Low budgets #70 It seems to me that films about how young guys and girls themselves came to the clutches of a maniac are made every day. Just go to IMDb and see how many of these stories are filmed almost without money. In fact, the scheme is as old as the world and was run by even great masters of horror, so now for the shooting of such a film, you just need to take a piece from one film, then from another, mix all this and give out a supposedly new product. And it is not necessary to be guided by films of the XX century - at zero we had torture horror films in vogue, you can type from there.
So, here we have the horror Todd Norwood ' Last Refuge'. The distribution company Lizard, mentioned by me more than a hundred times. As usual, we see a spectacular cover, a slightly embellished synopsis and a completely invented title, all in order to hide the fact that the film is likely to be amateur, the director is unknown to anyone, and the actors are his friends. But that’s why we’re watching this, so let’s figure out what we have this time.
Laura goes on a week-long relaxation out of town with her boyfriend. The company they are a friend of this guy, his girlfriend, and his sister. When they arrive, they are greeted by the owner of country houses Bruno, who immediately gives the impression of a dark dude. That’s how it turns out – the guys under the cover of night are sent to an abandoned factory nearby to torture, torture, and torture again.
Why did I say you don’t have to make a movie like this? Yes, because before us is an extremely simplified version of the film 'Hostel', which was buzzed three years before the release 'Refuge'. Destroyed and abandoned scenery, a lot of types of torture tools, heroes tied to chairs - in my opinion, it is all too obvious where the author drew inspiration.
However, it is quite difficult to find a completely original film of this category, so let’s close our eyes to the ripped ideas, since copying several scenes is not plagiarism of the entire film. What I like is that the location looks really atmospheric. Still, no matter how you spin - the right scenery is not such a small part of the success. Even if the authors were lucky enough to find an abandoned factory. Secondly, the guy who played Bruno really tried to portray acting, unlike the other actors. However, usually in such films, no one can play at all. Anyway, the first half of the film looks very good, if you take this movie in the category of amateur films.
Now for the minuses. In the second half, the concentration of absolute absurdity and stupidity of the main character’s actions exceeds all permissible norms. Even for horror movies. I do not want anyone to be in such a situation, but it is illogical to act - I have not seen such a thing even in all the fortieth parts & #39; Friday the 13th & #39. Unfortunately, this spoils a pretty successful start. There are also many questions about the ending of the film. It's pretty clichéd, but that cliché absolutely doesn't work in this movie, the ending seems superfluous and sucked out of the finger. Speaking of fingers, the film was clearly digital, and I saw a lot in this kind of movie - microphones in the frame, reflections of the film crew and so on. But for the operator’s finger to cover part of the image in the corner when shooting – this is the first time.
To sum up: lovers of high-quality horror will turn off the film in the first minutes - well, how much can you watch the film begin with the desire of a guy and a girl to copulate in some abandoned place, and at this time they are cut by a maniac? Plus, amateur image quality will clearly scare off the contingent of such a plan. And there will be no blood at all - all the torture is removed from behind the back and due to the lack of budget, there can be no question of any torture porn. I consider the film as an amateur production and I want to say that at first everything goes very, very well. The cinema is not sagging, the locations are beginning to please. However, the second half slowly but surely drains everything into the toilet and presses the descent button with its ending. It could have been a lot better.
Thank you for your attention
5 out of 10