Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Aug 24, 2011 9:29:36 GMT -5
Plot:In a typical American suburb filled with middle class morals, a lonely 59-year-old, Stan, contributes to society by offering cremation services from his basement. In fact, Stan murders neighbors he perceives to be social bullies. Jarod, a fatherless 17-year-old high school outcast, lands an after-school job in Stan's cremation house and the two develop an unusual working relationship that quickly evolves into a partnership. As detective Matt Fairchild puts together clues from local disappearances, Stan must decide if protecting his newfound trainee is worth killing for.
Cast:
Brad Dourif
Jeremy Sumpter
Scott Elrod
Debbon Ayer
Sam Ingraffia
Daniel Baldwin
Staci Keanan
Kate Maher
Carly Craig
Blake Hood
Madison Eginton
Kevin Elms
Karen Steele
Tyson Turrou
Celine Lozier
My Thoughts:Performance driven but still bland.
Review:"Death and Cremation", from filmmaker Justin Steele, is a drama/horror pic that focuses on a small town crematorium owner named Stan (Dourif). Stan is a bit of an odd loner. Which should come as no surprise considering he owns, and operates a crematorium. Stan is also a grizzled-looking old guy, who by day...cremates the dead that are sent to his place of business. But by night, he spends his time drumming up business.
As in killing some of the folks in the town who he deems as "social bullies". Disposing of the evidence proves easy, considering Stan operates a crematorium. No one would be the wiser with that ace up his sleeve. One day though, a local teen named Jarod (Sumpter), who is having troubles of his own with the local "social bullies"...comes in to request a job at the crematorium.
Stan at first is against it, but as he sees more of himself in Jarod, and maybe an opportunity to take him under his wing, and show him the business...the enigmatic Stan finally obliges. But soon, Stan finds himself having to return to his bloody ways after Jarod reveals to him the identities of the local kids who've been bullying him. Now, Stan decides to make getting rid of these kids his new mission. But at what cost? "Death and Cremation" reminded me of a lot of other revenge/horror tales I've seen before. In a way, it has a twist though.
Instead of a bullied or maligned person seeking vengeance upon their tormentors themselves, this movie allows a relationship to build between twon people. Upon which one decides to do the other a favor by ridding his life of those who pick on him. Except unbeknownst to the other person. That little twist is key to this movie separating itself from other films that run along this particular ilk. But the movie ultimately poses two questions.
One...will Stan murdered all of Jarod's enemies? And two. Will Jarod stand up for Stan, or turn against him when he learns of Stan's actions. Problem is, the movies writing is so predictable and lacking of any real shock or suspense...that the viewer can easily answer these questions for him or herself. And the most obvious answer, would end up being the correct one. "Death and Cremation" has a good base for a story, and overall a movie...but it doesn't fill the jar up with enough red herrings, twists, surprises, or swerves to keep things fresh for close to 2 hours.
Instead...it's kind of like a waiting game. A very boring one. You already know what is to take place. So you watch the movie waiting for it to happen. That's really no fun. And to add to all of that, the death scenes aren't very gory or unique in any way. Although I wasn't expecting super bloody or extremely creative deaths in a small-budget film like this. Still, the death scenes carried hardly any impact. And the overall design of the movie and the death scenes just didn't come off as creative enough for my liking.
Also I am quite fatigued with horror movies about douchebag guys and bitchy girls who terrorize and torment some local kid or a group of local kids. And in most cases, the tormentee is some emo kid who wears too much black or too much eyeliner. As Sumpter's Jardo is in this film. Both prototypes are oversued these days. And then when this toermentee has had enough, and has reached his or her boiling point...bloody revenge is sought on the other end.
I think this formula has been beaten like a dead horse, and really should be retired for atleast a bit. "Death and Cremation" handles the material a little bit differently than expected. But still, when things reach their boiling point, and the final act of the movie is cued up...it all ends up amounting to the same thing.
In the films finish, and in the lead up to the movies finish. Both...end up putting forth the same formula, and the same patterns that all oddball-kid-seeks-revenge-on-popular-bullies inspired horror films contain. By the end of the movie, you are somewhat intrigued by the final standoff when Stan's "activities" unravel a bit, and some tough decisions have to be made by the films major characters. But the movie even follows that up with a predictable final scene minutes later, before the movies end credits hit.
"Death and Cremation" is carried really well performance wise, by the legendary Brad Dourif, who's done everything from voicing Chucky The Killer Doll, to playing bit parts in slasher films like "Urban Legend", and to doing larger parts in horror movies as well. But when Dourif in the movie is surrounded by a script that shows too much of it's hand during the big poker game, so to speak...even his acting cannot raise the game of this movie to the levels that it may should've been playing at or on.
"Death and Cremation" is not a complete waste of time. In fact, it's a decent to above average exercise in storytelling and morbid character drama. But it comes off as too bland in some areas. Lacking the necessary spice in certain scenes to inject some intensity into unfolding events. And any movie that can't keep you fully engulfed for the duration, or atleast more than 60% of it, is not entirely perfect.
Positives:Brad Dourif plays crematorium owner Stan really well. Sumpter is decent as Jardo. Although the character is too obvious and stereotypical at times. The final act holds a few moments of intrigue as well.
