User reviews

German director Ulli Lommel randomly emerged into the direct to video horror genre in the mid 2000's and has since then delivered the worst films anyone could ever lay their sorry eyes on. They are actually literally painful to watch where no one gains a thing from them – not even unintentional so-bad-its-good comedy. However, there is a chance that in the distant future his films will become iconic with a cult film formula growing from nothing-but-trash to weird-that-it-was-made, though it's a little unlikely for now as he is making fans of the Horror genre puzzled and confused as to how anyone can create such atrocities of cinema.

If H.P. Lovecraft were still around and saw Lommel's adaptation of The Tomb he would probably be a very sad man and never write ever again; there are just one too many directors who take his well structured stories and utterly destroy them in a demeaning manner through their saddening execution and lack of cinematic talent -- Lommel is a very unoriginal man once again he goes to prove it by creating The Tomb. An unoriginal story is fine granted successful execution, art direction, style, acting, pace – whatever works as long as it isn't in-your-face done before tripe which is exactly what The Tomb is. A major comparison one cannot pass up is the 2004 hit "Saw" with The Tomb having one too many similarities that helps this film fall into the category of either rip-off or cash-in. People are very well aware of Saw by now, the seriousness of their lives, the fact anyone can fall into the trap at any time and you can even wind up dead – whilst The Tomb is an adaptation of another medium its unoriginality is shocking in terms of cinema. Yes The Tomb is quite a seen before pile of crap with many terrible aspects about it like no other.

On top of the films unoriginality is its astonishingly terrible special effects, poor casting and acting, mind numbingly boring music, poor editing, ugly cinematography, shaky camera work that at times is as though the cameraman was drunk and oh how the list just goes on. The Tomb is so much like a home video that someone without a clue about film making could quite possibly pull off a better film that is more watchable. Even a home video can be interesting if it has something to it, something bizarre, appealing and unnatural. An example would be John Waters' Pink Flamingos – its borderline home video and has next to nothing of a budget yet still has international appeal as it's like no other movie out there. The Tomb doesn't have that. It's a prime example of just out right bad horror that hopefully will be forgotten as time goes by as it is just another shot on a camcorder horror film released straight to DVD. This film will make you psychically sad or angry – or hey, even both!

Though Ulli Lommel is a very interesting cinema figure; how anyone can make such terrible, terrible films confuses me, yet draws me to them. He is notorious, a criminal against film and yet still manages to release more than one film at least every year. As the saying goes "It's hideous, yet I cannot turn away" which somewhat summarises Lommel's work – he is so terrible yet sometimes I feel myself renting his movies just to be gobsmacked over how terrible they are. I mean, why has he directed two films based on the Zodiac Killer and released them the same year? It's so bizarre that it almost alienates me from my entire understanding and knowledge of cinema. Still, Lommel is a very bad film director and its movies like The Tomb that make this a fact more than an opinion.

First I will say that this movie is so bad, I had to stop watching after 15 minutes. The movie is basically a copycat of Saw, except that the two main characters don't seem to want to escape. They keep walking around in circles in what appears to be a warehouse. Both have been tortured and they keep finding other tortured survivors who die a few minutes later. The sound is horrible as you can barely hear what they are saying over the the loud music. Just an atrocious piece of garbage. I gave it a 1, but if we could use negative numbers, I would give it a -10. Stay away from any movies directed, written or related in any way to Ulli Lommel.

This movie has nothing to do with Lovecraft's story, at all. It's just a cheesy heap trying to ride on the success of the Saw films, using Lovecraft's name to give itself some semblance of credibility.

This one has it all- Lack of real plot, recurring scenes that have absolutely nothing to do with the story, horrible acting, and even worse music...

The ending was the most disappointing thing of all.

If this isn't on the Worst Films of All Time list, it very well should be.

If you ever see this in a video store, you'd do best to run as far away as possible.

I have to say this is the worst movie I've ever seen. Im in the military and we watched a lot of movies in IRAQ. I watched some pretty dumb stuff over there, but this movie by far is the worse my eyes have ever seen. The movie looks like it was shot with a personal camcorder. The sound is horrible, and it is not on key at times. To all out there who thinks about renting this movie, think again and don't make the mistake I made. I know you may think that not all reviews are the same and not everyone thinks the same about movies but believe me this movie is definitely dumb. Instead of renting this movie, send me the money. Afterall, you are going to waste money anyways, so you should at least send it too me and let me enjoy it.

