155 people die in this thing ya know?
The Summer of Massacre (2011)
Directed By: Joe Castro
Where to get it: Breaking Glass Pictures
The Prologue
The Summer of Massacre is a film being put out by Breaking Glass Pictures in January of next year. It’s a very violent film, if you didn’t already know. You see, this movie holds the record for most kill in a slasher film, clocking in at 155. Now that’s all good and great on paper. But, does these kills really add up to being such a great accomplishment once you’ve realized the manner of which most happen? I can already predict that there will be a big debate over this one within the movie reviewers of the world. Some may love it, but I also think we will have a few that just despise it. I myself, well..I’m sorta in the middle.
The Movie
This one is broken into several sections, being an anthology. Ungodly brutal beatings turns Chris, a young man, into a fiend that sets off a bloody, like never before seen, rampage. Beauty is truly only skin deep – Watch a young paraplegic, whose body is also wrecked with spinal bifida, fight for her life as her older, beautiful sister tries to murder her. It’s been 36 years since Jesse’s loving mother was raped by his biological father. Now, after hiding and running their entire lives in fear of this murderous rapist — He has found them!A group of Christian teenagers are stalked, maimed and burned by a local legend in a haunted forest. Three legendary serial killers terrorize downtown Los Angeles by murdering countless innocent souls and the killer plan is to go out with a real bang.
So, it’s another anthology. And things really get the body number piling up in the opening, Rage. This isn’t the strongest of these stories, but it may pack the most in the kills department by far. The only real issue here is the biggest issue that effects the entire movie. The gore here is about 99% CGI. And when I say CGI, I mean the kills look like you are seeing characters in a PS2 game die. I wouldn’t think that’s what the director is going for, but that’s what he gets and he tries to make it work. But it’s just so bad that it just makes you want to face palm when you see someone’s face turn into a cartoon and melt off. This happens all the time in this movie, and it just doesn’t do anything for me. I’m pretty sure a lot of the 155 people that die here are just pictures Photoshopped with CGI gore on them,
The second story here, Lump, may be the overall best here. It still packs the same CGI as everything else, but it seems to be a better overall tale. Someone is at deaths door and their sister just doesn’t like them, so they decide it’s time to do away with them only to find it’s not the result they had hoped for. I don’t know if I’d call the acting that great in any of these, but things of that nature seem to still click better here. The only other part of the movie besides this that is worthy of mention, is the one with the story of a boy and his killer father. But sadly that one turns into a big pile of CGI before it ends as well.
Some folks might call this creative and perhaps it is in some ways. But I think everything just comes together here very badly for a great deal of what we see. The parts of the movie that I didn’t mention simply aren’t worth really bringing up. Will this one gain a cult following? Maybe, but only by a select few that don’t mind a horror movie looking more like a video game in a whole lot of areas. I like different stuff and people trying new things, but this one just doesn’t really cut it for me. And due to some of the CG fashion of a lot of the deaths, I think that 155 body count could respectfully be debated.
The Conclusion
This is coming to you in January on both DVD and Blu-ray. If your curiosity is getting the best of you, then by all means give it a watch. But it just didn’t tickle me in the areas I like to be tickled. We have a few bright spots, but even those are far and in between.
The Rating (5/10)
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