Devour: I've seen worse, but . . .
Feb. 4th, 2008 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feliciakwSo. Jensen Ackles. Talented actor whose career I'll probably be watching for a while. Started out in the soaps (though I'd not seen him there), and more recently has made quite a mark in genre TV (mostly genre TV shot in Canada. Go fig.). He made a horror movie called Devour, which I really wasn't going to look into, but it ended up on our Netflix queue (Geo's doing, honest!), so I gave it a look-see.
I've seen worse.
I'll start off by saying that Jensen is the best thing about this movie. He's actually the only reason, imo, to watch it. (Okay, guys might enjoy the women in the movie, but they didn't do anything for me, neither from a character point of view nor an acting point of view.) He's very easy to watch, and he makes the movie not nearly as painful as I feared it would be.
From a production values standpoint, I was actually quite impressed. Of course, this is coming from someone who has seen Bloodfeast and Demon Under Glass, and pardon me while I digress for just a moment. Bloodfeast is reputed to be the first ever "gore" movie, and boy, is it gory. (I know, I know. I've said before, and I'll say it again: I don't like gore movies. But this was Geo's--he's got the trilogy, actually--so I've seen BF.) But the thing about Bloodfeast is it is so INCREDIBLY poorly made that it's . . . well, it's amazing. At one point, there's a woman sitting on the couch talking on the phone. And as I'm watching this scene, trying not to crawl out of my skin from the awefulness of this movie, I notice something on the couch next to her. She keeps looking down at this notebook, and I can't believe my eyes. "Is that her script? Oh my gosh! That's her script! She's reading her script!" I just . . . I laughed. Because really, what else can you do with this movie? And the soundtrack is all kettle drum and tuba. It's hilarious.
2,000 Maniacs is part of the Bloodfeast "trilogy" (3 movies by the same filmmakers, but not really connected to each other). It's sort of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Brigadoon. I haven't actually *seen* that one; I was 'Net surfing while Geo was watching it. But what I did see of it, I hated.
Then there's Demon Under Glass, which could have been so much more than what it was, and I was incredibly disappointed--and bored--with it. And the production value was well on non-existent.
Oh! And then there's Death Warmed Over, a NZ horror film that was a very early project of one of my other favorite actors, Michael Hurst.
And Dead Alive, Peter Jackson's first movie, that is so over the top with the bloody goo . . . (Again, Geo loves it. Me, not so much.)
Hm . . . seems I've seen more cheesy horror movies than I thought. I've also come to the conclusion that all actors must have a cheesy horror movie on their resume. Or cheesy teen flick. Either/or.
So those movies--BF and DUG--are on the low end of the scale. I've seen several spook movies that I rate on the high end of the scale, and those are a little too numerous to name here.
Devour falls toward the low end, but not rock bottom. Jensen is the only thing that keeps it from going there.
It starts out as a mildly interesting psychological thriller, and the characters are fairly well defined within their stereotypicality (is that a word?), but it really takes a turn south toward the end, with the Big Reveal. I truly did not like the last twenty minutes or so of the movie. The ending was highly unsatisfactory to my way of thinking.
So, in bullet point format:
1. Jensen Ackles is exceedingly easy on the eyes. He is indeed teh pretty in this movie. And he does really well with what he's got to work with in this movie. I found his character to be truly likable, and as an actor, he made some really good character choices, I think. And did I mention he's really easy to watch?
2. Overall, surprisingly non-cheesy. Of course, having seen Bloodfeast, a movie has to be REALLY HORRIBLE for me to think it's production-wise horrible. The story in this one . . . well, that's another matter. It took a turn south toward the end.
3. HIGHLY unsatisfactory ending. Totally, totally did not like.
4. There is definitely a theme running through JA's career.
5. It was shot in Vancouver.
6. I actually did recognize someone's name in the credits. Joseph LoDuca did the music. He also did the music for Hercules and Xena, which are very cool soundtracks. And the dad from Wonderfalls is in it.
