I was excited to see this despite bad press, as I had enjoyed Deon Taylor’s previous effort 7eventy5ive. Like that film, this was well shot with a good cast and fantastic gore sequences but it was lacking something.
Nikki Reed stars as Jessie Campbell, a senior who finds herself targeted by the Chain Man (the awesome Michael Bailey Smith), a hulking killer who slaughters teens when they refuse to forward his chain letters, but who is he and why is he doing this?
The short answer is…I’m still not sure. Whilst I paid attention throughout and I understood who was behind the chain letters and the killings, I feel as though I know nothing about the antagonist. Some might argue that this is a good thing. Audiences didn’t know much about Michael Myers by the end of Halloween, but that lack of understanding doesn’t have the same effect here, it just left me perplexed.
The film starts well and had two genuinely scary jump scenes which were well complemented by the incredible effects work, but the timeline is all over the place.
I get the feeling that someone needs to explain to Deon Taylor that sometimes less is more. The film is full of visual effects shots and random codas that are not needed. It’s also too long by around 10 minutes and annoyingly, characters disappear, reappear and are never seen again.
OVERALL SUMMARY
I feel as though the director wanted to make a visually impressive film at the expense of a coherent story. As a result, we are left with a great and somewhat original idea which is poorly executed. Hardcore horror fans will enjoy the gore and there are some great actors in this so it’s worth a watch, but I was a little disappointed in the end.