Negatives:The movies overall design is too predictable and easy to pinpoint and figure out ahead of time. The characters, good guys and bad are too cliche and extreme. The bad kids are as extreme and cliche as movies like this can get. And Sumpter even goes overboard with the emo stuff from time to time. The death scenes carried little to no impact too.
Overall:Two stars out of four.
Cast:
Brad Dourif
Jeremy Sumpter
Scott Elrod
Debbon Ayer
Sam Ingraffia
Daniel Baldwin
Staci Keanan
Kate Maher
Carly Craig
Blake Hood
Madison Eginton
Kevin Elms
Karen Steele
Tyson Turrou
Celine Lozier
My Thoughts:Performance driven but still bland.
Review:"Death and Cremation", from filmmaker Justin Steele, is a drama/horror pic that focuses on a small town crematorium owner named Stan (Dourif). Stan is a bit of an odd loner. Which should come as no surprise considering he owns, and operates a crematorium. Stan is also a grizzled-looking old guy, who by day...cremates the dead that are sent to his place of business. But by night, he spends his time drumming up business.
As in killing some of the folks in the town who he deems as "social bullies". Disposing of the evidence proves easy, considering Stan operates a crematorium. No one would be the wiser with that ace up his sleeve. One day though, a local teen named Jarod (Sumpter), who is having troubles of his own with the local "social bullies"...comes in to request a job at the crematorium.
Stan at first is against it, but as he sees more of himself in Jarod, and maybe an opportunity to take him under his wing, and show him the business...the enigmatic Stan finally obliges. But soon, Stan finds himself having to return to his bloody ways after Jarod reveals to him the identities of the local kids who've been bullying him. Now, Stan decides to make getting rid of these kids his new mission. But at what cost? "Death and Cremation" reminded me of a lot of other revenge/horror tales I've seen before. In a way, it has a twist though.
Instead of a bullied or maligned person seeking vengeance upon their tormentors themselves, this movie allows a relationship to build between twon people. Upon which one decides to do the other a favor by ridding his life of those who pick on him. Except unbeknownst to the other person. That little twist is key to this movie separating itself from other films that run along this particular ilk. But the movie ultimately poses two questions.
One...will Stan murdered all of Jarod's enemies? And two. Will Jarod stand up for Stan, or turn against him when he learns of Stan's actions. Problem is, the movies writing is so predictable and lacking of any real shock or suspense...that the viewer can easily answer these questions for him or herself. And the most obvious answer, would end up being the correct one. "Death and Cremation" has a good base for a story, and overall a movie...but it doesn't fill the jar up with enough red herrings, twists, surprises, or swerves to keep things fresh for close to 2 hours.
Instead...it's kind of like a waiting game. A very boring one. You already know what is to take place. So you watch the movie waiting for it to happen. That's really no fun. And to add to all of that, the death scenes aren't very gory or unique in any way. Although I wasn't expecting super bloody or extremely creative deaths in a small-budget film like this. Still, the death scenes carried hardly any impact. And the overall design of the movie and the death scenes just didn't come off as creative enough for my liking.
Also I am quite fatigued with horror movies about douchebag guys and bitchy girls who terrorize and torment some local kid or a group of local kids. And in most cases, the tormentee is some emo kid who wears too much black or too much eyeliner. As Sumpter's Jardo is in this film. Both prototypes are oversued these days. And then when this toermentee has had enough, and has reached his or her boiling point...bloody revenge is sought on the other end.
I think this formula has been beaten like a dead horse, and really should be retired for atleast a bit. "Death and Cremation" handles the material a little bit differently than expected. But still, when things reach their boiling point, and the final act of the movie is cued up...it all ends up amounting to the same thing.
In the films finish, and in the lead up to the movies finish. Both...end up putting forth the same formula, and the same patterns that all oddball-kid-seeks-revenge-on-popular-bullies inspired horror films contain. By the end of the movie, you are somewhat intrigued by the final standoff when Stan's "activities" unravel a bit, and some tough decisions have to be made by the films major characters. But the movie even follows that up with a predictable final scene minutes later, before the movies end credits hit.
"Death and Cremation" is carried really well performance wise, by the legendary Brad Dourif, who's done everything from voicing Chucky The Killer Doll, to playing bit parts in slasher films like "Urban Legend", and to doing larger parts in horror movies as well. But when Dourif in the movie is surrounded by a script that shows too much of it's hand during the big poker game, so to speak...even his acting cannot raise the game of this movie to the levels that it may should've been playing at or on.
"Death and Cremation" is not a complete waste of time. In fact, it's a decent to above average exercise in storytelling and morbid character drama. But it comes off as too bland in some areas. Lacking the necessary spice in certain scenes to inject some intensity into unfolding events. And any movie that can't keep you fully engulfed for the duration, or atleast more than 60% of it, is not entirely perfect.
Positives:Brad Dourif plays crematorium owner Stan really well. Sumpter is decent as Jardo. Although the character is too obvious and stereotypical at times. The final act holds a few moments of intrigue as well.
Negatives:The movies overall design is too predictable and easy to pinpoint and figure out ahead of time. The characters, good guys and bad are too cliche and extreme. The bad kids are as extreme and cliche as movies like this can get. And Sumpter even goes overboard with the emo stuff from time to time. The death scenes carried little to no impact too.
Overall:Two stars out of four.