Director: Uwe Boll
Year: 2007
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Supposedly surviving his execution, the body of a thought-dead serial killer returns from the grave and begins a bloodsoaked rampage against those that signaled him dead, forcing the police officer who originally caught him to stop his rampage before hurting others in his path.
Review:
This one ended up being quite the enjoyable overall effort. This one really manages to generate quite an intriguing amount to enjoy here with the overt brutality and viciousness on display throughout here. Opening up with the scenes of the animal treatment footage drops a big hint as to what's going to be included here, while the scenes of the cops reviewing the series of tortured animals and people on his home videos in his collection gives this an extremely uncomfortable air that carries over into the remaining parts of the film. It gives us an extremely long and uncomfortable look into the killers' mindset where he really would be that disturbed and able to enjoy such extreme content or put people into that kind of situation where they're forced to stay in a locked room until death and then rot away.
That is especially prominent in the actual stalking scenes starting with flashbacks to the dreams he has showing the killing spree against his family and friends having a really dark edge, the brutal kills found in the scenes of the officers checking his house during his arrest are quite shocking and brutal. The rampage at the prison yard, where he slaughters the officers attempting to remove him in order to to finally be electrocuted provides some strong and brutal moments as well as setting up the actual execution attempt which is long, drawn-out and quite graphic overall which makes it a fun moment. The best aspect, though, is the series of strong ambushes dealt to out the individuals associated with the incident. These range from short sequences of the killer striking out of the darkness to lengthier, more involved scenes including him torturing a victim repeatedly with a hammer or chasing them through the house which all leads into the final showdown in the woods which has a lot to really love about it. The family turmoil and the extremity of the case add a dramatic accent to it all, and the setting provides a nice setting to add to the rest of the action.
The cast here is solid in name-value but doesn't really have much to work with. Michael Paré does what he can as Detective Matt Bishop, head of the investigation that initially captured Max Seed. He seems more subdued in the first half with the focus more on simply investigative measures although he does spring to life a bit more in the final half where he is able to get a bit more action-oriented scenes under his belt. At this stage of his career, he could've played a role like this in his sleep and while there are signs he was the situations he finds himself in do generate a modicum of sympathy towards him which is quite nice. Will Sanderson is almost unrecognizable as the killer Max Seed, although that doesn't mean much. When we see him, he has an imposing, physical presence but that's about it, and there's very little about him that really stands out from the serial killer pack. That's about it here in terms of impressive characters, as aside from having recognizable B-movie actors Ralf Moeller, Jodelle Ferland, Thea Gill and Tyron Leitso among the cast, nobody else is really worth mentioning.
The film's main issue here is the fact that this one tends to just waste so much of it's running time in the beginning focusing on utterly unimportant areas. The endless footage of them reviewing the killer's home videos is way too long, not only for the content being shown but also the fact that they don't add much to the characters' backstory. He's already a vile, unsympathetic animal abuser and killer, so getting these extra shots in don't really mean much overall with enhancing what is already known here. It just speaks of mindless padding that does nothing for the film at all and only makes the flimsy storyline ever more obvious about not really requiring a full-length running time. That in itself is another rather big problem here in that the film doesn't really have all that much of a need to be as long as it is, as the scenes of his capture are dragged out way too much meaning that the actual execution that sets the plot in motion is done around the halfway point of the film. The last issue is the half-baked finale that just ends this on a whimper despite the emotional content and raises far more questions than answers anything throughout here which makes this quite a downbeat offering. Otherwise, there isn't much else to this one.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
While it does have some minor issues that are somewhat detrimental to this one, it has more than enough to recommend about it that it serves as quite the enjoyable effort. This is really recommended to those other fans of his past works or are fans of these brutal slasher efforts, while those that find the flaws troubling should heed caution.
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