iMurders

Well, what can I say about iMurders? Nothing good I'm afraid. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, but I decided to give it a try. The plot about some mysterious game played by a bunch of uninteresting people who later get killed is simply dull. And adding "i" to the title won't help much. The acting was terrible and so was the script. You don't have to be a psychic to guess the ending and who the "bad guy" is after maybe 15 minutes into the movie. The chemistry between the professor and his lover is nonexistent and watching William Forsythe deliver those horrible lines was painful. All the main characters are dull and I really didn't care about them, so even the cutscenes of the killings couldn't change that. I considered turning this disaster off, but I managed to watch it to the oh-so-surprising end so I can honestly say that it was one of the most boring movies I saw this year.

Saw this movie at the Big Apple Film Fest - the fact that it even got into this festival was to me a reason to see the film because they are very selective. I was not disappointed, which is why I can't really understand some of these nasty comments. I really liked the story and the twist and it kept me interested with all the subplots. My take on the film is that everyone can be connected in some ways - through the internet - like six degrees of separation kind of thing - thought it was clever. I saw this on the big screen and the other thing that impressed me was that for a low budget film it really looked like a MUCH higher budgeted film - kudos to the director on that one. Also, the fact that Gabriele Anwar is in the film doesn't hurt!

I first heard about iMurders about a year ago when I saw the poster image. Which is awesome, very eye catching. I instantly added the film to my myspace and facebook fan list (funny since the plot of the movie revolves around "facespace"). I met the director at Project Twenty1's Film a thon in Philly, he is a great guy and very supportive of other's independent films. The film is filled with talented not quite A list actors (some used to be A list). The cast did a great job and you really got to know the full set of characters. I enjoyed the thriller and horror aspects of the film. It is really tough to bring suspense into the feel of a film, especially on a low indie style budget. I was pulled into the story and was waiting for what happened next. I have seen many indie thriller and horror films, most are laughable at best. This film really stands out compared to other indie thrillers. I hope the filmmakers are noticed from this film and have the chance to keep making great films. Check out the film and give some support to the indie filmmakers.

There are not many independent films out there that can truly entertain like iMurders can. In a time when most of the big budget film companies continue to only put out repetitive, boring, played-out projects or badly done remakes, iMurders stands true to its name. With the combination of its awesome cast and incredibly gripping story, this film keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more and more of what's going on... making you finally say "WHOA!" once you reach the surprising end. iMurders is beyond a doubt one of the best independent thrillers out there and most DEFINITELY worth watching at the cinema and/or buying when released on DVD. Props to the cast and crew for the awesome work in finally making a film with a fresh, original story unlike anything the bigger film companies couldn't think up. iMurders simply rocks!

I saw iMurders at the Chicago Horror festival where some of the cast and crew was in attendance and director Robbie Bryan was awarded the best feature length picture of the festival. iMurders is about seven friends who are members of a chat room on FaceSpace, a combination of Facebook and Myspace, one of their number is a Hollywood special effects artist with a flare for the theatrical and every month he invents a new game for them to play. When they start playing his latest game members of the chatroom start turning up dead, and in gruesome ways. While none of the murders is especially explicit there is a fair amount of gore but most of the shock is supplied by quick edits and what you think you may see. I don't think it will disappoint enthusiasts of the genre. The casting is also outstanding. William Forsthye stars and his voice and his presence on screen is a sinister menace. Another casting coup is Charles Durning with a small role as a psychiatrist. And Tony Todd of Candyman fame extends his horror credentials here, but not as the murderer (that would be too obvious!) plays FBI agent Washington, who is trying to solve the mystery before the entire chatroom is murdered.

