Crazy Eights

source: Crazy Eights

Warning: There are spoilers ahead. Friends reunite for the funeral for one of their childhood group called "The Crazy Eights". They are left a box and told to open it together. Inside the box is a map which leads them to a house where they find a trunk…and more revelations as the group ends up at the ruins of a hospital where things begin to go wrong and they begin to perish. Its not giving anything away to say that the adults met when they were children taking part in psychological experiments (The opening text implies as much) and that the hospital is found out to be the place where they were "tested". I liked this film a great deal. Its not perfect but there is something edgy about the way its put together that I found frightening. I liked the rapid editing in some sequences that make it seem as though you've caught something out of your eye. More than once while watching the DVD I backed things up to see if I saw what I saw. With in one or two seconds there are times when the picture shifts and we get images, children, faces, ghosts mixed into the action. I know this bothers some viewers but it kept me on edge since it made it seem like the ghosts are real or that it was the mind of the characters breaking through. I liked that the camera didn't hold on the visions since it allowed for my mind to take over. Or in the case of some of the deadly appearances the small motions on the edge of the frame just before the next scene makes you wonder what you just saw. The script is an odd mix of the sort of thing you'd find in this type of film, and some touches that blur the line about what you are seeing. Is the film now or then or something else? I don't know. The film is constructed as a film taking place in the here and now but there are clues that that may not be wholly the case. The final sequences (which many people don't seem to like) I found oddly affecting. What exactly are we seeing anyway? I'm not sure. Just as I'm not sure about the intrusions of the memories through the earlier parts of the film, but its in a good way since it requires me to think about what I'm seeing. I think if the director had been less sure of himself the film would have collapsed on itself, something the film is never in danger of doing. The acting by the reasonably well known cast (Frank Whaley, Tracy Lords, Gabrielle Anwar) is good, if somewhat histrionic. Clearly they are aware of the films limitations but are trying to at least go for it. I liked it. I think this is worth a look

Ah, 80 minute movies are interesting sometimes. If you like the movie, it will seem too short and leave you wanting more. But in the case of Crazy Eights, you wonder when is this gonna end? I missed this year's Horrorfest at the theaters mainly because of time and money, and of course the fact that the lineup didn't interest me as much. Well, so far this was the first I watched and I have to say I was right! Just 10 minutes into this movie and I'm already having a bad feeling in my tummy about it. Hoping for the feeling to be wrong, it just kept getting worse as the movie went along. Characters? Don't give a crap about any of them, therefore didn't care who died. The plot? Sounded interesting but in the end I was just too confused about what happened and just ended up being bored to death. Scares? What scares? I've seen Full House reruns scarier than this! And what about the twist? Um, yeah, what about it? I'm still confused! Even M Night Shamylan and James Wan are thinking "What was that?" Is there anything good about it? Well, Dina Meyers and Traci Lords are good eye candy. But I'll just watch any of their other movies to watch them and all their hotness. Thankfully I've heard this movie is the worst of this year's lineup, and while that's a little reassuring, last year's didn't disappoint me at all. OK, not all of them were favorite movie of all time material, but they at least kept me entertained. Hopefully the next one will keep crap like this movie out. And glad I did not spend 9 dollars to watch it on the big screen

Another one of the After Dark, Horrorfest movies, that is kind of a Big Chill horror movie with a very angry ghost. The death of a childhood friend of six others, bring them all together at the funeral. The deceased has outlined something he wants his friends to do, and that's follow a map that leads them to a spooky building, that they get trapped inside with a little girl ghost that takes them out one by one. Not a lot of action in the first half of the movie, mostly dialogue between the six which is pretty interesting, but might not sit well with a lot of horror fans. After the ghost comes into the story, it becomes a survival against all odds, and with a very strong cast, they pull it off pretty well. I kind of liked the movie myself, but I can see why other genre fans may not be too fond of it.

How this abominable piece of garbage even made it to the horrorfest, let alone DVD, is beyond the scope of my comprehension. What an absolute waste of a $4.23 Blockbuster rental fee! The really sad part is that the setting was quite creepy, but they failed to do anything with it to make it even the least bit scary or intense. The people that appeared in this film were doing something that I can't even call acting....what I can call it is a travesty. And the plot was as thin as the script. And talk about BORING...I had to turn this mess off halfway through to keep from literally falling asleep. The director/producer of this crap should stick with his day job. I would give this zero stars if that were possible, so remember, you have been warned!!!!

