ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Matt Kracht
The plot: A man seeking to resurrect his dead lover runs into a shady occultist who claims to be able to help him.Necromentia is clearly one huge homage toward the works of Clive Barker -- Hellraiser, in particular. As a huge Barker fan, I was both excited and a little disappointed. The film is grotesque, gory, and beautiful, but almost everything in it is directly "inspired" by Clive Barker, making it a bit less original than I might like. Still, it has some truly striking visuals, and some scenes that you might remember long after the movie ends.Necromentia is slow-paced and atmospheric, and people who are more used to modern, MTV-style filmmaking might end up being bored. The budget is clearly very low, but I thought they did an excellent job with what they had. Sure, some of the set design was a little underwhelming at times, but I was not nearly as disappointed as many other people seem to have been. There are many twisted and disturbing scenes, some of which end up with a very absurd, surreal vibe. Although not really a candidate for "most disturbing movie ever", it still deserves an honorable mention.There some original ideas here, but the themes are as old as dirt, and, admittedly, becoming a bit clichéd in horror movies. If you're looking for something more than a Hellraiser clone, I can understand how you'd dislike this movie. Despite its issues, I still enjoyed it, and I think that other Barker fans may, as well.
GL84
While trying to open a portal to Hell to retrieve a long-lost love, a man finds his quest of locating the designated victim to draw the symbols required to do so far more challenging than the Dark Angel who assigned it to him thought it would be.An ultimately disappointing effort, this one was just flat-out flawed and not really that worthwhile. The main point of contention with this one is that it's just confusing and not all that easy to follow, tending to use far more flashbacks than necessary, most of those filled with going so far out of the traditional plot line (we do have about four or five of them, and none of them intersect until the finale) that overall it just becomes so confusing as to what's going on that eventually it just becomes moot as to what's going on. This one does have some wonderfully absurd images and ideas, as there's one scene with a pig you have to see to believe, and the concept of what's going on works when it's kept to a visual standpoint instead of trying to spell it all out, but that doesn't come close to justifying the rest of the flaws in here, and overall this one is just a jumbled, incoherent mess.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.
arfdawg-1
Four disjointed stories of horror loosely connected by a tattooed quija board.Story one is about a guy who keeps his dead wife in a bathtub and tries to bring her back....or rather....keeps saying she promised to come back. No mention of when she died, but funny how there's no decay.Two thugs come in and make an offer to bring the wife back. Something about gateways. But there is a fatal flaw with the plot. The guy doesn't choose his fate, as the narrative says...it's thrust on him against his will.Story two finds two brothers -- one who appears to be a crippled mute. Mr. Skinny -- a fat guy with a pig mask pops out of the TV and the kid finds him funny even tho he's covered with blood. Lots of torture scenes here, but I couldn't follow it. It's all over the map and not one frame makes sense.I THINK this 3rd story is about a guy who wants his brother back, but by this time all logic breaks down. The stories appear to be intertwined in a way that no sense can be made of them.That's it for me. I don't even know what the 4th tale is supposed to be but it appears to be related to the first in a way and features an extraordinarily effeminate man who loves a woman a bit too much. Net net -- this is a clunker.
hannibalmcnee
OK, so I picked this up in a charity shop (goodness knows who left it there) and the DVD has a blurb on the back giving a really inaccurate description of the plot (I seriously doubt whoever wrote it actually saw the movie) that began with the line: "Inspired by the works of Clive Barker"...Which is fair, because the Hellraiser vibe is dripping off of this movie. But that's no bad thing. If anything, this is what the Hellraiser sequels SHOULD have been, a seriously messed up, gory, but ultimately relationship-driven ride through Hell-dimensions, torture and nightmares.Good cast, good music, good script, but I've really got to hand it to the make-up and set-dressing people. For a low budget movie, none of this looks cheap.I'm not saying it's perfect. It's nasty, bloody, ends a touch abruptly, it can be a touch ponderous and self-serious... But it is way, WAY better than it has any right to be and I would highly recommend it.
