Argh....First White Noise and now Malevolence.....
Malevolence
2/10
Summary
A group of bank robbers and a mother & daughter that they took hostage hole up at a deserted house in the middle of Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to them, a psychotic killer is in a nearby house, ready to slash them up. Boredom Ensues.
Review
I have been looking forward to Malevolence for a long time now, about five years or so. I recall reading articles about the flick's production up in PA and thought it sounded great.
I was seriously friggin wrong.
The film starts off with a young boy being kidnapped in 1989 and being forced to watch his captor murder various victims. Then, we cut to 1999 and the boy is all grown up. The police never found him and he's been living in a run down house for the past decade killing anyone who crossed his path.
Enter three bank robbers and a mother and daughter that they kidnapped for a vehicle. Soon, they stumble on the killer's house and the killing starts.
Well, it should have. The main problem with Malevolence is that there is absolutly nothing unique about it. The music and many of the scenes are derivative of Halloween, the acting is terrible and the murders are far from brutal. Hell, the psycho only kills TWO people!
If you want to make a horror film, then you need to make one that is unique. Everything in this film has been done before dozens of times, and quite better. It offers absolutely nothing to the slasher genre.
Another big thing that the film missed the mark with was characterization. I couldn't care less if the mother/daughter or any of the bank robbers got hacked up. They were cardboard, boring, and expendable. The only plus side of the film for me was actress Heather Magee who despite being a b***h in the film was insanely hot. She's the only reason I'm giving the film 2 points.
If you see Malevolence in your local video store, then ignore it. As I mentioned, it has NOTHING to offer to fans of the horror/slasher genres and is just a rehash of better films we've seen in the past. I'm sure if you rent it then you will make the film suffer the wrath of your fast forward button as I did. This film is crap.
Side Notes:
This film won the "Best Feature" award at the New York Horror Festival in 2003. WTF were the judges on!?
Although the film sucks, the DVD had some fantastic trailers before the film. The trailers consisted of originals for:, Evil Dead, Halloween, Hellraiser and even some trailers for newer flicks like: Dead And Breakfast, and Argento's The Card Player. They were included since the director said that he used Evil Dead, Halloween and Hellraiser as inspiration.....or....for....plagiarism!