Customer Reviews

Prison Of the Psychotic Damned

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

 

 

the other reveiws must've been done by people in the film.
laugh out loud funny efx. a script that wouldve been rejected by ed wood.
this movie and i use that term loosely,is horrendous on so so many levels.
i cant waste any more time on this. i need a shower.

Prison of the Psychotic Damned (D. W. Kann, 2006)

Lesson of the day: when you go seeking out a movie called Prison of the Psychotic Damned, you get what you deserve.

I first encountered Melantha Blackthorne in her first movie, 2004's The Night They Returned. While it's not a good movie by any means, it's enthusiastic and it's got some fun ideas, and the entire cast looked to be having a ball with it. The three leads, I thought, all had potential to become decent actresses. Six years later, Elizabeth Faure is MIA, Suzi Lorraine has a small recurring role on a TV soap (as well as starring in direct-to-video horror cheapies), and Melantha Blackthorne landed herself a small uncredited role in 2008's Death Race. It's not a good time to be a scream queen, I guess. And I know it's useless to try and pull nostalgia out as a factor; the bad horror movies of the seventies were just as bad as, if not worse than, brainless crap like Prison of the Psychotic Damned. But unlike The Night They Returned, this is a movie that looks as if no one involved had any fun making it whatsoever.

The somewhat useless plot involves five supposed ghost hunters (I have yet to see a ghost hunter movie that looks as if anyone who worked on it actually met a real ghost hunter) bunking down for the night in an abandoned trains station that was at one point converted to a temporary asylum where, of course, all manner of horrors were perpetrated on the inmates. Yes, you've heard this before, in many better movies. In any case, they're headed up by Rayna Bloom (Steampipe Alley's Susan Adriensen), a local professor, and her toady/cameraman Jason (Jim Vaughn in his only screen appearance). Tagging along with them for various reasons are three odd women. There's Kansas (Blackthorne), who we know is the final girl, because we have an extended opening scene with her before she flashes back to the events in question. There's Aurora (Demona Bast in her only screen appearance), a medium/psychic/something we can never quite figure out, but who has the inevitably dark past; and there's Nessie (Ancient Evil 2's Noel Francomano), a sqee-ing fangirl who loves the professor and just wants to be a part of one of her documentaries. Never mind that everyone pretty much hates everyone else; family dynamics obviously didn't enter into the minds of the scriptwriters.

No, actually, they did. There is what should be a key scene about halfway through where, if I followed the dialogue correctly, we find out two of the characters are almost related (stepsiblings, I think, but nothing is made explicit except that they are not blood relations). I say this should be a key scene because that's the kind of information that just begs to be explored farther on in the script, maybe even made important to the actions of the characters later. But no, it's simply left where it is. (There's a scene quite like it at the beginning of the similarly execrable movie Flu Bird Horror that's almost as frustrating.) I could go on about the problems with the script and the plot, but let's face it, we'd be here all day.

In the end, there's only one reason to watch this movie: Blackthorne, Bast, and Francomano all have topless scenes of varying length. (Actually, the one truly effective scene in this movie is Francomano's nude scene, and even more surprisingly, it's not effective because she's unclothed. It goes for the gross-out, and thanks to better effects work than there is anywhere else in the movie, it works.) If lovely breasts are your thing, you'll get about three minutes' worth scattered throughout the movie. If you're looking for some thrills, or even a few laughs, this is not the movie for you. No, not at all. *

"Prison of the Psychotic Damned: is a fun filled scary little independent film that will remind you of "The Haunting", but done with a clearly modern feel. As in "The Haunting" the location is the real star, this time being the Buffalo Central Terminal which is an effect that Hollywood can't build. The 17 story Art Deco train building was build in 1929 and abandoned in 1979 and has been left in a broken shell of it's former self. Even if the film did not have it's share of scares, the shadows in the building would have made the site seem haunted. The mood is set by the opening credits (by Mike Bohatch) which flash images of horror with views of the terminal before it fell into ruins (music by Buffalo band the Voodoo Dollies).
The film is directed by D.W. Kahn and written by producer David Williams who team up to give the movie a slow build with a history lesson of the evil that has grown in the building. Five ghost hunters let by Professor Bloom (Susie Adriansen), comic Jim Vaughan and Scream Queen Melantha Blackthorne spend a terror filled night at the terminal, and will any of them survive? Buy this gem and find out.

