Customer Reviews

The Ugly

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Once again I can thank the Boogeymen DVD for introducing me to this film. This movie is one of the best horror/thriller movies I've seen in years. It's powerful, extremely intelligent and especially unique. It is the quintesential thinking man's horror movie.

The Ugly is unique in the fact that it takes us inside the mind of a serial killer and why he's driven to do such unspeakable things. Paolo Rotondo is magnificent in his role as serial killer Simon Cartwright. The plot is especially rich and deeply interesting. It will keep you off balance and continually guessing. Simon seems to be a shy young man with a troubled past. People constantly making fun of him and spitting all over his existance. Well he gets his revenge to say the least. But why does he do what does? Enter Psychiatrist Dr. Karen Schumaker. She believes she's getting into the mind of Simon and what drives and motivates him in killing his victims. He is very convincing and seems very honest but is this just an act? Is she getting inside his mind or is he getting inside hers?

This movie is not a typical slasher film, it has no demons or supernatural beings, but it is incredibly chilling in the fact it seems very believable. It has just enough blood (the black blood of New Zealand) and will startle you here and there. This movie will be added to my collection and if you have the pleasure of viewing "The Ugly" I'm sure you will add it to yours too. It is an "Instant Classic"

It is hard to spend some money watching new horror movies nowadays, since we don't really know what we might get ourselves into: But this! This is a very groundbreaking horror-slasher movie! The story is somewhat reminiscent of 'The Silence of the Lamb' where we have this psychologist who is trying to dive into the mind of a serial killer (who kills without a pattern). When he kills, he does it because he 'loves killing' and the Psychologist doesn't like his answer to this. You will feel the feeling of loneliness for the killer for being condemned to live his life struggling with his split ego - The Ugly, but will you ever forgive him for his crimes through his reasoning of 'The Visitors', which is the whole idea of what the movie represents? The distortions of images, the play of color and shot composition are truly groundbreaking for a horror movie. The closest to this movie in terms of its visual integrity is Oliver Stone's 'Natural Born Killer'. You won't regret owning this one: It's a MASTERPIECE of all horror/slasher movies. The violence is pretty disturbing, but not over the top (the worst scene would be the cutting of his victims' necks by his infamous shaving knife). One true example that horror movies can be turned into a majestic works of art!

A very underrated little nasty. The Ugly's title says it all. But instead of going the all out gore route in plot. the ugly concentrates more on the cause of a serial killer than the effects. However, this low budget New Zeland shot little film has it all, great acting(Hobbs and Ward are very good, but Rotondo steals the show), stylish lighting, brutal murders(the black blood provided by the same make up man who did Dead-Alive), and a very engrossing story with love, hate, anger, sorrow, beauty(even the murders have a slight beauty about them, I know I'm a sick puppy), and even a little bit of romance and humor. The killer in the movie is frightened, fragle, emotional, sympathetic, and in the space of a minute cold, calculating, evil, and sinister. The ending is the only drawback....END

I rented this DVD (unrated version) here in Canada and can't tell you how amazing I felt it was...an exceptional achievement on virtually every level. I did want to comment on someone else's review where he indicated that the film lost its sync sound partway through. That would be incorrect. This was during a scene where the murderer is pursuing a deaf girl and we are shown the scene from both his point of view (screaming loud music) and hers (silent) -- a jarring and ingenious effect that exemplifies the level of thought and creativity that has gone into what has to be considered a modern horror masterpiece.

I just picked this movie up today at a used bookstore. A good friend of mine is a Horror movie fan and I thought it would be fun to watch it. Judgeing it by it's cover, it looked like just another gory slaher flick filled with blood and a paper thin plot. Boy am I glad that I dished out the $8.50 to add this to my collection. The acting is a little shaky at times but the acters are able to pull off their characters very well. The beauty of the film is it's abiliy to make you feel sorry for Simon who is the intagonist of the film. The film documents Simons tortured childhood and oppression by his cold,domineering mother. His childhood has Simon suffer from extream dementia and visual hallucinations(or are they?) in the form of the "Uglies". The Uglies come in the form of mutilated gouls who taunt and urge Simon into committing gastly murders with a razorblade. The movie doesn't pull any punches with it's delivery and is shot beautifuly with what I'm sure was a limited budget. "The Ugly" will easly make my list of best horror movies along with "The Ring" and "The Shining". If your a fan of Horror this is with out a doubt a must see.

"The Ugly" is a brilliant film that explores the psyche of a serial killer. The movie is a labyrinth of accelerated images, with an absolutely tremendous performance from Paolo Rotondo as the killer, Simon, a character who manages to exude both pity and power through the manipulation and deception of a naive and brassy psychiatrist. An interesting and determined essay on the psychological implications of murder, and quite a good movie, too.

Had it not been for some very favorable reviews on Internet horror sites, I might never have gotten past the schlocky cover art, which makes New Zealand director Scott Reynolds's second outing "The Ugly" look like just another generic monster movie mash.

