My sister came over with five scary movies. Unfortunately, we only had time for two. I picked the two she had not seen. I was hoping we’d have time for American Haunting (she saw that one) as a third, but it’s a school night and the kiddies can only stay up so long despite the holiday. (They had strict orders to stay upstairs and away from the horror movies. <g>)
So, we ended up with Salvage and Shallow Ground.
I’ll give short reviews though I’m by no means a professional reviewer and too tired tonight to go into much detail.
Salvage surprised me.
I didn’t want to watch it after reading the back which basically says a young girl relives her murder over and over. I had a feeling it would be one long gore fest. Actually, it isn’t. There are a couple of harsh scenes and one that was unbelievably difficult. I’m talking squirming around and covering your ears and eyes difficult. My sister and I are true horror movie buffs and it got to us. I’m hoping it doesn’t revisit me in my sleep.
But, there was a surprising interest to the film. Now, it’s obviously low budget, however, the actors weren’t. The lead actress was particularly good even though she wasn’t given great dialogue and well, there’s this long stretch of middle that didn’t give her room to stretch and it gets a bit tiresome. I would have cut about twenty minutes from the film. However, the surprise twist at the ending helped me to like the film better.
Does that even make sense?
My sister and I were all like “WTF?” We sat in silence for several minutes, then rewound it and watched the end again. We’re hashing out ideas when it hit me. I got it. I told her my idea and this look came over her face. A sort of “Oh. Well. Hey… that’s kind of cool.”
LOL! It’s about an hour and a half and there will be times in the second half where you yell things like “Just go around the corner already!” and “Jeez, not again!” It would be fun to have a discussion with someone who has seen the film to see if our interpretations of the ending are similar.
Shallow Ground. Another low budget– something like 72 or 78 thousand dollars. The plot was kind of cool. I mean, who wouldn’t be intrigued by a naked teenager who constantly drips blood. I figured out pretty quick what he was about and then it was a race for us to figure out the usual “whodunnit” plot. The setting was fantastic and there were enough interesting clues to keep me watching, but…
Okay, I have to say it. There were a few actors in that film I’d be happy to never see again. I know. That’s tough. But you have all this horrifying stuff happening and they sigh and slowly wipe at things and just generally “un-react” to the situation. The sheriff had an interesting accent we had trouble placing. Unfortunately, I figured out the “whodunnit” early but stayed quiet so I didn’t ruin it for my sister. <g> My only real gripe is a bit part at the end, but only because I’m not sure whether it was there to raise more questions or to set up a sequel.