SWITCH KILLER

Once again a group of inept filmmakers commit their atrocity to film in the hope that it will find a market within the horror community. This kind of thing is happening with alarming regularity these days and poor, unfortunate reviewers such as myself have to wade through the muck and the mire in order to fulfill our obligations to the various websites we write for. It could be worse, I suppose, at least we don't have to review romantic comedies!

Anyway, I shouldn't be so self-indulgent so I'll get on with the review. The story, what little there is of it, tells the fortunes of young Jamie Garnes (Cara Jo Basso) who flees her abusive boyfriend in Los Angeles and becomes a pole dancer in the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas, as well as taking up with a lesbian partner. Make sense so far? Didn't think so, but there we are (after all, why would someone fleeing an abusive man take up a job surrounded by potentially abusive men and subjecting yourself to leering customers night-after-night?). To add to her continuing misfortune, it becomes apparent that she is being menaced by a homicidal maniac who is bumping off all those around her, one-by-one.

That's it, really. A nonsensical plot, appalling performances, badly handled special effects and a twist that should've been clever, but in the hands of these people comes over as thoroughly ridiculous. The characters are one-dimensional, so much so that you never really care whether they live or die. The film lacks depth and conviction and becomes tiresome very, very quickly. I really wanted to like this - it has all the ingredients for a first-class horror-thriller - but it was all done so badly that I just couldn't warm to it at all. Sure, there are lashings of nudity and violence, but that does not a good film make, and the sooner these low-to-no-budget filmmakers realize this, the better. You may not have a large amount of money to spend, but then take a leaf out of Sam Raimi's book (in regard to his film The Evil Dead) and at least show innovation and be inventive with what you have. This is merely a join-the-dots slasher movie - and not a very good one at that. It makes you realize just how good those low-budget early 80's slasher flicks really were!

Screen Entertainment present the film full-frame, despite the credits revealing that it was meant to be shown at a ratio of 1.85:1, so they lose points there, I'm afraid. Aside from that, it's a reasonably clean-looking transfer, if a little murky at times, and about as good as it's ever going to look. Not great, but watchable. The audio is just a basic DD 2.0 stereo track, but it works well enough and the dialogue is clear and audible at all times. But be warned, the audio is quite loud, so you may want to turn down your amp a notch or two before playing the disc. In its favour, the film does boast some superb music and the audio here reproduces it extremely well.

There are no extras to speak of, aside from the obligatory advertising trailers for other features available from Screen Entertainment/Hardgore.

Overall, it's a film I find hard to recommend. I'm sure it will find an appreciative audience out there, somewhere, but it failed to do anything for me, unfortunately. Oh, and if anyone can tell me why the wet t-shirt segment is tacked on after the end credits (the end credits, incidentally, last a full 20 minutes - talk about padding!), then please let me know!

Review by C J Otter