We were looking for a Thanksgiving horror film and so we found our way to this god-awful mess, featuring some of the worst lighting you will ever see in a movie. The director has a single credit after this film, and I suspect it’s because nobody believes they can light a film.

The plot, such as it is, is the usual: escaped mental patient. The opening, pre-credit kill is entirely random and, um, hard to figure out (much like other kills). Apparently this guy injects PCP into his tongue and goes on rampages. Also, the actor was supposedly 23 years old when this was filmed. Google some stills of this guy. How was he 23?

It doesn’t really feel like a Thanksgiving horror film, because it’s not a nuclear family and their relatives – instead it’s this weird thing with a single dad, his two kids (wildly different in age), his girlfriend, her friend, his tenant, his girlfriend, and a business acquaintance and his girlfriend. (This is based on Wikipedia because the film barely bothers to explain how they know each other.) Nobody is particularly likeable, though at least one of the children is named Mistake. (That’s one of the gags. It’s the best one, to give you an idea of the humour in this film.)

There are two mildly creative deaths, one of which I don’t think would actually kill someone, and the other I didn’t quite understand the physics of. But everything else is just stabbing and, um, grabbing and throwing.

The whole second half of the film, you can’t really see what’s going on. This is among the worst lit films I’ve ever seen. It may be the worst lit film I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how many times I said “I can’t see what’s going on” out loud, but it was 3-4 minimum. Times I might have been laughing at this terrible movie, I was instead frustrated by the bad lighting. Not bad lighting, terrible lighting.

It’s crazy to me that there are people out there who think this movie isn’t bad. (Though, with better lighting, I probably would have given it a 3/10.)

1/10