A contender for worst film of all time
Added 7/9/2009
I really don't know what the other reviewers were smoking when they watched this movie. This has gotta be a contender for one of the absolute most abysmal films of all time. It is exploitative, disgusting, poorly acted, poorly shot, and looks to have been edited with a dull paring knife. When my stomach wasn't churning at the gratuitous splatter and random creepiness, it was turning over from the stilted dialog and wooden delivery of the actors.
The box cover copy cites David Lynch as an influence/comparison to this film. David Lynch is an artist, and his works are incomparable to this mess that would get you booted out of film school. This is a low-budget exploitation of gore and misogyny. The creator of this movie is simply a butcher--of women, and of celluloid.
If you can actually sit through this nonsense with any kind of appreciation for it, I pity you.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Dark and Creepy
Added 4/14/2009
If you're looking for a disturbing thriller to watch I really recommend this movie it keeps your interest from start to finish. Strange but interesting plot with a great ending.
Thora Birch is really good in this movie basically playing two different characters.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Dark Corners
Added 3/2/2009
This is a dark creepy tale. You must pay attention all the time to gain an understanding of what is happening. This film is full of real dramatic acting, not another story of a slender, waif like female who possess incredible fighting prowess.
The vulnerability and confusion of the lead character is one of the movies many strengths.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Better than I expected, not as good as I hoped.
Added 10/10/2008
Dark Corners (Ray Gower, 2006)
This movie had almost bottomless potential-- done right, it could have been one of those indie gems that becomes a cult favorite. There are flashes of that brilliance throughout the movie. But it never quite reaches its true potential, and there are times when it gets so badly derailed that it's incapable of getting back on track. Because of this, it's one of the most disappointing movies I've seen in recent memory, while I have to give writer/director Ray Gower respect for having had the ambition to take on such a formidable project in his first attempt at writing and directing a movie.
Thora Birch (American Beauty) plays two roles here. Susan Hamilton is a happily-married woman who's trying to get pregnant. When she falls asleep, she adopts an alter ego, Karen Clarke, who lives on the (very, very) bad side of town, works for a crazy undertaker, and is constantly followed by strange characters whose intentions are never certain. As the film goes on, we begin to wonder which of these realities is the "real" one, or whether Susan Hamilton and Karen Clarke are actually doppelgangers living in the same town. And what's the deal with the Night Stalker, the serial killer active in the city? What does he have to do with the story?
There's so much here. Gower has a wonderful ear for dialogue; there are scenes here that rival the best of Tarantino, as far as the script goes. The acting ranges from the competent to the brilliant; Birch, especially, has rarely been better. The cinematography is always interesting, if a bit obvious in its influences.
And therein lies some of the weak spots that pock the film; it's a little too much at times, in every respect. It's not just the cinematography. The symbolism rears out of the shadows and whacks you across the face every now and again. The script loses focus. The dialogue wears thin. In every case, the film gets back on track quickly, but each of the slips adds up. And then, by the time we get to the major derangement, it's all added up to the point where the movie drops out completely. It's unable to recover, and it just keeps spiraling downwards. But despite that, there's so much here that says that Gower's going to be a heavy hitter some day that I'm really looking forward to his next movie, to see if he's managed to control some of the downsides while not losing the upsides. ** ½
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Better than I was expecting
Added 9/23/2008
I caught the edited-for-TV version on SciFi and when it started, it seemed like it might be just another bad SciFi Saturday night flick but I ended up watching this to the end. Kind of like a car wreck that you just have to turn & look, this film manages to be weird but still interesting enough to keep you watching and make you wonder what the heck is going on. One thing I liked about this film was the color of it - some of the outdoor scenes had an almost sepia color tone to it that really added to the mood the director wanted to create. If you're a Thora Birch fan (as I became after seeing Ghost World), you'll probably like her in this, too. This is on my will-buy list. 3 and a half stars.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A contender for worst film of all time
Added 7/9/2009
I really don't know what the other reviewers were smoking when they watched this movie. This has gotta be a contender for one of the absolute most abysmal films of all time. It is exploitative, disgusting, poorly acted, poorly shot, and looks to have been edited with a dull paring knife. When my stomach wasn't churning at the gratuitous splatter and random creepiness, it was turning over from the stilted dialog and wooden delivery of the actors.
The box cover copy cites David Lynch as an influence/comparison to this film. David Lynch is an artist, and his works are incomparable to this mess that would get you booted out of film school. This is a low-budget exploitation of gore and misogyny. The creator of this movie is simply a butcher--of women, and of celluloid.
If you can actually sit through this nonsense with any kind of appreciation for it, I pity you.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
|
Dark and Creepy
Added 4/14/2009
If you're looking for a disturbing thriller to watch I really recommend this movie it keeps your interest from start to finish. Strange but interesting plot with a great ending.
Thora Birch is really good in this movie basically playing two different characters.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
|
Dark Corners
Added 3/2/2009
This is a dark creepy tale. You must pay attention all the time to gain an understanding of what is happening. This film is full of real dramatic acting, not another story of a slender, waif like female who possess incredible fighting prowess.
The vulnerability and confusion of the lead character is one of the movies many strengths.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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