- Straight to DVD, 2009. Unfortunately, I have not seen the unrated director's cut.
- Written and directed by Robert Hall
- Starring Bobbi Sue Luther, Kevin Gage, Thomas Dekker, Lena Headey, and the guy who played "Frogurt" on Lost
The opening credits sequence of Laid To Rest is reminiscent of the opening of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. We see the killer's hands, we see his blades, we know he is a badass and he's got nothing but death on his mind. The imagery is not accidental, and it's not uncommon. (One major difference is that Wes Craven used an original score, and Hall, like so many horror directors now, uses heavy metal. The prevalence of metal music in horror is kind of a drag these days. It's not scary, just chaotic, and it shows a real laziness in setting a scary mood.) The credits tell us nearly the whole story, because we've seen it before: girl runs away from killer for 90 minutes, everyone else suffers a brutal, bloody death, and through some combination of perseverance, sheer dumb luck, varying levels of toughness on her part, and a fatal mistake by killer, girl wins in the end, until the sequel in which she dies in the first ten minutes, if she's in it at all. Despite the fact that we follow the girl and sympathize with her, we all know the killer is the reason we bought a ticket, and if you're not a fan of slashers, you probably won't enjoy this movie. However, if you are a fan, if you like Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Scream, etc., this will blow your mind.
The format is a little different: instead of a group of friends getting subtracted one by one, there's one girl, on her own. Played by Bobbi Sue Luther, who also produced the movie, she's known simply as The Girl. She wakes up in a coffin, in a funeral home, with no idea who she is or how she got there. She soon finds out one thing about herself: there's a guy who wants to make her dead. She seems to have a wound on her head: it's bloody and she has a headache. We find out towards the end, in a neat little flashback, who she is (a hooker from Miami,) and how she hurt her head (baseball bat to the dome.) Meanwhile, she has no memory, "can't remember the names of things," and seems completely unable to function. She can't make a phone call, she can't take a shower, and she gets everyone around her killed.
A supporting cast of faces mostly recognizable to sf/horror fans, including Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, both from the ill-fated Sarah Connor Chronicles, adds a bit of fun, and they all die, of course, in some of the most merciless and bloody ways I've seen in any movie. It sounds weird when I write it, but those scenes are fun, because they are scary, and they look so real. The Girl witnesses every death, and Luther really sells the terror of it all, and you feel for her, because she's so helpless and dumb, and you are horrified with her when she finally makes it to the barn that's been serving as the killer's man-cave and sees what kind of house he keeps. (I won't ruin that one for you, but I will say this: I saw the rated R version, and I am truly frightened to see the unrated version of that scene.) It wouldn't really be a spoiler to tell you that she kills him in the end, seemingly melting his head with acid. I say seemingly because there is now a sequel in the works, with Halloween's Danielle Harris as the new Girl. (Do I want to see that one? What do you think?)
If you're not a slasher fan, again, don't expect to like this. However, for slasher fans, this movie is a blast. It knows what you want and delivers the goods without pulling any punches. I feel pretty confident that this is the best slasher in at least the last ten years, if not the last 20. Don't miss it, but don't take my word for it: watch the trailer.
A supporting cast of faces mostly recognizable to sf/horror fans, including Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, both from the ill-fated Sarah Connor Chronicles, adds a bit of fun, and they all die, of course, in some of the most merciless and bloody ways I've seen in any movie. It sounds weird when I write it, but those scenes are fun, because they are scary, and they look so real. The Girl witnesses every death, and Luther really sells the terror of it all, and you feel for her, because she's so helpless and dumb, and you are horrified with her when she finally makes it to the barn that's been serving as the killer's man-cave and sees what kind of house he keeps. (I won't ruin that one for you, but I will say this: I saw the rated R version, and I am truly frightened to see the unrated version of that scene.) It wouldn't really be a spoiler to tell you that she kills him in the end, seemingly melting his head with acid. I say seemingly because there is now a sequel in the works, with Halloween's Danielle Harris as the new Girl. (Do I want to see that one? What do you think?)
If you're not a slasher fan, again, don't expect to like this. However, for slasher fans, this movie is a blast. It knows what you want and delivers the goods without pulling any punches. I feel pretty confident that this is the best slasher in at least the last ten years, if not the last 20. Don't miss it, but don't take my word for it: watch the trailer.
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