[Fearmakers]
Plot:Two old friends team up with a woman to solve her sister's murder - and stop a vengeful, murderous ghost.

Cast:Debbie Rochon, Timo Rose, Joe Davison, Andre Reissig, Andreas Pape, Thomas Kercmar, Manoush, Sabrina Brencher, Tanja Karius.

My Thoughts:Never quite gets there.

Review:"Fearmakers" follows a woman named Sarah (Rochon) who's sister is murdered in Germany. So she decides to trek there to track down her killer and solve the mystery of what happened to her. But in order to do that, and also solve the mystery of the strange, terrifying, recurring nightmares she's been having...she needs help. So when she calls one of her friends and tells him she's headed to Germany, he offers her his help, along with the help of two supernatural experts who are skilled in the areas of dealing with the spirit world.

But while there, Sarah discovers that there's a supernatural force at work which is bent on killing it's victims in gruesome fashion, and now that Sarah has gotten close...it has it's sights set on her and her partners. "Fearmakers" starts out well enough, but the film slowly dissolves into alot of bad areas. It's an indie, there's no doubt about that. The film looks very throwback 80's-ish, which is fine....but you can tell by the sets and locations that it's a cheapie....which again is fine.

But most cheapies that go straight to DVD have to try twice as hard to get noticed half as much so to speak. This film does that in the first ten minutes but from there on, it goes down hill. First off, the movie has a very awesome opening scene, where a guy his ripped in half and then shot full of lead by the vengeful ghost. And for a cheapie, it's done very well from an effects point of view. But the movie, which has such an effective opening scene...never seems to capitalize enough on what it started out with.

It hits you with this amazing, grusome opening scene....and then after that it's just a whole lot of nothing. The ghost even takes a vacation through most of the movie, killing as far as I counted....no more than 6 people...if that many. And yet this ghost according to the narrative of the story, is supposed to be a vengeance spirit which has meshed with Sarah's sister and now needs her to find a way to free her sisters soul of this spirit. But it doesn't really do much damage at all.

When it does kill, it's brutal....but most of the time the film doesn't even include the ghost. Instead, it plays up the drama and chracter aspects highly. Which works when Debbie Rochon is on screen, but not when everyone else is. The blood and gore are great in the death scenes, but there's just not enough of it. And while I can certainly be entertained by supernatural horror movies that rely on psychological scares, when the narrative is a vengeance spirit, it should be alot more aggresive than it was.

Despite all of those flaws though, like I said...Debbie Rochon's performance is good as always. It amazes me that she's never been allowed to break that Hollywood glass ceiling. Whether it's an indie, or a decently budgeted straight-to-dvd horror film, she always brings her A game. And it was alos nice to see a horror film set in Europe rather than in America, a change of scenery can be refreshing every now and then.

But overall, I felt this film really had a chance to bring it, but it just never quite got there. The scares weren't there, the intensity was lacking in some areas, the dialogue was not very good at all, and the comedy didn't work either. Plus all in all, there was far too much talk in this movie, and not enough gritty horror elements. The ending of the film also kind of leaves one not very impressed or happy in the least, and when a film cannot finish strong....then it's pretty much a sunk ship. "Fearmakers" had some good ideas and made a good attempt at a few things, but for the most part it just doesn't deliver.

Positives:The opening scene, Debbie Rochon's performance, the euro-setting.

Negatives:Too much talking and not enough scares or thrills, the film drags in some areas because the dialogue isn't that good, not very good performances by the supporting cast, not enough blood and gore.

Overall:Two out of four stars.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)