By: JWBM
The trailer for this film looks like a promising drama, murder-mystery with a music angle. One could surmise there'll be blood, surprises, some risque scenes, and, of course, attitude—it's a rock 'n' roll story after all.
A group of English musicians—who look like they don't get along from the get-go—are brought to a large maze of a recording studio till the sparks fly and a groundbreaking album is produced. A slasher premise is hinted at; you know the drill: cell phone reception weak, something terrible happens, and so much is at stake that it becomes a stalemate till those still standing are forced to go into survival mode when a head-cocks-this-way-and-that killer is on the loose. Once the doors are locked behind, the viewer is soon treated to a nauseating soap-opera with back and forth bickering that's neither interesting, or entertaining. The movie then jumps into more tone changes than vegetable varieties at your local supermarket. The plate isn't always set with a smooth-blend, more like, "Hey, now we're a drama; a music video; faux documentary; the romance is on; tongue-in-cheek sarcastic; oh, horror movie, right." Nothing looks back; the momentum is always forward. Though one has to ask themselves, what audience is this tailored to? The only one with that in mind after the fact is the marketer of the trailer who realized the actual movie was all over the place.
The filmmakers intentions may have been in the right place here, as this feels like something that may have worked on paper, or even as a graphic novel where the rough kinetics of it all would have tied in better. It's over the top, it's different, and attempts to be creative, though it's not a seamless experience. It's not "Demons" or "StageFright" with a purposeful "cheesy" formula going on, but with certain worked through scenes and tones that you can get behind. Instead it dances from one scene to the next, and then manages to fall flat on nearly every one of them. Its idea of exposition is to cut and paste. I mean, it jumps feet first into an escalating drama, then tries to backtrack its motivations related to it. But ultimately drops it to go into other avenues such as some steamy scenes, rock 'n' roll antics, someone getting chased or killed, or even some random offshoot of the dark arts. The villain is weakly motivated enough to feel more uncomfortable than terrifying when this person goes all crazy.
I'm all for films with zany plots and various twists and turns, though this feels more like an overambitious film that tries desperately to fill space; while successful in doing just that, the scenes that transpire tend to come with a case of the hiccups that only get worse and worse. If it's any consolation, it looks like it was fun for those behind the scenes. I just can't recommend this film for the casual viewer as it's most likely going to be a frustrating experience.
Rating: 2/10
Director: Tony Jopia
Actors: Laurence Saunders, Carl Coleman
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: Youtube link
No comments:
Post a Comment