young, blond Barbara Steele. At any rate, she is one vicious woman.
Amy Locane doesn't have the experience to really inflect anything in her role as the wife; Patrick Muldoon does well, but at times seems lost in daydreaming; and yes, Patrick Byrne as the detective is pretty awful.
There are some great suspenseful scenes and the ending has a delicious little twist.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Karma = Bad Movie, July 6, 2002
This review is from: Hell's Gate (DVD)
Now this is one of the most ridiculous movies I've seen in my life - and that's not something I say lightly. It's hard to imagine that director John Hough was responsible for some far superior fright flicks like The Legend of Hell House in the 70s.
Patsy Kensit plays a nutcase who is obsessed with her psychiatrist (Patrick Muldoon), because he is the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper - and she was Jack's girlfriend in her former life! When Muldoon goes on vacation with his family, Kensit escapes and comes after him. To get 'Jack' back, she must, of course, get rid of his wife and daughter...
Well, the story is alrady as dumb as they come, but it's still brilliant compared to the movie itself. Kensit plain sucks as Jack's crazy girlfriend (wearing the same 'I am a murdering lunatic' look on her face all the time), and Muldoon plays his role more than uninspired - probably wondering if he, considered an 'aspiring young star' after Starship Troopers, is ever going to get another role after this movie. The murders are laughable, and so are the make-up f/x. However, Bad Karma seems to have been trimmed, because it lacks some gory details director Hough described in a Fangoria interview. Still, those scenes wouldn't have saved the movie either. And while we're already expecting any self-respecting lunatic to come back to life when he's supposed to be dead, it's just ridiculous that Muldoon leaves Kensit for dead after only shooting her in the shoulder!
Add dumb dialogue, incompetent editing, loads of annoying flashbacks, the worst portrait of Jack the ripper in movie history, and an idiotic lesbian night club scene, and you get the picture.
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