DVD of the Day #141 - Laid To Rest
Laid To Rest is one of those films I agreed to review for Amazon.com in one of their usual “We send you free stuff, and you’ll review it.” Here now is that review
Laid To Rest was an interesting film. For everything I really liked about it, there was something that took me completely out of it…or outright made me laugh.
Good: I loved the killings. Each death was brutal, gorey and very well done. This is not a movie for the squeamish and I was quite impressed with the realism and tone of the violence.
BAD: Inconsistency. A great example is that one knife used by the killer slice a man’s head in twain with one stroke. Later in the movie that same knife has to saw through a person’s neck. Okay then.
Good: The acting. The overall cast does a fine job portraying fear, confusion, and even a bit of jovialness in the face of certain doom. Everyone did a nice job, which is a surprise for both a low budget horror and a direct to video piece.
Bad: The Dialogue. The Girl (played by ex WWE Diva Search contestant Bobbie Sue Luther) did a fine job acting, but her overall performance by stilted by the script she had to work with. At times, she comes off mentally retarded because of the lines she has to spew out. There’s a lot of poorly written dialogue in this, but thankfully the actors make it work the best they can.
Good: Cinematography. I really liked how this movie was shot, from specific camera angles to the occasional clipping or the pacing of how one shot is held until the next.
Bad: Stupid stupid stupid decisions. If you are being chased by a crazy unstoppable killer, why would you stop the car repeatedly to check things out that don’t really matter. A lot of the plot is ham-fisted together with actions that just don’t fit - especially since the characters keep repeating them, and each time they do, someone dies horribly.
Good: No hand holding. A lot of American horror holds you hand through the entire film, giving you everyone’s back story, reasons for why specific people are targeted and an in-depth look at the killer. Everything is explained. Not here. You only learn a little about the main character at the very end of the film (And to be honest, I wish this had been left out as it’s not very good.), but you never learn the motivations of the killer, why he is doing this, why is he targeting specific people, why he kills over half a dozen people to get to The Girl, why he uses a video camera that still takes tape even though everything else at his disposal is highly advanced tech compared to what is readily available in the film. You are left asking questions, but in a good way. Sometimes there is no reason to madness nor any understanding of why sick, tragic events occur. Laid to Rest does a good job with this.
Bad: The killer. A lot of horror movie characters have stupid names for characters. In this case, we have CHROMESKULL. Wow is that bad. However we also have characters named Pinhead (from the Hellraiser franchise) for example, which is another stupid name. However a bad name can actually become a good one if the bad guy looks menancing and is well acted. Doug Bradley is amazing as Pinhead and he’s one of the best looking monsters in horror, so he makes the name work.
Chrome Skull on the other hand is so laughably awful looking that he becomes the single biggest issue with the movie. His mask is literally a chrome faceplate designed to look like a skull. On paper this may sound good, but in the actual film is is so awful looking that you can’t help but laugh several times throughout the film Honestly it looks more like something someone would wear to a bad rave. Even worse is the shoulder mounted video camera he has on him. I don’t know, maybe someone remembers when the Borg in ST: TNG had something attached to their shoulder or head emitting a red light for tracking/viewing purposes, but Chrome Skull is even harder to take serious with a shoulder mounted video camera.
The actor did a fine job as our mute antagonist, but the overall design and visuals for the character (complete with the box logo tattooed on his chest) constantly drew me out of the film and caused me to laugh where just moments before I was saying, “Oh ^&$*, that was an awesome death scene.”
Good: The extra features. I enjoyed the blooper real a lot, especially the look at filming the climatic death scene in the movie. It was really amusing and a lot of fun. There are also two documentaries on the making of this film, both of which are worth a look.
Bad: The ending. Laid To Rest sports the worst death of the antagonist I think I’ve ever seen in a film. It’s just flat out stupid. It has a nice visual and the special effects are quite well done for an indie film, but wow do you walk away saying, “THAT was the climax? Lame lame lame.”
Overall, I give this film a thumbs in the middle because I really am on the fence as to whether I liked it or not. This looked and felt good enough to be a theatrical release, and I enjoyed the film enough to pick up the director’s first film [[ASIN:B0009PVZHS Lightning Bug]] from a dvd swapping website right after watching this. In that respect the film did it’s job I suppose. Laid To Rest ended up being much better than I had expected and I’m sure I’ll end up watching it again down the road.
Is It Worth Keeping? No, but it was worth watching
Rating:: 5.5/10
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