7. For a low budget horror movie, the exposition was pretty good, up to a point. I wasn't completely confused, but I wasn't "shocked" by the end. I was more HIGHLY disappointed.
8. I actually had to watch a couple bits through my fingers. Not because they were scary, but because they were gross.
That is all.
I've seen worse.
I'll start off by saying that Jensen is the best thing about this movie. He's actually the only reason, imo, to watch it. (Okay, guys might enjoy the women in the movie, but they didn't do anything for me, neither from a character point of view nor an acting point of view.) He's very easy to watch, and he makes the movie not nearly as painful as I feared it would be.
From a production values standpoint, I was actually quite impressed. Of course, this is coming from someone who has seen Bloodfeast and Demon Under Glass, and pardon me while I digress for just a moment. Bloodfeast is reputed to be the first ever "gore" movie, and boy, is it gory. (I know, I know. I've said before, and I'll say it again: I don't like gore movies. But this was Geo's--he's got the trilogy, actually--so I've seen BF.) But the thing about Bloodfeast is it is so INCREDIBLY poorly made that it's . . . well, it's amazing. At one point, there's a woman sitting on the couch talking on the phone. And as I'm watching this scene, trying not to crawl out of my skin from the awefulness of this movie, I notice something on the couch next to her. She keeps looking down at this notebook, and I can't believe my eyes. "Is that her script? Oh my gosh! That's her script! She's reading her script!" I just . . . I laughed. Because really, what else can you do with this movie? And the soundtrack is all kettle drum and tuba. It's hilarious.
2,000 Maniacs is part of the Bloodfeast "trilogy" (3 movies by the same filmmakers, but not really connected to each other). It's sort of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Brigadoon. I haven't actually *seen* that one; I was 'Net surfing while Geo was watching it. But what I did see of it, I hated.
Then there's Demon Under Glass, which could have been so much more than what it was, and I was incredibly disappointed--and bored--with it. And the production value was well on non-existent.
Oh! And then there's Death Warmed Over, a NZ horror film that was a very early project of one of my other favorite actors, Michael Hurst.
And Dead Alive, Peter Jackson's first movie, that is so over the top with the bloody goo . . . (Again, Geo loves it. Me, not so much.)
Hm . . . seems I've seen more cheesy horror movies than I thought. I've also come to the conclusion that all actors must have a cheesy horror movie on their resume. Or cheesy teen flick. Either/or.
So those movies--BF and DUG--are on the low end of the scale. I've seen several spook movies that I rate on the high end of the scale, and those are a little too numerous to name here.
Devour falls toward the low end, but not rock bottom. Jensen is the only thing that keeps it from going there.
It starts out as a mildly interesting psychological thriller, and the characters are fairly well defined within their stereotypicality (is that a word?), but it really takes a turn south toward the end, with the Big Reveal. I truly did not like the last twenty minutes or so of the movie. The ending was highly unsatisfactory to my way of thinking.
So, in bullet point format:
1. Jensen Ackles is exceedingly easy on the eyes. He is indeed teh pretty in this movie. And he does really well with what he's got to work with in this movie. I found his character to be truly likable, and as an actor, he made some really good character choices, I think. And did I mention he's really easy to watch?
2. Overall, surprisingly non-cheesy. Of course, having seen Bloodfeast, a movie has to be REALLY HORRIBLE for me to think it's production-wise horrible. The story in this one . . . well, that's another matter. It took a turn south toward the end.
3. HIGHLY unsatisfactory ending. Totally, totally did not like.
4. There is definitely a theme running through JA's career.
5. It was shot in Vancouver.
6. I actually did recognize someone's name in the credits. Joseph LoDuca did the music. He also did the music for Hercules and Xena, which are very cool soundtracks. And the dad from Wonderfalls is in it.
7. For a low budget horror movie, the exposition was pretty good, up to a point. I wasn't completely confused, but I wasn't "shocked" by the end. I was more HIGHLY disappointed.
8. I actually had to watch a couple bits through my fingers. Not because they were scary, but because they were gross.
That is all.