This has nothing to do with H. P. Lovecraft's' The Tomb! In fact, this is a terrible film. A waste of my time and money. I only rented this because I am a fan of Lovecraft's' work. Very disappointed indeed. Describing it as a 'Saw rip off' is giving it too much credit, but at least then a potential viewer would have a better idea of what he/she was going to see. They must have slapped Lovecraft's name on this in order to fool people into watching this peace of junk. OK, once I get past the disappointment associated with this not being a Lovecraft story it was creepy at times, but overall this is a low budget, low quality, film. The sound and lighting are of very low quality. The script is weak, the set is unimaginative, and for the most part, the acting is atrocious. Whether or not you like this kind of film or not is your business, but don't think it's Lovecraft, or you'll be disappointed too.

I am a huge fan of Lovecraft and recently decided to re-read his works in chronological order.

"The Tomb" was the first piece of short fiction H.P. Lovecraft wrote as an adult. I would not say that the Lovecraft story is especially scary. The written work is mostly psychological horror, a ghost story with no violence to speak of. but I was furious to learn that this low-budget shlockfest was allowed to bill this film as Lovecraft's work, when it has nothing to do with the story. I mean NOTHING.

On top of that, "The Tomb" is hardly well-known to begin with, so why choose it? For me, it dishonors the memory of Lovecraft for these awful filmmakers to get away with it.

Was this because Lovecraft's works are now in the public domain, because they are? Why not just call the film "Phantom of the Opera" or "Frankenstein?" It would make just as much sense.

I never thought that I could see a horrible movie until i saw this one.

Let me first start off by saying that the cover art is false advertising and is nothing compared to the movie. The cover actually looks half decent compared to the actual movie. The back cover shows a couple of tombs lying on the floor in a warehouse, with chains hanging from the ceiling. Going into the movie, I was expecting some tombs, a warehouse, and some chains. What I got was newly furnished inexpensive tombs (not scary), a back of a grocery market, and assorted objects that are supposed to scare us.

This movie is horrible. The camera work looks like a student from high school was assigned a film directing project. The props look like they were bought at a dollar store (ripped off baby doll heads are NOT scary anymore). The sound was just really bad and I had to put subtitles just to understand what they were saying. I have never seen such bad camera-work. Let's just say that there is a actor FAKE JOGGING. He is not even trying to look as if he was jogging, he is just simply FAKE Jogging. Just plain out BAD! I hate that I actually watched this film. I was so annoyed and irritated that I felt like I was going to die after watching this movie.

I rented this DVD because it sounded better then it was.Lionsgate put it out and I am questioning their horrible taste lately.At first I was thinking yet another movie that has copied saw(but saw copied cube).I have seen a few other movies similar to saw(are you scared and unknown)which no doubt copied it's idea,but they were all watchable and had their own twist.The tomb was just boring and I wasted money on this rental and wish I could get my money back.It started out lame.When we first see the first 2 people they are injured but don't even speak to each other for the longest time.And then as the movie continues I was just bored and could not get into it.I can easily see how this bad movie went straight to video(DVD). It would be nice if these movie makers would stop making these Saw type of movies.It has been done enough.Unfortunately it won't end anytime soon and there are 2 more coming out soon that also copy this idea.

This is the worst movie i have ever seen in my entire life. It looks like it was made in someones basement with their fake blood kit left over from Halloween. Why would anyone even bother making this? They couldn't have honestly thought that it was a good movie.I could have made a better movie than this with the camera on my cell phone... Some people should just STOP TRYING! The girls fake blood and make up was coming off through out the whole movie, you couldn't hear what the characters were even saying. and the random shots through the TV were just retarded. why did we need to see some naked girl randomly during the first 30 min. it didn't make any sense. i just think that this movie is an embarrassment to all horror movies ever made. ever. in the history of all scary movies. idiots should just stop trying to make decent movies when they have to have some idea that the movie sucks at life. don't be stupid

Wow...OK. So, after reading the little feud on here, I decided I had to see this movie for myself. This movie is HORRIBLE. I stopped watching it. I strongly recommend cleaning a closet instead of watching this movie, you'll be more spooked/entertained.

