Cradle of Fear
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Movie Reviews of Cradle of Fear
Movie Review: Flawed but fun british bloodbath
Summary: 3 Stars
Cradle of Fear is a shot-on-video cheapie containing bad acting, poor special effects and lots of graphic gore. It also serves as somewhat of a vehicle for singer Dani Filth of the world's leading black metal band Cradle of Filth. Britain is a country that although very prominent in horror litterature, seems to be surprisingly devoid of quality modern-day horror films. In fact I haven't heard of any aside from 28 days later and the Hellraiser films, so I was eager to give this one a try. The film is a collection of 4 shorts interconnected together by a similar premise. A crazed hypnotist is handed a life sentence after it was found that he used his hypnotising powers to lure children, kill them and then eat them. Not content to simply rot away in jail, he calls upon his son ("The Man" played by Dani Filth) to dispatch the relatives of those who had a hand in incarcerating him. In the first story, a young woman picks up Filth at a goth club and brings him to her place. After a weird night of subliminal [intercourse], the woman wakes up feeling physically changed. As she walks the streets downtown, she is able to see what the average person can not, that some people among the crowd have horns for ears and are in fact demons (a similar premise to John Carpenter's "They Live"). She soon comes to the horrific realization that she herself is now among the undead. My personal favourite story is "The Sick Room", where an office worker obsesed with surfing porn sites stumbles upon an interactive snuff web site where "You are the Killer". The outrageously expensive website consumes the man until he is forced to be way more involved with "The Sick Room" than he would like to be.
From the opening scene where Filth walks into an alleyway and dispatches a couple of thugs trying to rob him, you can see in what this direction this film is going. ... No doubt many people will be offended by this movie and anyone looking for a cohesive storyline better look elsewhere. The gore is beyond belief. It would be easy to slam this film for its horid acting and laughable special effects (the car crash the most obvious example) but that would be beyond the point. This is not meant to be horror in the traditional sense, this is meant to be trash cinema and good trash cinema this is, delivering tons of laughs and creative gore effects.
The soundtrack fits the mood perfectly, a pounding industrial and black metal score laced with EBM and darkwave sounds.
As for Dani Filth's "acting", it is practically non-existent. Filth pretty much serves two purpose only; to stand around like a boogeyman and to administer gruesome deaths. He never utters a word throughout the entire movie, except in one gruesome scene where he sacrifices a cat as part of a satanic ritual. At least he does do a good job looking intimidating, just don't expect any acting. Think of it more as him playing his part in another Cradle of Filth rock video.
Despite the innumerable artistic flaws, Cradle of Fear is definitely great fun. I never found myself bored throughout the film. I would recommend this for fans of the Creepshow films looking for something gorier. I do think the British critic's blurb on the front of the DVD's box is a little on the extreme side of things however. In yet another spin-off of an old Stephen King quote he says about the film and its director: "I have seen the future of horror: His name is Alex Chandon". While I did find the film entertaining in a trashy kind of way, if a movie like Cradle of Fear really is to be the future of horror then us genre fans might be in for some trouble...
Movie Review: A decent shot on video horror
Summary: 3 Stars
The first things people who watch this will notice is that this movie is shot on video(maybe due to not having alot of money to make it). It looks a little like a horror soap opera. Now on to the film itself. It stars Dani Filth(from the band cradle of filth) as a demon who goes around killing for his father who is in jail for multiple murders. The acting in this movie ranges from really bad to just average. The gore and effects are pretty well done with a few exceptions(watch the dolls get thrown from the car crash scene to see what i mean,among others). Plenty of blood,guts and nudity to go around. Not the best horror out there but you could do alot worse then this movie. It is a fun ride while it last just dont expect a masterpeice of horror cinima. I got the feeling if the director wouldve had more money to work with this movie would be an easy 5 star horror. Dani Filth was not as bad as i thought he would be.Movie Review: Stunning! But Not Shot on Film...
Summary: 3 Stars
I really really like this flick. But it is NOT a film. It is not shot on film and therefore is a very effective episodic horror genre piece shot on what looks like high definition video and digital video.The effects are great. It has a really awesome aura about it and the gore is way over the top and fun. However, this presentation would be 100 times better shot on film. The trailer makes it look like it is in fact shot on film but when watching it the constant switching between video textures is quite annoying.
But I gotta say, the flick is really fun, gory, twisted. It would be all these things and more if it had a better score and had been filmed.
But saying all that I really love it ultimately. But I can tell that it would have scared me out of my wits had the presentation been altered.
Movie Review: Could Have Added more money to this
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been a fan of Cradle of Filth for some time now and since I've watched their videos I kept thinking what would a movie starring the awsome charecter of Dani Filth be like? Well I didn't have to wait for very long for this to come out. Once I watched I sadly had to say I was disappointed from the first half-hour. It felt very low budget and although dani's presence is amazing the rest of the cast really [are substandard]! But once the story of the guy with the missing leg starts things start getting better. More dialogue and better actors are presented and dani's presence because better every moment. With a few nice twist and one of the best endings I've ever seen this movie prooved it was worth the wait although they could of added more production money that could have made it an A class movie!Movie Review: Seriously, what else could you have expected?
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read the other reviews where people have ragged on this film for it being low budget and whatnot. Well, in my opinion, that's exactally what it was meant to be. When they made it, they totally knew it wasn't Oscar-worthy or anything. I bought this because I'm a major Cradle of Filth fan, not because I expected some amazing quality film. And for all it's worth, I found Cradle of Fear well....enjoyable. It was twisted and sick, and went places with the gore that a big-screen movie normally wouldn't at times, but that's what made it so great. I think that it pretty much holds its own, and is just what you'd expect from a B-movie. If you like Cradle of Filth, or b-movies, this film is perfect for you. Otherwise, don't bother.