Talon Falls

After reading some bad reviews, I have to say it wasn't that bad. It was quite decent for a low budget production.

'Talon Falls' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Talon Falls' is very weak, with a plethora of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a couple of decent, even good, qualities in 'Demon Inside'. Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky and there are a few decent shots here (though outweighed by the rest of the production values looking cheap). Best thing about 'Talon Falls' is the opening, which was attention grabbing and kept me hooked. Which is why it is such a shame that 'Talon Falls' went downhill so drastically. Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the histrionic and stiff acting. Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace goes to a standstill after the promising opening and drags on forever, never recovering. The second half is interminable. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A lot of 'Talon Falls' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical, irritating and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending finishes the film on an incomplete and confused whimper. The whole of 'Talon Falls' felt unfinished but especially so at the end where it just ends with too much left hanging in the air. There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show the horror of the subject. Not helped by that the gore looks cheap and comes over as gratuitous in placement and the torture elements go well overboard on the shock value and it jars. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is pretty leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it, and the music doesn't really fit. Concluding, very weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

You know a movie is bad when the cast has no profile pics at all.

A Solid Indie Horror Film! I was entertained, horrified (like had to look away quite a few times) and enjoyed every minute of it! First of all, the production value is incredible. Based on look & sound this feels like a film that came from a Lionsgate or Blumhouse... when in fact it's the real indie deal. The performances were good and I have to give a shout to this creepy Gas station attendant who killed it.. sometimes the small roles stand out and his was a definite favorite. "Are you looking for something to Doooo???" Just go in for the fun and gore of it.. and you will be entertained!

People being tortured to death in a haunted house while unsuspecting visitors watch through glass thinking it's a show, and all the people being killed can think to scream is "Help me please!" over and over and over. Heck, i'd laugh too if I was peeking through the glass at them. Why not scream "This isn't a show, it's real! Call the police!"---but no---they only scream "Help me please!" lol. It's silly script writing because people wouldn't act like that in that kind of situation. The rest of this film is just as lame and nothing that hasn't been seen before. I don't even think there's a story here---it's just random people being tortured and killed. I miss the days when people made horror films for intelligent viewers, but in today's dumbed down world, this passes as entertainment. I don't mind torture * flicks, but between gore scenes i'd like to have a story somewhere and maybe toss in some character development and good acting. Mindless teens screaming over and over "Help me please!" can get boring and makes you want to see them slaughtered just to shut them up. Give me someone to root for.

It's a rip off of Funhouse Massacre, but it's still enjoyable. The music definitely elevates it significantly. If you haven't checked out Mr. Strange yet, you definitely need to give them a listen. This movie is free on Prime right now, so if your options are watching a repeat or this, give Talon Falls a try.

So I will rate this movie much like how I rate all movies...for what it is and sells. This is supposed to be a horror / splatter movie. It is not good enough to watch it again...it is not bad enough to watch it for fun...it is just...meh...the story was not origina!,but this is fine for me...the acting was bad...but I could live with that as well...but for a horror/splatter movie,stealing so many elements from other movies of its kind...one could at least expect some more blood,more Gore,more imagination in the tortures,and at least a bit more tension!the "victims" either get caught too easily,or escape too easily!even the "twist" in the end is expected!in a nutshell...I don't regret seeing it,but there definitely are greater movies of this kind,and one can waste his time watching something else.

What a setup! This is a bit like "having your cake and eating it, too", but with snuff sales. Collect money at the door, use "outsider" patrons for free labor/victims then sell the tapes on the black market. Wow!!! My eyeballs feasted on sets, costumes and "horror colors". It felt made by one of the Big Film companies. I had no problem with the acting except for the gas station dude; I thought he was a bit overcooked and I needed subtitles for his lines. But his place in the flick was a necessary part of the organization's business model. Alas, I can't handle non-stop screaming, so at the halfway mark I started "skipping stones" to the ending which was pretty good. I didn't see the dog scene, but I respect the others' statements and support the idea of investigation.

Some of the scenes were cool... but I couldn't get over the severe lack of imagination for story. EXTREMELY FLAT!! The haunt was cool, the idea was OK... but the beginning SCREAMED "House of 1000 rip off". I met the guy at the gas station the other night. Someone even asked "Is there something wrong with that guy?" Kept asking us if we wanted our picture with him. I'm sure he may be a nice guy, but he was annoying Sunday night. I rated a 3 / 10 and I was feeling generous. Much of the acting was bad... even for a low budget horror film. But the idea of the torture setup etc was pretty neat. We finished the film but we won't be adding it to our shelf.

Heading out for a road-trip together, a group of friends out for a camping trip get detoured to a local amusement park along the way, where they are captured by the organizers of the carnival and kept to be used as unwitting and unnoticed victims in the event, forcing them to try to escape the group. For the most part, this one was a solid enough effort. The initial start here comes from them arriving at the funhouse attraction in the amusement park which is rather fun and chilling. Starting off with the usual carnival attractions as they tour the maze filled with ghouls and deformities popping out of the darkness to scare people, messing with the lights going out constantly and featuring plenty of blaring noises constantly around them, there's some cheesy fun with the setup that allows for their shock at the scenes of the kidnapped victims they see being tortured along the way which they don't realize are real people being tortured. The nature of it is effective and gives this a strong introduction to the later scenes inside the park. Once they get kidnapped and held captive, there's a strong sense of brutality that comes about here due to the torture that's inflicted. The scenes of them being held down in the steel cages with the guard dog and then taken out to be put on display in the carnival attraction adds a wholly disturbing tension to the scenes as they try to wait out a plan of action to move forward and escape. The plan is a logical enough endeavor with the general idea of distraction and ambush providing this with plenty of action and logical enough twists to showcase the organization to be right there on their tails and delivering several solid and outright thrilling scenes of them chasing each other through the back-alleys of the carnival. With some great gore as well, these here make for a lot to like here. There are several big flaws with this one. One of the main issues is the fact that the entire operation makes no sense how it's operating as long as it has been going through victims the way they are. The idea here is that every one of the shows they put on within the community has been done with the group torturing and killing victims they've grabbed along the way from the pile of corpses left in the woods nearby which makes no sense how they've dumped bodies in the area with little regard to their discovery. That also dives into the cliched nature of the film as there are so many scenes and setups that emerge here taking its cues from other efforts that it diminishes the suspense heavily, especially the ending twist which doesn't come off as any kind of shocking action at all. These here are what hold this one down. Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.