Let's see: I think I'll get five community theater auditon rejects, give the fat boy a camera, throw in a few fart jokes, a 50-ish poor imitation of Pippy Longstocking, an ugly fake blonde (with even uglier boobs), and two other 50-ish "youngsters", really cheap EFX (the "critter" kinda/sorta' looked like the things from Ghostbuster), and I'll make myself a movie called... Oh. Wait. That's already been done and I've just wasted time watching it. AWFUL. Absolutely AWFUL.

I have had the PLEASURE of watching this film and by far, it is one of my favorite Indie horror flicks to date!

Now, mind you, I am just a movie appreciator, but this gem packs a punch with it's psychological twists and turns, which what I really admire about POTPD. The exchanges between each actor is perfect, you really get the essence of each character. Kansas' torment, Prof. Bloom's determination, Jason's easy going nature, Aurora's secret, Nessie's apprehensiveness -- it's a group of mismatched ghost hunters, all who have their own personal agenda.

You want gore? It's there. You want to gasp and stifle a scream? You can. You want to see one of Buffalo NY's finest historical buildings, the Buffalo Central Terminal? You will. Truly, this film has it all, from dry comic humor to edge-of-your-seat terror.

Written by David R. Williams, directed by DW Kann, cinematography by Emil J. Novak and Matthias Saunders, title design by Mike Bohatch, with actors including Scream Queen Melantha Blackthorne, Indie Star Susan Adriensen, Up-and-Coming Jim Vaughn (watch this guy, he's terrific!), Horror Star Demona Bast, Sultry Comic Noel Francomano... it's one of the best out there, and finally being distributed is a testament to it's creative and captive design!

Remember how scary Jan de Bont's multi-million-dollar remake of THE HAUNTING was? And how much fun it was to watch, with its all-star cast and oodles of CGI effects? Neither do I.

That's why I love independent horror films like PRISON OF THE PSYCHOTIC DAMNED (2006), made by people who know what they're doing and how to do it on a tight budget. It only took around $250,000 and eight intensive days of shooting to create this spooky tale of "urban archeologist" Rayna Bloom (Susie Adriensen) and her four-person crew as they tape a documentary inside New York's Buffalo Central Terminal. Writer-producer David R. Williams' (KILLER ASYLUM, ICE QUEEN) fictitious history of this cavernous, long-abandoned train station includes a horrendous train crash that killed hundreds of people, a serial killer who tortured and murdered several victims within its walls, and a period in which the terminal was used to house the criminally insane. During this dark time the inmates preyed upon each other in horrible ways while twisted doctors performed ghastly Mengele-like experiments on them. And, of course, the vengeful spirits of those who died violently are said to still roam the terminal, with evil intent toward anyone foolish enough to venture inside.

Venturing inside, Rayna and her crew make their way through the upper floors of the building and the dark, labyrinthian passageways below. (I don't think I've ever seen a low-budget movie with a better "found" location than this -- the Buffalo Central Terminal is an incredible visual for a horror film.) Aurora (Demona Bast, who also contributed to the score) is there because of her psychic abilities, and becomes more and more disturbed by the ghostly eminations she's perceiving, while jocular nerd Jason (Jim Vaughn, in his first film), who resembles a grown-up version of Spanky from "Our Gang", catches everything on videotape. Despising everything and everyone involved with the endeavor is the beautiful but deeply-disturbed Kansas (Melantha Blackthorne, SINNERS AND SAINTS), who is there only because Daddy will cut off her funds if she doesn't participate in something constructive once in a while. Rounding out the group is the childlike, highly-excitable Nessie (actress and stand-up comic Noel Francomano), the character I most identified with because she spends much of the movie in a state of gibbering terror.

Director-editor D.W. Kann takes his time setting up the story and letting us get to know the characters, which is fun because Williams has written some really good dialogue for them and the actors make the most of it. Jason constantly tells Kansas bad jokes and mistakenly calls her "Iowa" or "Missouri" at different times, which eventually leads to the following exchange:

AURORA: "What happened to you?"
JASON: "Nothing, I walked into...uh..."
KANSAS: "My fist."
JASON: "Yeah."

The eccentric Aurora and the ill-tempered Kansas spend a lot of quality "in-your-face" time together ("I just love women," Jason delightedly remarks after each of their near-catfights), and Nessie's wet-poodle giddiness is often pretty funny. All of which makes it that much more involving when the wrathful spirits finally descend upon them and really bad things start happening to these characters.

