Horrorvision

LOST AFTER DARK

 

My Review:  LOST AFTER DARK is a really good time for slasher movie fans, in particular those who grew up on & during the slasher movie craze of the 1980's. LOST AFTER DARK brings back all the good memories (well to an extent) that those 1980's slashers brought us, the look, the feel, the music, the gore, the stereotypical characters, heck even the box art is done vintage 1980's style! The direction by IAN KESSNER is really good & the acting is pretty decent with each actor able to bring their character to life. Especially ROBERT PATRICK as the stiff necked principal, a tough as nails former Vietnam veteran who isn't afraid to go into combat. Best of all, the film doesn't skimp when it comes to the gory goodies, as we see a variety of delightfully gruesome deaths: A giant sharp screw to the back, a person is impaled via a pitchfork while sitting in the back seat of a car, a car is dropped on a person underneath it crushing them, we get a beheading, a mattock to the stomach, hacked up bodies, a skull bludgeoned against a tree, a vicious slit throat & another victim is forced down through a glass shard that cuts into his own eye. The film also gives us a back story on the killer, which I thought was quiet good. But what I really liked about the movie & what I thought made it inventive & suspenseful, is in the fact of who lives & who dies here, in fact I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at who gets it & who doesn't.

When the main story kicks off after the prologue, we are introduced to a girl whom we think will be the heroine in Adrienne, a pretty girl who is super nice, feels bad about lying to her dad about attending the spring dance, when she really used this as a cover up to sneak off with her friends & whom we eventually learn lost a sister to the madman that is chasing them when she ran away from home a few short years prior, only for her to be one of the first people to get offed by the maniac!

That said while I really enjoyed the movie immensely & understood what the film-makers were trying to do, I will say there were a few things the film-makers could have improved on. I think my biggest problem with the movie, is the fact that while it's only 85 minutes long, I felt a good five minutes could have been trimmed from the film, simply because the film tends to drag in some parts, in particular when the kids first arrive at the house & go exploring, it really kills the pacing & I felt some of these sequences with the kids roaming around the house & some scenes of them in the school bus, could have been edited out. Another thing I felt would have made this film really special, is if the film-makers had shot their movie on 16mm film, instead of digital, to help give it that grungy eighties look. The film also features a scene (as mentioned above) that sees a victim get a glass shard driven through their eye, while I thought this kill looked very painful & gruesome & not to mention well executed, it cheats by using CGI, which again, kind of watered down the experience for me. I thought this effect should have been practical, like a similar scene that was done in ZOMBIE, plus if this film is an eighties homage, than the use of any CGI should have been omitted completely. Plus where is the completely unnecessary nudity? you can't have a true eighties slasher flick or a 1980's slasher homage, without the gratuitous nudity. Apart from those things mentioned, the only other thing I can say that I wish had been done for the film, is if ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT had also released (for the fun of it of course) a VHS version of the film, which I definitely would have purchased for nostalgia's sake.
 

 

Gore/FX:  Standard slasher quality. Nothing extreme but enough to keep you satisified.

 

Overall:  All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. Is this the best 1980's slasher movie tribute that could ever have been made? probably not, but it is good & definitely worth checking out for fans who grew up on the 1980's horror movie slasher flicks, as for those who grew up on the teenybopper slasher flicks of the 90's, you need not apply. The ending leaves a set up (in typical 1980's slasher fashion) for a sequel, which if one is made & is even half as fun as this movie was, will always be welcome. Look for HALLOWEEN II/HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION director RICK ROSENTHAL as the towns sheriff.