Customer Reviews

Staunton Hill

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am going to assume that the reviewers are family or friends. If not, they need to see more horror films.

I'll just give you the lowdown in a few points.

Story-Several young people are walking through Virginia in 1969 and meet up with a crazy family. There is a little more to the story but that is the setup. Wow, original!

Acting-It wasn't completely horrible since they mostly talked for the first hour.

Gore-Nothing happened for the first hour and then there were maybe two decent scenes, but nothing you haven't seen if you've watched any torture-porn type movies in the last 5 years.

Scare factor-Zero! I don't know what else to say. There was no tension whatsoever. I swear that there was more tension and suspense in a Disney movie. I am not kidding!!

There is more to complain about but I'll just leave it that Cameron Romero should stay away from making movies and leave it to his father. I haven't liked all of George Romero's films but he knows what he's doing.

Just finished watching this movie, as a matter of fact the credits are still rolling, and I must say I have not seen such bad acting and horrible plot in some time. I was so excited to see it after all the hype I read about it, and being such a fan of camerons father, I thought how could I go wrong. Well was I duped. I wonder if the vidoe store will give me my []back. The amazing thing is that 6 veral young adults cant fight there way away from an elderly woman in a wheelchair, an obese woman who cant take 10 steps without running out of breath, and her half wit son. Seriously, how stupid do they think we are. My Recomendation..... Dont waste your time.

Every cliche you associate with the Crazy Redneck Slasher genre is here in this movie. The sexed-up hitchikers, the broken down truck, the mentally challenged son, the meat hooks and the dirt-poor overbearing extended family who just might be having you for dinner if you dont stop running round in circles. I personally have seen all this before and better told. Because the movie was so obvious I kind of wondered why Cameron Romero bothered? Its tired and jaded and didnt get a cinema release in the UK. Also there are huge plot holes and inconsistencies. I would say avoid!!

Kind of a 70's throwback, and of course it is pretty well a texas chainsaw rip-off,
but really a decent flick, especially considering the garbage that passes for horror at
your local cinema. It is worth a watch, and like I said, nothing ground breaking here,
just a decent horror flick for a saturday nite...

I had to forward through some of this. I blame the writer. Has some decent effects in the gore aspects and the camera work through these scenes is decent. Also decent panoramic work of the country side.

The worst is the plot. There is very little development. Was there something about a wealthy accident victim that needed feet? There is no close to the story if that is the case.

This movie is bad. Not in a "so bad it's campy" way and not in a "so bad it's disgusting" way. Staunton Hill is an amateurish mess from a director who is obviously learning his way around camera, plot, and actors. And all of that is quite visible on screen.

Let's start with the plot. Hitchhikers in the 70s stumble their way onto a cannibalistic family. We know that it's the 70s because the fact is ham-fistedly made clear from the pick in the African-American guy's hair (Kiko Ellsworth as Boone) to footage of the race riots. The fact that it's the 70s has almost no bearing whatsoever on the plot other than to remove the convenient issue of cell phones. It does have one upside; the footage has the grainy feel of a 70s film.

SPOILER HILL: There's a subplot about attempting to graft limbs onto a dying girl. It takes place on an entirely different set, complete with an attractive assistant who never shows up elsewhere in the film. The connection between this scene and the rest of the movie is Quintin (Charlie Bodin), a failed medical student who is conducting some unorthodox surgery - surgery we can only assume will save the dying girl that we know nothing about.

Quintin lures our unsuspecting victims to their doom with a friendly demeanor and an offer of a ride. Romero doesn't seem to understand foreshadowing, because he makes it very clear that Quintin is actually part of the crazy family within the first ten minutes. By the time it's revealed that Quintin is actually the mastermind of the operation, Romero intercuts the revelatory scene with every clue from the first half of the movie. It's like horror movies for dummies -- Romero isn't confident enough either in his own filmmaking skills or the audience's ability to figure out that Quintin is actually a Really Bad Guy. It robs the revelation of any suspense.

