Tagged: Danielle Harris

Bad: Among Friends (2012)

Among Friends (2012) – 4 (IMDb 4.4) – Horror, Comedy (USA)
I hate to do this because I think Danielle Harris is a very cool and cute horror actress, however her directing skills aren’t nearly as praise-worthy. Among Friends is an unoriginal, tired and clichéd horror films that isn’t scary or funny. Unfortunately almost everything about this movie is bad and not all of it is Harris’ fault of course, but man, what a train-wreck. The story follows a bunch of young adults that gather together for some sort of reunion only to find out that their host is a completely deranged maniac. The concept per se is fairly interesting (although not new or anything), but what the film does is standard genre fare. There’s not enough gore or scares in my opinion. You never really care about the characters, as you don’t know them very well and most of them seem to be horrible people. At the end of the day if you can’t sympathize with anyone in the film, what are the stakes? There are however some good things about the film as well. Not all the acting is bad, there are some cute little shots only that added a “girly” touch, I wish she had done more of that and it was good to see Danielle Harris in a cameo. Like I said I like her and I want her to succeed, I just hope she picks a more interesting project the next time. This was Harris’ directorial début and I’m sure it’s all uphill from here.

‘Bad’ Movies You Watched Last Week?

There’s always that one bad film it seems. Well, screw it. Here’s a mini-review of it.

Hatchet III (2013) – 4 (IMDb 5.5) – Horror (USA)
I kind of enjoyed the Hatchet franchise so far, but Part III was by far the  least fun entry. The first one is clearly the best, the second you watch because you liked the first, and the third you still have some hope, but at this point it’s not worth it anymore. This is a bad movie. Why? Because of annoying characters, contrived and illogical story lines and no sense of joy like in the first two films. Also, when your villain is basically immortal you lose interest, because you know the ‘good guys’ won’t kill him anyway. The worst part? It looks like they want to make a Hatchet IV, at least judging by that horrible ending. Is there some good left in this film? Well, Danielle Harris and Sid Haig are the only good things I can think of. The film starts out all right, good gore and interesting story, but then it just drags on and introduces characters and plot devices that just make you want to I don’t know, let’s say ‘scratch your head’.
The only “relief” is that Adam Green didn’t direct this, although the biggest problems lie in the writing, so I don’t know how much of a relief that really is. The first two films are very much horror comedies, but I don’t even remember there being jokes in this one. It’s like he’s trying to change genre in hopes to be taken more seriously or something. Guess what? That ship sailed a long time ago. Also, this has to be one of the most boring attempts at a “detective story” I’ve seen recently. And that’s counting those horrible Guy Ritchie films. At least those have something interesting going in the visual department: This one is below standard even for cheap horror films.

Did you guys see any bad films this past week? Did you see Hatchet III? What did you think of it?