The first one to totally flake out, not surprisingly, is Nessie, who flees in a blind panic down the dark underground corridors and gets hopelessly lost. The others separate to search for her, and it is here that the film becomes a non-stop series of surrealistically horrifying situations, some of which evoked the same creepy feeling I had watching the final scenes of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The hapless Jason has a decidedly unexcellent adventure which involves the ghosts of some psychotic doctors who like to perform unnecessary surgery; Aurora finds herself locked in a room filled with a bunch of scary dolls and a baby with a face that only a mother could love; Nessie encounters a guy who scarcely even has a face. And Rayna -- well, she may be obsessively dedicated to her work, but maybe she shouldn't have gone back downstairs to get that video camera. This is really good low-budget filmmaking, with skillful cinematography, sharp editing, and a talented director bringing a well-written script to life.

In addition to all that -- and I'd feel remiss not to mention it -- you may have heard that PRISON OF THE PSYCHOTIC DAMNED features Melantha Blackthorne (or "Countess Bathoria" to many of her fans) in her first topless scene. It does, but it's not the usual gratuitous "[...] shot" you see in a lot of exploitation films. The film opens with a long sequence of Kansas in a cheap hotel room, languishing in a delirium as she struggles with some past trauma that has filled her with self-loathing and a compulsion to cut herself ("The flesh parts...the lipless mouth...like a baby bird wanting to be fed..." she murmurs as she slowly slices her wrist). She then applies a piece of broken mirror to the front of her shirt (nobody ever made going braless look better, by the way) and rips it open, and we see by the faint scars that she's done this before. It's a jaw-dropping scene, to be sure, but well-integrated and significant in giving us a deeper understanding of a character that otherwise might have seemed shallow later on. The sequence is reminiscent of the opening from APOCALYPSE NOW, with Martin Sheen going through a similar self-crisis in a hotel room, and it ends with her lounging in the bath in the dark, mesmerized by the flickering flame of a candle. It's very nicely-done, and Melantha Blackthorne's performance is hypnotic -- all in all, pretty impressive stuff.

Does anyone survive a night in the PRISON OF THE PSYCHOTIC DAMNED? The final shot of the movie lets us know. At first I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but after watching it again, it felt right -- one of many images that lingered in my mind long after the fade-out.

"Prison of the Psychotic Damned" is an independent movie gone horribly, horribly right. From a top-notch cast willing to bare it all to smart writing, from good creature effects to a spectacular shooting location, the latest from Red Scream Films and director D.W. Kann ("Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld") really does have it all.

In fact, you should stop reading this review, rush over to the official website, and pester D.W. and writer/producer David R. Williams until they get a distribution deal, then rush out to your local store and buy up copies for you, your friends, your pets, and your pets' friends.

Hell, why wait? Rush over to their official webstore and buy yourself some tee-shirts, skulls, costumery, and various other cool swag. It's okay, I'll wait. When you come back after helping these good folks pay the bills, we'll talk film.

One of the problems I have as a reviewer is that it's easier to tear down than to build up, and this is a film that is really well done. It looks good, has good acting, and there's nudity from the three female leads. Even before you factor in the comic relief, creepy dolls, and teased catfights, how can I not like this?

Professor Ryan Bloom (Susie Adriansen) leads her ragtag team into the haunted Buffalo Grand Central Terminal, home of both a massive railway accident, a suicide or two, and the scene of many ghastly horrors perpetrated by the mental health industry. Along for the ride are her cameraman Jason (the very funny Jim Vaughn), creepy psychic Aurora (Demona Bast), pink and black cutie-pie Nessie (Noel Francomano), and the goth-hot but ill-named Kansas (Melantha Blackthorne, who has one of the greatest screams I've ever heard). The goal? Enriching Professor Bloom's pocketbook, win some awards, and determine once and for all if there are real, true ghosts in the world.

As JK told me, "D.W. Kann is a damn fine director," and I can't help but agree that the man does more with Lindsay Lohan's cocaine budget than most of the hacks working today can do with $100 million dollars (See Sarah's review of "Aeon Flux"). The opening credits of this movie are spectacular, drawing you into the film instantly, and it doesn't let go until you're spent, shaking, and sweating. Kind of like Lindsay Lohan after a coke binge.

The writing is very good, as well. David Williams obviously did a little research on the characteristics of haunted buildings, and he includes them all in here, from so-called 'shadow people' to orbs, electronic voice phenomenon, cold spots, and electromagnetic activity. Williams' script is both informative to the uninitiated and quickly-paced; there's explanation enough to follow along (and learn a thing or two, Mr. Wizard), but the plot never gets in the way of the story.

So support these guys and check out the flick. They need your money, so they can put out more awesome movies like this one. I recommend you get the naked zombie Nessie tee-shirt. It's naked and it's zombies; it's everywhere you want to be.