Like the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the crazy family is as much filled with lumbering monsters (B.J. Hendricks as the mentally-impaired Buddy) as it is with crazy old ladies (Sherry Weston as Geraldine) and fat people (Kathy Lamkin as Louise). In fact, Lamkin is basically playing the same character she played in the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Unlike the original, Cameron confuses "creepy" with "violent." The purpose of having a character in an archaic wheelchair was to show how backwards the family was - and at the same time, show how they were willing to feed victims even to their elderly and infirm. Here, Geraldine is a caricature. Actress Weston looks far too young to be the crazy old lady and the director equips her with a taser capable of killing a man. She actually takes out the fittest member of the group, Cole (David Rountree), by herself.

The list of serious flaws goes on and on. The movie seems to center on the gutting and dismemberment of Trish (Paula Rhodes), intercut with dialogue from Boone as he explains the horrors that happen at a slaughterhouse: the animals are still alive as they are drained of blood, squealing. Except that's not what happens to Trish. She gets her eyeball caved in and is unconscious by the time the throat-slitting happens. Staunton Hill's one chance at being horrifying is tripped up by a narrative that doesn't match what's on screen.

When hottie Jordan (Cristen Coppen) manages to escape, there's a final confrontation between two characters that happens so quickly, without any sort of drama, that it may well as well be two stuntmen duking it out. And it probably IS just two stuntmen.

Staunton Hill is more film project than film. Here's hoping Cameron senior can teach his progeny a thing or two before he commits more movie mayhem.

Somebody FINALLY got it right! I've been watching low-budget flicks for many years looking for something that could ever come close to the eerie feeling I got when first watching 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', and although there have been some decent attempts along the way there have been MANY MORE awful ones, so it's nice to finally be able to say that 'Staunton Hill'-fits-the-bill! This is one creepy and disturbing flick! It's VERY realistic and never strays into unbelievable territory, building up slowly but steadily its sense of impending dread (much like the original 'Chainsaw') then unleashes its brutality in a quick and violent fashion that is grim, relentless and highly unpredictable! Seriously this movie was quite satisfying to behold! I have a very high standard for giving movies 5 stars (which is reserved only for the classics) but I want to give this one 4 1/2 stars because it's just a notch under classic! I must admit that I was almost going to pass this one up, thinking that Cameron Romero was just hitching a ride into movie making from his famous dad but horror fans should take note of the new Romero's talents! Mark my words, Cameron Romero will ALSO be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years! I'll certainly be looking forward to anything else he will be directing!

I am so tired of filmakers trying to remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We are constantly being smothered with new filmakers trying to recapture the original vibe of the above mentioned film. This film put me to sleep. Do not waste your time. The Texas remake in 2003 is far better than this if that tells you anything! Cameron should try to make an original film based on new ideas. Pointless gore and horrible music. Better luck next time....

.......and why not? His son Made it and it's terrible. A feeble attempt to make a Texas Chainsaw Massacre that fails at every turn. In 1969 five young people are walking to Washington DC for an unspecified rally-apparently they are in Maryland but I cant specify to that. They meet up with the typical cannibal family-a 500 pound Maw-a grandmaw who rides around in a wicker wheelchair and a behemoth retard. There is also a ringer and a red herring but the movie is so bad you dont even care about the no-surprise, surprise. The torture-porn gore scenes are hardly original and worst of all- the movie just ends. No end-it just ends.

The funny thing about Staunton Hill is all the 4 and five star reviews by reviewers who only have 1 review to their credit. Hmmmmm. Could this be another red herring? Or are these phony reviews actually written by George Romero to promote his sonny boys' movie? Shame on you George. Maybe it's a kind of payback as one of the characters in this film tells his friends that "Night of the Living Dead" is the scariest movie ever made. Dont you just love nepotism?

I was skeptical about buying Staunton Hill at first because of the mixed reviews. What made me most intrested in this movie was that it was created by George A. Romero's son, but I don't want it to sound like thats the only reason I bought it. But as far as the movie goes, I enjoyed it, though there wasn't much blood or frantic chases. The story is original, which I like, and the acting was great! I woundn't per say that I would recomend it to anyone, but I can say that it good for any movie collecter such as myself, I have most of Cameron's fathers work and I would like to see more Cameron in there, so therefore I can sum this up by say, "The movie wasn't bad, the acting was great, the story was original, and the stage setting was absolutley superb"