A group of delinquent teens (Christina Vidal, Rachael Taylor, and Craig Horner among them) and their charges (Tiffany Lamb and Steve Vidler, the latter a cop) are at the supposedly abandoned Blackwell Hotel for community service cleaning the place up. There they run afoul of the hulking homicidal, eye-gouging maniac resident of the building (played by WWE Superstar Kane). Zoe Ventoura turns up as an early victim.
The WWE Superstar known as Kane (real name Glen Jacobs) seems like the perfect fit for a horror movie character (Kane being ‘The Devil’s favourite demon’, and brother to WWE legend The Undertaker), and so it’s no surprise that in 2006 he was given his own horror vehicle (Produced by Vince McMahon himself, no less). Unfortunately, Kane, fine workhorse as he has been even to the present day, has found himself thrown into some of the worst storylines in wrestling history. And this film from director Gregory Dark and writer Dan Madigan is not much better. That’s probably not a surprise given Madigan was a WWE writer at the time. Dark, meanwhile, has nothing to gloat about either, having experience in porn and directing Britney Spears music videos. But you’d think there was no way a horror film starring Kane as a nutjob with an eye fetish could possibly miss. It does.
The film was clearly made in Australia, with a lot of local talent on show, using largely dodgy American accents (Weird that two of the most experienced Aussies at doing American accents here, Tiffany Lamb and Rachael Taylor are the worst at it). That said, they’re a whole lot better than most yanks trying to do an Aussie accent in films. Taylor is nauseatingly unconvincing as the resident pot-head. She’s around for way too much of the film if you ask me.
I’m not sure what building is playing the role of Blackwell here, but credit where it’s due, it’s an ominous-looking building from the outside. It’s kinda cool-looking on the inside, but reminded me a touch too much of the remake of “House of Wax”.
A slow pace really drags this thing down, but it’s made worse by the stock characters and set-up. It’s all a bit bland and far too clichéd to stand out amongst other teen horror films of the period. The characters actually seem to have less depth the longer the film goes on, and some of the more objectionable ones last a lot longer than they should. It’s kinda cool that the black guy didn’t die first, however.
The deaths are fun and a bit gorier than I was expecting (the WWE of 2012 is a lot more kid-friendly, so this film wouldn’t get made today), but nothing to get too excited about. The highlight is probably an axe to the head, leading to flies and maggots pouring out. Disgusting. The final death is ridiculously funny. Kane is well-cast, but not at all well-used. He’s just there for his physicality, and he doesn’t even look as demonic as he does in his Kane character. This guy’s just a big hulking loon, and silent to boot. Jacobs is no great thesp, but he’s great at playing Kane and this film really could’ve used a central menace more like Kane, more of a monster instead of just a big insane dude. That’s right, he has more of a character in wrestling than he does here. That doesn’t seem right to me.
There’s a great bit involving a two-way mirror, however. I also liked seeing someone forced to swallow a mobile phone, something I’ve never seen before. Unfortunately it doesn’t lead to the inevitable ringtone gag. Opportunity completely missed there.
OVERALL SUMMARY
I love the idea of a film about a psycho who gouges eyes out, unfortunately this run-of-the-mill horror pic doesn’t take the concept anywhere interesting. It’s like the WWE decided to shove the guy who plays Kane into a horror film…and didn’t much bother thinking beyond that.
