Elite Entertainment, 2002

starring: The Amazing Kreskin, Lizzy Mahon, Danny Lopes and Vincent Lamberti
written and directed by: Dante Tomaselli

the plot: After shooting a security guard and escaping from a rehab facility, Luck (Lopes) and a group of teenage delinquents climb into a van and hit the road. They’re armed, dangerous, and in possession of a shopping bag full of drugs, which Luck claims a mysterious preacher gave him earlier that day. When one of the kids turns blue and starts going nuts, Luck and the gang seek refuge in an old farmhouse. There, they find Grace (Mahon), a haunted young girl whose father (Lamberti) is a cruel and sadistic preacher. In a drug-induced haze, Luck shoots Grace’s parents. Suddenly, the house is surrounded by a demonic force, and Grace, Luck and the rest of the kids struggle to survive. As zombies shamble out of the woods and a sinister goat menaces the horrified hooligans, Grace learns that her recently deceased grandfather (Kreskin) may be the source for all the evil events.

why it’s good: “Horror” doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, but it sure looks nice, which counts for something. Writer/director Dante Tomaselli has a knack for creepy visuals and eerie set pieces, but he can’t seem to get the hang of writing interesting characters or creating a compelling story. It’s a shame, because with just a little more effort, “Horror” could have been an awesomely entertaining low-budget fright flick. “Horror” moves at a brisk pace—an oddity for such a dream-like movie—transitioning swiftly from one weird sequence to the next. During one segment, Grace is talking to her grandfather in his bedroom when she reaches under the bed and is bitten by a snarling creature. Suddenly, her face becomes all zombified, but she snaps awake the next minute and confronts her parents, who promptly sedate her—and proceed to turn into giant, floating jack-o-lanterns. To be fair, at least half that segment is from the point of view of a drug-addled teenager, but it’s indicative of Tomaselli’s interesting, though scattershot, direction. The look of the film is undeniably good, and if you ignore the missing plot and flat characters, you’d swear “Horror” had a decent budget. Unfortunately, “Horror” is all flash and no substance. Calling the characters flat—the ones who get more than one line, that is—is more than generous. The only notable exception is famed “mentalist” and performer The Amazing Kreskin, who’s fairly creepy as an unhinged preacher. And then there’s that freaky goat, the one that seems to appear whenever something bad is about to go down. The goat’s presence is unexplained (it shows up in a painting in the film and appears on the DVD box cover, too), but it sure is weird. In a film like “Horror,” that’s about all you can ask for.

why you should own it: Fans of low/no-budget cinema should definitely check out “Horror.” It’s a sharp-looking, interesting film, at least in terms of atmosphere, photography and set-up. Elite Entertainment’s DVD features a behind the scenes featurette, as well as some “backstage” footage of The Amazing Kreskin.