Plot
An abandoned insane asylum looms dark and foreboding on the horizon. Into it pass six individuals who are about to discover its terrifying secrets and come face to face with its blackest horrors. Sleaze photographer Roger Neale and three beautiful models take up residence in the reportedly haunted old building – an ideal location for Neale’s photographic “study in terror.” The hospital was financed by a depraved industrialist who built a hidden vault under the basement where he tortured and murdered hundreds of patients. Neale himself is a sadist, and he takes great pleasure in exploiting the helpless young women. But when he discovers a secret passageway, it leads to a blood-splattered dungeon ... and into a supernatural world where pain and evil await mortal flesh.
Analysis
EI's latest release on their Shock-O-Rama label is a great little in-house produced horror film that focuses on it's frights more than it's naked ladies, whilst still ensuring that all lovers of 80's exploitation horror get their daily dose of flesh laden cheese.
The story focuses on a world renown photographer who's methods of achieving the perfect frame for his images are some what extreme. He pushes his models/victims to the brink of terror and captures their true horrific reactions to the vulnerable situations he places them in. Roger Neale, the monstrously dominant photographer, leads three fresh and naive models on to a location shoot in to the bouwls of an abandoned and haunted psychiatric hospital which is the perfect setting to frighten the living daylights out of his subject matter.
Writer/Director Brett Piper's approach to this movie is to aim it at the Saturday night horror fans by keeping the plot shallow, the SFX high and gruesome and the sexy starlets plentiful. Piper's first foray into Digital Video has proved quite effective and the quality of the production is very high for such a modest budget, but taking a look at his CV can go some way to explaining why years of experience on genre movies such as 'A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell' and 'Arachnia' have conditioned Piper to ensuring that the most value is squeezed out of what little money is available. The cast is a great mix of pretty talented actors who deliver their lines and react to the scripts various situations with fluid and convincing performances and an obvious aid to this is the surprising depth of dialogue that Piper's script encumbers. The character interchanges make you listen, follow and care about their conversations and situations, rather than stumbling about filling time until the next pair of bare breasts or bloody gore, you feel like your watching a film rather than reading a adult comic. Misty Mundae, a now prerequisite part of any EI movie is present and correct along with several other attractive actresses (including the diminutive but buxom frame of the totally lovely Rachael Robbins) who's presence in the old musty hospital brings about a nice contrast.
The special effects work is a mixture of computer generated 'apparitions', which are used mostly in the first half of the film, and contemporary makeup work to produce some splatter and monster effects. Some of the computer stuff looks pretty poor with one exception being the re growth of a hand which just about pulls the CGI stuff out of the toilet, but the physical effects more than restore the visual polish with some great makeup including Rossiter's suitably decayed facial mask and a fabulous death scene that leaves brains and eye balls dribbling down the face of a door.
To ensure that lovers of EI's unique blend of cheese aren't left bewildered by the whole 'serious horror film' routine, they have left just enough room in the screen play to accommodate several moments that allow the girls to shed their clothing. One such scene is a rather bizarre moment which takes place in the basement of the hospital which has one of the models showering apparently in the middle of a room whilst holding a conversation with the beastly photographer about the possibility she might be a lesbian and demanding that she makes a move on the others girls that very night. Great fun if you take it for what it is.
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Rating (out of 5)
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Action
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A few bullets get fired but this movie isn't about action.
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Tension
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I didn't find this film the least bit frightening and this is perhaps the biggest let down of an otherwise fine production. The inclusion of some tension building moments would have added just a little more viewer interaction which would have been nice.
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Violence/
Gore
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The gore effects take a little time to arrive in relation to the movies running time but are worth seeing. This isn't a splatter fest but what is included is effective.
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Bare Flesh
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Misty and C.J offer up a gaggle of flesh but by far the best titillation will come from Rachael Robbins scene towards the end of the movie which see's her being stretched out on a rack. I can assure you that the only rack you'll be ogling will be hers.
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Plot
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This never tries to be too clever but does contain enough intelligence in it's screenplay to ensure that horror fans will get enough fun out of the story.
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Verdict
It's about time that EI started producing horror that was more than just a vehicle for showing their actresses boobs and bums. This has a great 80's sensibility about it which I found fun, fresh and sexy. This one comes highly recommended for all cheesy horror freaks and that means you!
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Facts, figures and boobs
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When Rachel Robbins character is strapped to the stretching machine, in the long shot she is wearing a small pair of shorts but in the close up she is only wearing a small pair of lacey pants.
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