Reviewed by James Whittington
Stars Crispin Glover, Brad Dourif, Kip Pardue, Jeffrey Combs, Joshua John Miller,
Bijou Phillips, Garz Chan, Amina Munster, The Suicide Girls | Written by Zach Chassler
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 97 minutes | Directed by Jeremy Kasten
Once more Hollywood scrapes the barrel in search of movies to remake ... but, for once, comes up with a piece that actually does more than just retread the ideas from the original and creates something rather wonderful — if bloody gory!
Montag the Magician (a truly stunning Glover) is a master illusionist and a respected crowd-pleaser. His act basically contains a set-piece where he picks a female member of the audience and then murders her in the most brutal way possible. But here’s the clever bit: each female leaves the theatre perfectly intact. Ta-da! But soon the volunteers are found dead the next day — bearing the same markings from the show — and a cop is soon on Montag’s trail.
This gore-filled romp is based on the 1970 movie of the same name from slash-meister Herschell Gordon Lewis. That was a pretty ropey yet fun movie, and this one manages to capture its tongue-in-cheek feeling. Glover was born to play roles like this, and anyone who saw him in Simon Says or Willard will agree. He has a strong on-screen charisma that makes him a sort of cheaper version of Johnny Depp (that’s not meant to sound as derogatory as it does).
The film itself does a fine job of updating the idea, but be warned — it is gruesome. In fact, it is so downright fierce that it will not appeal to casual horror fans. For gore-lovers though, this does exactly what it says on the tin. Add to this a lot of naked flesh courtesy of the Suicide Girls (stunning ladies adorned with tattoos and piercings) and you have a rather interesting and different movie. What lets it down is some of the more wooden acting from the supporting cast, which goes against what Glover builds up — he doesn’t try to lampoon Montag’s characterisation, instead giving him depth and bizarrely makes him very real. A gruesome treat for people who are tired of lame and uninspired horror remakes
EXTRAS *** Outtakes and deleted scenes; a making-of featurette; a featurette that looks at the special effects; a featurette called From Volunteer to Victim: The Suicide Girls; the theatrical trailer.