Well, what can I say about iMurders? Nothing good I'm afraid. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies, but I decided to give it a try. The plot about some mysterious game played by a bunch of uninteresting people who later get killed is simply dull. And adding "i" to the title won't help much. The acting was terrible and so was the script. You don't have to be a psychic to guess the ending and who the "bad guy" is after maybe 15 minutes into the movie. The chemistry between the professor and his lover is nonexistent and watching William Forsythe deliver those horrible lines was painful. All the main characters are dull and I really didn't care about them, so even the cutscenes of the killings couldn't change that. I considered turning this disaster off, but I managed to watch it to the oh-so-surprising end so I can honestly say that it was one of the most boring movies I saw this year.

iMurders is a film about a small group of cyber-friends that meet-up once a week for an online chat. In their voice/video/text chats, the host (a special effects artist) chooses a game to play that lasts all month long. The winner of the final round gets a prize from the host's memorabilia collection. But being iMurders, things obviously go a lot further than that premise. The month's game is supposed to be a Survivor style game, in which chat members are "knocked off" one by one for saying the pre-determined code word. However, the host of this game is very quickly incapacitated, and the self-ordained replacement host decides the new rules of staying alive in this game. This film struck me with the number of character actors present... it runs the gamut from Tony Todd and Frank Grillo to the wonderful Gabrielle Anwar. However, even though those names get first billing, the spotlight here is placed on the less recognizable actors, such as Terri Colombino (the lead in iMurders). Ironically, Colombino bears a striking resemblance to Diane Lane, star of the similarly-themed (if much worse film) Untraceable. So, with all of these familiar actors finally getting their due, does the film do them justice? For the most part, it actually does! The plot is very interesting, and more interweaving than it seems to be in the first hour of the movie. There haven't been many good movies made about the dangers of "cyber-friends" that you've never met in person. And while the line-writing struggles to express any character's knowledge of the internet (multiple characters stiffly insert the word "computer" in front of other technology-based words, just in case you don't know what a chat room or keyboard is), ultimately the plot matters more than the believability. By the end, you only have so many options for who the chat room killer may be, and the reveal came way out of left field. It doesn't explain everything in the end though, which leaves you hanging with some plot gaps (such as the FBI's immediate knowledge of the chat room... the FBI didn't even know how to stop 9/11 from happening, so you can't tell me they caught on to the chat room the second its visitors started becoming victims), but I can forgive some things ultimately because the rest of the movie makes up for it easily.

Saw this movie at the Big Apple Film Fest - the fact that it even got into this festival was to me a reason to see the film because they are very selective. I was not disappointed, which is why I can't really understand some of these nasty comments. I really liked the story and the twist and it kept me interested with all the subplots. My take on the film is that everyone can be connected in some ways - through the internet - like six degrees of separation kind of thing - thought it was clever. I saw this on the big screen and the other thing that impressed me was that for a low budget film it really looked like a MUCH higher budgeted film - kudos to the director on that one. Also, the fact that Gabriele Anwar is in the film doesn't hurt!

Good title. Innovative concept. Good story. Multiple suspects. Great cast. The idea takes off on the weird intimacy that is Internet chat rooms. Something I've always found kind of fascinating. People will bond incredibly in such places and confide their deepest desires, share their darkest secrets, and feel closer to people in the real world and in their real life at times in both chat rooms and on these big internet reality worlds and games. But they don't REALLY know any of them. I like how this film reminds them of that, shattering that illusion of intimacy and reminding us that the real and cyberworld co-exist together and can bleed into each other. I could've done with a slightly clearer plot and a little less jumping between characters. I also never really understood the game at the center. And don't go in expecting a huge production value film. But for a neat little horror movie with great actors, it's good times.

Detail is what seems to be missing from this type of film. If it has the detail then it's so good, but if it doesn't have detail as is the case of this film, I spend my time looking for faults that the writers missed. When the cop is asked what kind of car was driven and he says I don't remember. My first thought was, "Now what cop misses big details like that?". Film is just bad. I've seen William Forsythe do a much better job of acting, but given he was following a directors direction with a crap script his lack of performance is understandable. For the most part Terri Colombino is one of the players that given what she had to work with did a pretty good job. I guess that the biggest disappointment was that the fake land lady never did do a * scene in the film. I looked like she had the rack to set a world record!