Nice effects though.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Three junkies enter a derelict house in order to cook crystal meth. Soon they start sampling their own product and paranoia takes over. Or is there something spooky going on? Director (and DOP) Dan Mintz makes great use of the old boarded up house with its creaky floors and doors and where nary a ray of sunlight can enter. He also offers some effective jump scares, but it's the oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere which makes this surprisingly strong horror film stand out for me. I also love that it offers only a hint of the paranormal and remains ambiguous until the end.Also worth mentioning is lead Brad Hunt who can act all kinds of nervous and paranoid and really gets under your skin.

Anyone that's spent any time around tweakers will fully relate to COOKERS. I was expecting a really cheezy SOV bore-fest, but instead got a pretty damn solid mix of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM meets THE AMITYVILLE HORROR that pretty much works on all levels. For a relatively no-budget, unknown film - COOKERS surprised and impressed me...Hector and Dorena are a couple of white-trash meth-heads who are running from some thugs that they ripped off. They hole up in an abandoned house to set up a lab to cook up a whole rack o' crank. Hector's dim-witted pal Merle joins the fun to help out - and a good bit of the film is watching Hector and Dorena smoke, snort, and slam about 400 ounces of meth while Merle drinks beer and smokes a bit himself. Eventually we find that the house is haunted - add to this the increasing paranoia as Hector and Dorena's drug use escalate to ridiculous proportions - and you have a pretty tense horror film that'll make you wish you had an 8-ball handy...Seriously though - there are a lot of plus-sides to this film. The performances by the three leads are all strong and believable. The actor's who played Hector and Dorena were either addicts at one time, or REALLY did their homework - they were spot-on as a couple of skeezed out speed-freaks. Their performances rival any other actor playing the role of an addict that I've ever seen. The storyline was interesting and the mounting sense of tension was well handled. The only gripes I have were that there were a few cheezy CGI scenes that were ineffective an actually brought the realism of the situations down a notch, and there were a few spots that tended to drag a little bit - but COOKERS is the type of film where the good aspects definitely outweigh the bad. The ending was also downbeat and dark, and I dug that a lot too. I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone lookin' for a haunted house story with a "twist", and a strong message - Don't do a bunch of crank in a haunted house...I got that message loud and clear...8.5/10

"Blair Witch" was hailed as the pinnacle of ultra-low budget, ultra-small cast indie horror, but "Cookers" simply blows it out of the water. The suspense builds perfectly from start to finish in this film (both suspense between the characters and their surroundings and between the characters themselves) to an exhilarating crescendo. This movie cost next to nothing to make, yet the budget is reflected in neither the direction nor the acting. The direction may put some people off, but it so accurately captures the frenetic, drugged-out mood, that one cannot help but be drawn into the movie's very uncomfortable world. Brad Hunt is bound to start turning heads with several roles in upcoming major releases.More than being a horror ("suspense" or "terror" might be a more accurate description) it's a compelling story with good dialogue that is flawlessly delivered. There really isn't a dull moment. All in all, my only complaint about this film is its flimsy resolution--that being said, I can't recommend this movie highly enough, even to those who typically shy away from the horror genre.

I loved this movie. I loved it because it was disturbing and it cuts to the core of all our fears, touches on every insecurity. It was a wild ride that respects its audience. It forces us to think and analyze or interpret. No cliff-notes here-- it is up to you to decide for yourself what the film means, what is happening, how it affects you. The acting was superb. Each character clearly defined and sussed-out. Brad Hunt gave a strong performance, if at times, slightly exaggerated. Cyia Batten's performance was impressive, gut-wrenchingly touching and extraordinarily brave, particularly being the only female to have to stand against two, very powerful men. Patrick McGaw was unrecognizable and fantastic-- funny and tragic all at once. In my opinion, awards should be doled out here to each one of them for what they brought to the table but if I had to pick just one, I would have to pick Cyia Batten, who plays the heartbreaking Dorena. It is not easy to embody vulnerability and power at the same time and yet she appeared to do it with ease. The editing can be dizzying at times, fast paced and over-stimulating but it fit perfectly considering the nature of the demons these characters fought. It almost got you into their heads for a time. Overall, I was moved, scared, saddened, angered, overwhelmed by this movie. I couldnt get it out of my head for a long time. I hope this movie does well, because everybody should see the raw, brutal truth of drug addiction annd losing oneself to their own private demons.