A cast made up of some fairly well known stars embarrass themselves with this highly disjointed ghost story. After 20 years, six childhood friends gather together for the funeral of a seventh. This in turn leads them on a path of remembrance and revelations. The movie did have promise, I will say that. Good locations and a good story or both sadly derail by bad editing, mediocre acting (if this were a cast of newish actors I'd be apt to overlook that, but most of them are seasoned pros so I can't), and the film just raises more questions than it answers. Sorry, but another miss for After Dark Horrorfest. It's down there with "Deaths of Ian Stone" My Grade: D

I will keep this review as short as possible. If 0 or negative stars were available this movie would not have gotten this 1 star. It is worse than awful... i love movies, good or bad, i'll watch the whole thing and typically find a few things about it that i thought were interesting or at least done well. Not this time, this was pure garbage. The plot was simple the acting was terrible, and they call it a "horror" flick... maybe powder puff at best. I only wish that I could call redbox and have them send me a check for the $1.05 that this movie cost me to rent. Do yourself a favor and just go watch your lawn grow, i promise it will be more rewarding than watching this movie.

8 friends have just reunited after the ninth passes away. As they rummage through lost memories, they discover a ghost that just won't stay quiet...now, they're trapped in their old orphanage and one by one they're succumbing to their past. The cast is fairly decent, however, the show is stolen by character actor Frank Whaley as the narcissistic one. Dina Meyer is a decent lead actress and Traci Lords doesn't bring it down too much, either. The film, however, has a serious pacing problem. People with low attention spans should go ahead and skip it but jaded horror afficianados will want to see something different like this. And there are a few moments that are subtly creepy.

Don't read this unless you've already seen the film or don't care, because I will be discussing parts at the end of the film. A few days after a group of friends each begin having nightmares, they are alerted to the death of a friend they hadn't really seen in twenty years. At the funeral, they are given a map to a time capsule. The capsule contains a shocking part of their past: a dead girl. The rest of the day involves unraveling their combined pasts that had gone long forgotten and trying to survive when their guilt comes back to haunt them. What was the selling point for this film? I think for me it was the interesting plot synopsis (one of the few to not include zombies or cannibals or inbred family members) and Traci Lords (who played Gina Conte). Lords, as I'm sure you know, is known for her underage pornographic work... I also happen to really enjoy her musical career, which runs in the techno-industrial vein. What works for this film: I thought the film was very well done. The scenery was great, the characters were enjoyable and the plot and dialog seemed to flow nicely. Some parts were going a bit slower than I'd like, but the general pacing was good and we were given hints and clues along the way to solve the puzzle (although whether or not the puzzle can be solved remains to be seen). What doesn't work: Although I liked the characters, I found them not easily distinguishable. Keeping names and faces straight took a little work, and due to the fact their backgrounds were secret we couldn't know much about them: which really begs the question of what they actually recall about their pasts and how they grew up to be a respectable part of society. The big problem with this film, which actually really upset me, was how abrupt the ending was. I was enjoying the movie, I thought a good ending would make this one something worth recommending, and then it just dies leaving me with the feeling that I had just wasted the last 90 minutes of my life. If there was a point to the film, the ending ruined it. This is why I must rate it low, and have to hold myself back from rating it lower. How to understand this film: I will try to defend the horrible ending, although it won't be easy. We are told by the priest that "guilt leads to compassion", and we know that when the group was younger they were being taught guilt. At the very end we see a flashback of the dead girl getting ready to enter the box. This leaves me with the impression that the hospital crew planted her there rather than the kids coming up with the idea, as they recall it. What happens in the present day is the conclusion of the experiment from 20 years ago -- this was a way of teaching everyone guilt (20 years later). In order to go from guilt (thinking they killed the girl) to compassion, they must go through what the girl did to truly feel for her. Hence, the guilt is relieved through their own deaths. If that's the correct interpretation, or something similar, it still seems lacking -- did we really need the girl to come back as a ghost? The supernatural element seems like it wasn't really crucial if the point was to have them feel guilty rather than hunted. Either way, the ending is just too sudden. It's good to leave a viewer with questions so they view it again, but this one just left me hollow and quite upset. If you can get money back, I'd want it back on this one. So, as you can probably tell, I'm not recommending this film despite the potential it clearly has. When it gets released on DVD, I have compassion for those who rent it (but I won't let myself be feel guilty by suggesting it).

Unfortunately, the next movie in my After Dark alphabetical lineup was not quite as good. With a cast that has had a somewhat undeserved amount of attention placed on it, "Crazy Eights" is a story of 6 friends, reunited by another friend's funeral, who in following out said friend's last wishes, find themselves trapped in an abandoned medical facility, that as it turns out, holds the key to an event they all shared, but had blocked out of their memories. Despite the somewhat promising premise, the film turns out to be about as well written as my last sentence (can anyone say "run-on"?). The dialogue is generally bad, the plot developments are easily figured out way in advance, and some events come off as just silly. When one character manages to severely break his leg, one can't help but wonder just how clumsy he is to have done all THAT in a little tumble. There are some scenes that seem a bit creepy, but they are all to often ruined by an obnoxious synth-string theme that keeps popping up and/or very sloppy editing. While not exactly awful, this film is not really recommendable. So far, I'm saying this is this year's equivalent of "The Gravedancers" in the first 'fest. And in case you're wondering, that's bad.