A Chronicle of Corpses

Rating:
Summary: Dullsville
Review: It's been a few years since I saw this film. The director was touring it around to colleges and the art house scene and I was very excited to see an independently produced horror film, and an arty independent horror film no less.
Unfortunately, I left disappointed. According to the filmmaker, the piece was envisioned as something that people would want to hang on their walls (now possible thanks to plasma screens) like a painting. This explains the excruciating long takes and the fact that there is a grand total of one moving shot in the whole thing. To some extend, the film succeeds on this level. There are some very pretty shots here and there and the historically accurate locations provide a great background. (It was filmed in and around historical sites preserved from colonial times.)
While the decent photography and beautiful locations elevate the film slightly, the writing pulls it back into the abyss. Arty intentions aside, the story boils down to the thoroughly exhausted slasher formula in which the characters are picked off one at a time by a psycho with an unconvincing back-story.
In the end A Chronicle of Corpses is an interestingly photographed but languidly paced period piece with a few clever ideas that can't rise above its unoriginal plotting.

Rating:
Summary: Watching your great grandmother eat peas is more exciting...
Review: This movie is horribly boring - the acting is laughable. I am sure that the director's cinematic interpretation of Bataille's "The Eye" is much more interesting than this poor poor movie. Stay away from this unless you want to see a prime example of what happens when a young filmmaker tries to be a Prima Donna and fails miserably.