Cradle of Fear

Here's the whine. :)

I knew before viewing that this would be an over the top film. Between Danni Filth from Cradle Of Filth and the Hammeresque setting I expected a schlocky gory horror film. I was wrong, very, very, very, very wrong!!! To sum it up the film is terrible and a let down in many ways.

First and foremost have to be the splatter effects. You don't need a huge budget or powerful CGI systems to create convincing effects. Look at several low budget productions like Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond', Dario Argento's 'Suspiria', or George A. Romero's 'Dawn Of The Dead'. All three of those films were low budget productions staring either low rent or no name actors. Yet all three manage to set up a tense atmosphere, gross us out with exploding heads, ripped out intestines, and a multitude of grisly slashed throats, and allow us to suspend our disbelief for 90-120 minutes.

Now lets look at Cradle Of Fear (Or low budget wanna-be music video as I call it). Danni Filth can't act to save his life. I knew within the first 5 minutes of watching the film that it was going to be bad. This mans acting is brutally stiff and devoid of any emotion or believability. Id actually rate Tor's acting in Plan 9 From Outerspace above Danni Filth (and that's frightning). Unfortunately Danni's not the only hack in the film. I don't recall a single believable line of dialogue at any point during the movie. Characters deliver the lines like they're reading from a teleprompter. Worse yet the inspectors acting makes William Shatner's acting seem lucid and elegant.

What this film reminds me of the most are not the Hammer classics I grew up with. This tragedy reminds me of the films Troma puts out. Only I enjoy Troma films because they're supposed to be cheap and outrageously funny. Cradle Of Fear is supposed to be a dark and frightning film. Unfortunately it's not scary but laughable. Worst of all the film is far too long for its own good. At over 2 hours it's about 30-45 minutes too long for a movie with no major plot or story behind it.

Summary----

The film is low budget (not a crime as I like quite a few low budget flicks) and it shows.

The acting is stiff, unbelievable, and many times almost monotone.

The dialouge itself creates some of the poor acting. I could not imaging using the work Fu (you get the idea) as many times in one week as the inspector does in 15 minutes. As pointed out previously by another reviewer Tarintino this guy ain't. Hell Lloyd Kaufman of Troma films looks like a master compared to Chandon.

The effects are just plain bad. Prosthetics that look like they were bought at a nickel and dime store. Blood that appears black (are we killing humans or embalmed corpses), and over use of blood (the human body does not contain 50 gallons of blood, and unlike Shogun Assassin this effect is not used in an artistic manner). CGI that's reminiscent of The Last Starfighter (which looked great in it's day, but pales in comparrison to many PC games these days), and is used out of place in many instances.

Poor video quality. For a movie shot mostly at night and in the dark, it's important to use good film stock and a good low lite camera. I guess Chandon forgot that seeing the movie helps alot.

Too serious for it's own good. If I wanted to laugh I would have popped in Braindead (aka Dead Alive) or Toxic Avenger.

Rating 4/10 (and I'm being kind)

Suggestion, if you want a gore soaked movie laced with atmospheric elements of horror go out and buy the unrated edition of Lucio Fulchi's 'The Beyond'. While it's not heavy on plot, it's not the joke that Cradle Of Fear is. Should you want a more twisting gothic, yet bloody work check out some of Dario Argento's work. Suspiria, Tenebre, and Opera come to mind as some of Argentos better films, although I've yet to see one I did not like.