It's low budget with bad acting.

Whoever is giving this "movie" (because this is totally garbage) 10s is completely incorrect and should be disregarded.

I am in no way connected to any of the other reviewers.

Simply put, this garbage is not worth watching.

Very, very, very, very BAD "MOVIE".

I have to wonder if anyone out there has actually sat through this entire movie without using the skip button or just outright turning it off. This is easily the WORST movie I have ever seen in my entire life. I'll be the first one to vote for a scary movie if we're renting or at a party, and I hate to say it, but I chose to rent this one. I agree with the first review, if I could give it negative feedback, I'd do so without hesitation. Not only do I want my rental fee back, but I want the time it took to skim the movie back! This was the worst conversion of paper to film I've ever encountered. This was an absolute abomination and to link Lovecraft's name to this piece of garbage is near blasphemy. I can't imagine anyone willingly paying to see this, knowing what they're in for, and if the time is taken to read a couple reviews, well, you should know what you're getting into.

Tomb, The (2007)

* (out of 4)

Another direct to DVD film from director Ulli Lommel, this one being credited to H.P. Lovecraft but in reality this is a major rip of the Saw films. A group of people are kidnapped and held hostage by a sadistic maniac who wants them to think about their lives as he watches and tortures them. Sound familiar? Me giving this one star is probably being way too nice but I gotta admit that the film kept me interested from one standpoint. That standpoint is me being a fan of Saw so I was constantly entertained by how the director would rip that series off. Had Lionsgate not released both films then I'm sure they would have had a major lawsuit against this movie. The performances are all bad, the story is none and the special effects are cheap. Lommel actually has more energy here than in previous works but that still doesn't equal a good movie.

This film has the worst juxtaposition since Edward D. Wood Jr's golden era. Or no, that was unfair. It's far worse. The most annoying thing with the film though, is that all the time the characters are "walking in circles" in what seems like a totally open garage or a basement, you see the daylight coming in through windows, doors and the ceiling. How about,eh, walking towards the light and see if you can get out? Or is that just to innovative? Why do everyone die just after they have stuttered some words about the last thing they remember? "I remember throwing a cigarette butt into his garden." "Oh, no wonder he went totally crazy and wants to kill you. I stepped ahead of him in the restroom line." And what about the green rubber hand and the fake giant spider on the "Puppetmaster's" desk? All through the film I tried to convince myself that this was a really bad joke. Can anyone believe that this director actually got Klaus Kinski to act in one of his films in 1985? I can't believe this world. A good tip - have a drinking game while watching this. Take a shot every time a horror film cliché comes up. You will be intoxicated within five minutes.

I'm embarrassed to say I actually watched more than 30 minutes of this film. I ended up giving it to my brother who is making films now (nothing of note) as an "Educational 'How not to make a film'" DVD.

It's a shame IMDb doesn't allow a zero or negative vote because this would surely hit -10. ;)

Basically, its kinda like Saw and some other low budget films only its been made recently (shudder). I simply don't understand how H.P.Lovecraft's estate is tolerating seeing his name upon the cover of such a lowly product.

Its basically some people locked in a warehouse flick where they have to kill each other off in order to escape the dreaded "PuppetMaster".

The plot literally makes no sense and is further compounded by the actors' inability to actually do any acting.

I got this from a DVD club and more than likely will ask them to stop carrying it because it was so bad. The only way this film 'could' have been improved is if it were loaded with mime's acting in the roles then at least then we could sit back, laugh,and know its only a joke.

The film suffers badly from other things as well including but not limited to: bad soundtrack, flashes of things unrelated to the film, shaky camera (some people on America's home videos have a steadier hand), bad effects, and unrealistic scenarios.

One good thing about this is that it has taught me to come to IMDb.com to get the reviews of any films I may purchase. Had I only read this site.. I could have saved some ca$h.

The producers should do what Atari did in 1983 with their extra copies of "E.T. The video game". Collect them all and drive out to the desert late at night, crush them, encase them in cement, and bury them.