Boris Arkadin is a horror film maker. His pregnant wife was brutally murdered by a Manson-like gang of hippy psychopaths during the 1960s. He becomes a virtual recluse - until years later he directs his own snuff inspired movies. He invites actors to take part in an audition at his country manor house - blurring the lines of what is real and what is fiction.
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Reviews
i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
This film is a huge disappointed. It's like Bernard Rose tried to make something disgusting yet weirdly artistic and failed. The film had so much potential, but the execution was poor. It could've been thrilling, but it feels too distant for the audience to actually fear for the characters. It leaves you with the kind of confusion that doesn't feel as good as an amazing plot twist that just comes out of nowhere and changes everything. It's the kind of confusion that just leaves you wondering, what did I just see, and not in a good way. I just expected something a lot different. It's kind of like with Natural Born Killers - a simple plot that could be a great movie, but the filmmakers make it too artistic and deep and ruining the simplicity.
"From the Director of Candyman" was what convinced me to buy this film, and also the fact that it stars Jeroen "Georgi Koskov" Krabbé. I'm not sure what I expected from this film and I'm still unsure as to what it was that I actually saw. Throughout the entire film I was confused as to whether I was watching a work of pure genius or the worst pile of excrement that I have ever seen.The film had promise but was let down by poor acting and would have benefited from a larger budget. The plot twists and turns, and stumbles and falls... However there was something about this film that I liked, I just can't put my finger on what it was. Maybe i'm just not of high enough intelligence to fully understand it, or maybe it actually was just a terrible movie... I don't know. But I like not knowing. I wouldn't recommend this film to fans of 'Candyman' but i'd say its worth a watch if your into low-budget horror movies.5/10 - purely because I watched it 3 days ago and i'm still thinking about it. So it can't be that bad, right???
I have seen some terrible movies, but this definitely ranks in my top 10. Multiple award nominee, and winning actor, Jeroen Krabbé (presumably one of Hollands best ???) really outdid himself with bad acting and the most hideous "dutch-english" accent ever. Krabbé is said to be a great actor...well..I have to see his first good role yet! When the film starts we are warned that this is a REAL and GENUINE snuff movie (yeah...right...with mainstream actors...duh...) but nevertheless I thought giving it the benefit of my doubt. I wish I never did. The start of this monstrosity is very loosely based on the Tate murder by the "Manson-family" with writing on the walls etc., but if they tried to give a kind of a Mason like twist to this "movie" well, they didn't succeed...Does the acting don't make you feel sick yet, then the "killing" will absolutely do so. One of the characters is killed in a van by 3 young girls ("Teeth" (with vampire shaped teeth...all of 'em...) "X" (coz she has an X carved between her eyes) and "Young" (coz she's young), original er ??)...don't ask me where the blood comes from...it's just THERE !!So even if you have 93 minutes of your precious time to spare, don't, no really DON'T waste 'em on this piece of rubbish !!!
The title of this movie gives the impression of something dark, tight, psychological and on the very edge of acceptable cinema. I'd say the last statement is most definitely true, it is on the edge of acceptable cinema, because it contains mediocre acting, a confused and torn script, and no conviction.It's a shame because there is a message in there, and the lead character does manage to say it in no uncertain terms during the movie, and that's because he has to. There's really no other way to get to the moral of this tale through the confusion.The second of the opening scenes remind me of the British Television advertisement for a certain directory assistance number, cheesy 70's outfits, hairstyles and moustaches. The section is supposed to portray events in the past, and from the beginning you can see the poor acting. There is much overplaying to the camera, and scenes of actors looking as though they're trying to find something to do to fill the time until the Director yells cut.The first of the scenes is equally as bad and amusing, but then we are expected to see that as it is supposed to be an old cheesy horror movie. Some grounding an basis for the entire movie, but also to show us the level of gore that we're going to be seeing. There's nothing slick or costly about the effects, they are cheap and cheerful, and although some might be deemed shocking, there's nothing really off-putting in the movie.From these opening segments we return to the present day to find the ex-laird of Glenbogle (another British Television event) is indulging in some rather frisky behaviour, obviously in a desperate attempt to try and shed his previous TV nice guy image. It fails though, and throughout this movie he sticks out like a sore thumb.The script is so confused that scenes just seem to happen out of nowhere. For instance suddenly we're all outside and there's a huge audience of onlookers watching events. This from the previous premise where we were all in a house being filmed by webcams. This is probably the best example of the confusion we were shown and felt.It attempts, from an early stage, to address some issues on the Internet, freedom of speech, the fact that anyone can broadcast anything online. Yet it stumbles over them, readdresses them through the script, and doesn't really say much about them by the end of the movie. In fact at the end it seems to take a totally different tract altogether, and doesn't seem to have been about anything at all. Very confusing.Add to all this that it's filmed poorly and seems to have been thrown together editing wise, and it's an altogether awful movie. IMDb lists this as still in Post Production, and perhaps we were treated to an early cut at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2005, who knows. It was just bad.There were two moments though that actually got my feelings moving. One was when the ex-laird Alistair Mackenzie sits down at a computer while his girlfriend is away for the evening, starts a can of lager, and pulls up Google with a search for some porn. By the time he's on his third can you can see the searches getting worse. This actually raised a good laugh from the audience, and was something you could instantly connect to.The second was a stabbing scene late on in the movie, a man is stabbed in the stomach, all the time you see his muscles moving and there doesn't look to be a special effect in sight. That was unnerving and is probably the only scene where you would consider the possibility that it was living up to its title.There it ends though. The female lead Lisa Enos is weak and unconvincing, and what the hell has happened to Jeroen Krabbé, his role is awful.I won't go on. There's nothing to redeem this movie bar a laugh and an awkward moment. I'd avoid like the title should have suggested.