Methodic tells the story of a boy who becomes demonically possessed by an ominous presence known as "The Dollman". Forced to obey his dark half, the boy ultimately murders his parents on his birthday and is sentenced to a life under a microscope at the state mental hospital. But evil cannot be contained so easily.
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Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
I am a fan of well made, low budget horror films, this is not one of them. For starters, the acting fluctuates between mediocre and terrible, the camera work is pretty bad as well and there is not really a scary moment in this film. Their are also so many unrealistic things about this film its not funny. For one, this kid of about 10 goes into the mental institution for 20 yrs, when he escapes he breaks into a house and finds a sewing machine in the closet and somehow knows how to make his own costume, then he kills the girl in the house, finds the keys to the car and drives off. I guess he was taught these things subliminally since he was unresponsive for 20 yrs. Many of people in the beginning of the film prior to the 20 yrs are the same people after showing no signs of age, I think the special effects in this film are limited to a couple of tubes of vampire blood that you can get at K-Mart. The highlight of the film was a lesbian sex scene between a decent looking blonde & a Miss Piggy looking brunette, and that wasn't even very good. Do yourself a favor and pass this one by.
I thought I should edit my initial review because, while I had and now continue to firmly believe that this film's score is being bumped up by people associated with the cast and crew, I didn't think it was fair to rate it without finishing the film. And now I know, instead of just suspecting, that this film stays just as awful as it starts. As I am forced to leave at least 1 star I will now dedicate this star to the actor playing the police chief, as he was the only one that didn't seem to be headed for a career in porn.Why is this film so terrible, well, beyond the aforementioned acting torture (worst of all was the lesbian I would say), this film is unoriginal. It starts off less as an homage to Halloween and more like a rip off. From there it spirals into Fallen, along with ripping off ideas from the Exorcist. Now I know I've seen that exact scene with the fake seizure before, but I can't place which film it was.Now I've read the other reviews. So before anyone gets all huffy, I realize that the director was planning on a Halloween remake, although I doubt the timing with Rob Zombie is the only reason he wasn't able to do it. I can't imagine any film student choosing to do a remake of one of the most well respected horror films as their first feature ... especially knowing that they only have the budget for a 10 day shoot.To me the film reeked of laziness, both in idea and execution. The lighting was awful. The sound was awful. The dialogue was bland and often poorly delivered. Even in the first half hour it seemed as though there were about 10 minutes that should have been trimmed in editing to help with pacing and also because they didn't do anything for the story. And it didn't seem like the director strayed far from the campus with extras and small parts... a mental hospital that is only for the 20 something set? This film is just sloppy and not really original.I've seen films in the 48 hour film festival that seemed to have more thought and care put into them than this. Maybe it could have made it as a short, but it doesn't have enough meat for a feature.
Let me start by saying what a cool movie this was for being made for practically nothing. Chris is such a talented director and to be able to make a film of this kind of caliber for next to nothing is an achievement onto it's own. Methodic is chock full of wonderful homages to John Carpenter's Halloween and even James Cameron's Terminator. Both of which are favorites of mine. The script is very rich in dialog and the humor, though limited is still fun and quirky. I got to see a private screening of Methodic last week and after talking with the director I just really felt it necessary to post something. I'm even more amazed that he got THE sheriff Brackett in his film. I'm talking about Charles Cyphers. It was a real treat seeing him play a hard ass cop. And if there is a sequel I want to see him come back for sure. The Dollman was such a cool villain. Now I don't want to give much away. You really need to see this film for yourself, but when he goes after Lana in that climatic chase I was cheering. Not that I wanted her to die, but just the energy of the killer combined with the rock score got me all excited. And the best part, the Dollman RUNS! I was not expecting that. Usually the killers walks everywhere and pops up randomly, but not this guy. He jumps off roofs, smashes down doors, bursts through closets and RUNS! Oh and his escape from the hospital was great too. It was very..... METHODIC. LOL. All in all I will say this movie was so fun for me and brought back a lot of those classic things I loved about horror. I only hope I can make a movie as cool as this some day.
I was really impressed with this film overall. It left you wanting more and eager to see the sequel after viewing it. The acting and story were superb. The film progressively got better and better as it went along. Now before you say it's similar to Halloween, it is. The director, Chris R. Notarile states that Halloween was an inspiration for this film and originally he was hoping to do a remake of it. Which Rob Zombie beat him to. Anyway, Chris R. Notarile's new horror icon, The Dollman is on a whole other level though and nothing like Michael Myers. But, the Dollman will scare you just as much if not more! Also, the movie is totally original in the sense that it's the world's first "Basher" film, ever! Now that's impressive.The director really got some talented actors for this film which included: Brandon Slagle, Stephen Muzzonigro, Niki Notarile, Charles Cyphers, Tony Dadika, Dan Werzinger, Thomas Daniel, and Christine Allanach. All of who portrayed their characters really well and helped bring the director's vision to life. The lovely Suzi Lorraine and Damien Colletti also portrayed their characters well in their scenes but had smaller roles. Oh, in case you didn't know, Charles Cyphers was Sheriff Brackett in Halloween 1 & 2 so it was great seeing him in this horror film. Wish he was in it even more.I must say though, out of all the actors I was most impressed with newer actor, Stephen Muzzonigro, who played the Nicholas Matthews / Dollman. His looks behind the mask and movement were great. Then when he came out from behind the mask, he was a totally different character! I also thought he could of played detective Colin McDermott really well (based on his performance outside of the mask). Not taking anything away from Brandon Slagle's performance in playing that role.This was the director's first full length film. That in itself is very impressive considering how good this film turned out. Looking forward to seeing more of his work or the sequel. Methodic's ending definitely leads it into a great sequel where it will answer more questions about the mysterious Dollman too!