It’s a big one folks…my 500th movie review!
Live Feed was hyped as being gorier than Hostel, worse than Wolf Creek and more sickening than Feed. I would probably agree with all of the above, but that doesn’t mean it was a good film.
The film starts with five friends on holiday who stumble upon a butcher carving up a dog. Sickened by what they have seen, they decide to visit a porno theatre (yeah right) only to discover that all is not as it seems. The doors are locked from the outside, there are hidden cameras in the rooms, and when two of the group lift up the carpet, they find a blood drenched drain in the middle of the room and a hose hanging on the wall. It soon transpires that the building is a torture den where people are murdered for the enjoyment of the wealthy triads.
I must stress that I saw the Unrated version of the film (let’s face it, who would want to see the rated version?) and whilst it was excessively gory and graphic, the film ended up being a special effects showcase and nothing else (in my humble opinion).
A couple of the cast are likeable but overall I didn’t really like the acting or the music which moves from quite decent to incredibly screechy and annoying, and the whole thing is just very cheap.
The pluses here are the efforts by the cast and crew, the stunt work and of course the effects. There is obviously no doubt that Ryan Nicholson can do great effects…I mean just look at the man’s CV. I just don’t know why he felt the need to tell this particular story unless he felt Hostel wasn’t gory enough and wanted to actually show you the acts happening as opposed to build up and aftermath? This, for me, is what ruined the film.
Eli Roth had the budget to have first rate effects in his film but probably opted not to, as savvy horror fans can tell what’s real and what’s not. Nicholson shows you everything and you instantly know that it’s fake, which totally takes you out of the moment.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Live Feed is a sickening film. It features sex and violence from start to finish with little to no relief, and it becomes tiresome after a while. I didn’t care about a lot of the characters and I felt the effects worked best when we didn’t see everything. As an effects showcase it’s great. As a horror film it’s just average.
