Sadly Over-hyped

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A Disappointing Continuation

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Baseline Killer (2008) ** (out of 4) Ulli Lommel's latest "serial killer" flick takes a look at the Baseline Killer, a Phoenix man who killed nine people while raping at least a dozen others. Since this movies release the killer was brought to justice and this movie pretty much tries to wrap the entire case into one. Here there are two killers who have eight friends locked inside a warehouse where they were partying. Soon the killers begin picking them off one by one until they decide to try and fight in order to survive. I've reviewed all of Lommel's current serial killer movies and this one here is certainly miles above the rest due in large part to the director actually trying to tell a story instead of just throwing weird images at us. The first forty-minutes are without question the best stuff I've seen from him since THE BOOGEY MAN, although some might say that's not say too much considering the movies he's made since then. This movie actually has a pretty good set up and I enjoyed the idea of all these women locked up and being stalked by (to them) unseen men. Lommel gets a few effective shots out of this but the low budget and bad acting really makes this 81-minute film drag out. The performances are all rather bland and boring and this is painfully obvious in the scenes where they're suppose to be scared and crying. The reactions on their face, which is suppose to be fear, comes off very campy and had me laughing. The budget was also a problem as I'm going to guess they didn't spend more than a few hundred thousand if that. This digital video look just makes the film look too cheap and it was hard creating any atmosphere. I'd also recommend Ulli find a new group to do the soundtracks to these films. With that said, this film is a minor comeback for the director but unless you're use to his current work I'd say you should still skip this one.

Heralded on the cover that its by the director of The Boogeyman (Ulli Lommel), which they fail to mention is a weird film from 1980 (and a strange creepy film that its), this is no where near that earlier film nor any of the recent films with the title. This is a really bad, worst of the year bad, film about some guy hunting women in a furniture store after hours (After a five minute out from left field sequence about two guys killing a woman in a closet).Its a poorly made film with blood that looks like red paint, performances that go nowhere and logic that doesn't exist. Made purely to make a buck and to rip off an audience this is 75 minute waste of your time. Avoid this one like the plague.

Another gem from Ulli Lommel. Taking the name (but nothing else) from the real life killings, the film opens with the beautiful Jacquelyn Aurora tied up and being killed by a couple of weirdos. (I'd love to see more of Jacquelyn, but other than the Lommel films, there doesn't seem to be much of her around and she's ignoring my MySpace friend request...) Anyway, we then get a narration and text about the "Baseline Killings." We then go to some sort of gathering, there about 8 or so women have gotten together for some sort of reunion. And one of them is Jacquelyn Aurora, but this time wearing a really bad blonde wig! And the girls talk, and talk, and talk some more. Finally, it all starts! The lights go out and some guy starts saying (over a loudspeaker, maybe?), "Hello, bitches and Ho's! The baseline man is back! Are you scared?" while they scream. Then the lights come on, there is one less girl there. The remaining girls then all walk together around where they stumble on the murdered body of the missing girl. Then they all go back and sit down and talk (and talk some more) about how they should get out or they'll be killed. Then the lights go out again, and the cycle is repeated again and again.The actors are all trying hard here, and the killers are suitably creepy and the women attractive. All the Lommel trademarks are here – long scenes with improvised dialog, repeating set pieces, weird effects, and incomprehensible editing decisions. But it's the editing that makes "Baseline Killer" stand out. Because Lommel and his editor have decided to pioneer a new type of editing – the "mirror edit." You'll be watching a scene and in the middle it will switch to a mirror image of the scene. Then back. So half-way through the scene, someone on the right will now be on the left, and vice versa. Like they took the section of film and flipped it over. Very, very weird. Happens many times, and in the middle of normal scenes, you'll be watching two people talk and then POW! They're flipped. Really, really bizarre.Look, it's a Ulli Lommel film. You probably know what you're getting. But you should check it out just for editing to see if anybody can figure out what Ulli was thinking