"The Ugly" is anything but.

Let me give you an analogy: imagine a "Silence of the Lambs" where Clarisse Starling's initial interview with Hannibal Lecter goes poorly, and Lecter breaks free---with a razor blade.

Magnify that nasty little outcome by a thousand. That, my friends, is what this grim, gruesome little charnel-house of a movie delivers, and, remarkably, on a shoestring budget.

The plot, much like "Silence of the Lambs", is about psychologist Dr. Karen Shoemaker (played admirably by Rebecca Hobbs, who makes Jodie Foster's Special Agent Starling look like a piker), who visits vicious young serial killer Simon Cartwright in an insane asylum, where he is held in solitary confinement pending his trial.

She wants to speak with him privately, free from the brooding, watchful stares of his sadistic jailers (played creepily to the last by Shane Bessant and Steve Hall, both of whom added immeasurably to my viewing enjoyment) and the brooding inquisitiveness of asylum director Dr. Marlowe (played by Roy Ward, who is so quietly bizarre that he qualifies for a movie all by himself). She wants to probe into his mind. She wants to gain his trust. She wants to unfetter him, take the shackles off this civilized savage, probe deep into his sick little brain.

And a sick brain it is indeed---Simon Cartwright makes Hannibal Lecter look as sane as George Plimpton. We're introduced, in a series of sequences that are superbly, craftily, artfully edited, to young Simon Cartwright, his school-days tormentors, and the young woman who idolizes him but is cast out of his life by his deranged, domineering, and doomed mother (played by Jennifer Ward-Lealand, who combines the worst aspects of "Mommy Dearest" and "Carrie").

We see the young Cartwright tortured, see his personality crushed---and, inevitably, watch him fight back. Unfortunately, Cartwright liberates himself by turning into a vicious serial killer urged on by demonic 'Visitors' and incarnated in an evil alter-ego he calls "The Ugly", which is bad for his victims but good for the movie. "The Ugly", incidentally, comes from the story "The Ugly Duckling", which comes to symbolize the young, tortured Cartwright's self-image.

The film is unfailingly stylish, and given the budgetary constraints, beautifully filmed and masterfully edited (with the help of a number of Peter Jackson's crew). The acting is also superb: the intricate, seething mindgame between Hobbs's Dr. Shoemaker and Paolo Rotondo's Cartwright puts anything in the Hannibal Lecter series to shame, and the chemistry between the two fuels the raging gas fire that this movie quickly becomes. But really, "The Ugly" is Paolo Rotondo's film, and the young New Zealander manages to portray one of the most charming, calculating, and utterly mercurial cold-blooded killers in cinematic history. His performance is mesmerizing, and it's a shame his career has pretty much stalled ever since.

Finally, a warning: this is a deeply engrossing, horrifying, and seriously depressing film. The imagery is creepy and stark, and the colors remind me of Dario Argento's work, but the film is bleak; this is not a feel-good film. That said, Reynolds conjures up a wickedly disturbing, eerily beautiful film that must be seen to be believed. Have a nice, steadying scotch, and let the games begin!

Yow! i liked this one! Well done all around. An interesting story, solid direction, good use of the camera. Film moves along in a surreal state documenting the childhood and murders of serial killer simon. Simon, it seems has visits from "the uglies" (we don't see much of them for any length of time but what we see is quite ghoulish), apparations that drive him to kill. But are they real? Are they simply the creations of a deluded mind? The film keeps you guessing right untill its bizarre finish. Even then, its a question only the viewer can answer. The plot gives no easy outs. It presents simon as a tortured soul and we are unsure whether to pity him or want to gas him. Definatly not the usual slahser fare here. Simon is a thinking mans killer. Highly recomended.

You find yourself be drawn into the world of a serial killer and seeing it through his eyes and then regretting the horror that you find. A very frightening and disturbing movie. Not one for the slasher fans. It has more story depth than blood and guts and a few surprises behind the great, if not cliched story foundation. Well worth seeing and I think worth buying.

It is hard to spend some money watching new horror movies nowadays, since we don't really know what we might get ourselves into: But this! This is a very groundbreaking horror-slasher movie! The story is somewhat reminiscent of 'The Silence of the Lamb' where we have this psychologist who is trying to dive into the mind of a serial killer (who kills without a pattern). When he kills, he does it because he 'loves killing' and the psychologist doesn't like his answer to this. You will feel the loneliness of the killer as he is being condemned to live his life struggling with his split ego - The Ugly, but will you ever forgive him for his crimes through his reasoning of 'The Visitors', which dominates the whole idea of what the movie represents? The distortions of images, the play of color and shot composition are truly groundbreaking for a horror movie. The closest to this movie in terms of its visual integrity is Oliver Stone's 'Natural Born Killer'. You won't regret owning this one: It's a MASTERPIECE of all horror/slasher movies. The violence is pretty disturbing, but not over the top (look at the blood when watching the film). One true example that horror movies can be turned into a majestic works of art!