Vicious

Rating:
Summary: Zero Stars !!!!!!!!!
Review: Amazon needs to allow for zero stars in the rating system.

What are some people thinking when they make a movie?
People lost in the woods with a wild monster loose..... hmmm... has that movie ever been done before ??

It is sad to see a guy like Tom Savini forced to do a film like this. One can only assume he lost a big chunk of money in the stock market meltdown of 2000-2002 and has do do a movie like this for the income.

Films like this are what give many independent movie companies a bad reputation and scare off potential viewers.

Just plain bad.

Rating:
Summary: Crappy movie
Review: Brinke Steven's is in here but as the 'opening scene victim'.The camera angles suck and so does the acting.The monster was realy crappy looking to.I cant bealive I blew 14 dollars on the so called horror movie.Dont buy or rent it its not even worth a penny.

Rating:
Summary: What to say here....
Review: In many places the low budget really shows on this one {lighting, makeup, horrible CGI}, but it's still better than most movies of this type. I wish Brinke Stevens had been given more to do. Savini is cool as always, and the rest of the cast is quite likeable. It's better then Octopus 2 but not as good as Blood Surf.

Rating:
Summary: a Great Director?
Review: Matt Green ...a Great Director, well that's up for debate....

I think his better Movie was Severed

But I have music in Vicious so I think it's Great :0

Rating:
Summary: Matt Green Is Awesome!!! Great Cast!!1
Review: Matt Green's Style of directing is very cool. Bill Mosley does a great job as an authority figure. Tom Savini plays the usual hard-ass who does meet his fate in the end. The whole concept is very well thought out. The effects are ok. The CGI sucks , but what CGI I doesn't. Hey, it even has the kid from Pumpkinhead. Anyone who has a huge amount of money for a horror movie to be made should give it to Matt Green to make a feature film, He is going to be a famous director if he keeps this up.

Rating:
Summary: A much better horror movie...
Review: This is Matt Green's second directorial effort, and it's light years ahead of "Severed". The technical work is sharper and the script is much better. Sure, it's a formulaic horror story, but aren't they all, at this point? I picked this up at a local video rental store, and it was worth the $3. I also enjoyed a few of the DVD special features. This is a low-budget horror movie, so keep that in mind when you watch it. Matt, I take my hat off to you. You've done an outstanding job.

Rating:
Summary: Oh the humanity!
Review: Tom Savini holds a reputation in the horror film genre many filmmakers envy. His primary occupation is that of special effects artist, and a register of the movie's he has worked on reads like a greatest hits list: "Maniac," "The Burning," Romero's Dead Trilogy, "The Prowler," "Cutting Moments," and a host of other wonderfully gory projects. The shotgun blast to the noggin effect he created for "Maniac" ranks as one of the most gruesome head scenes ever, with only that horrific scene in Cronenberg's "Scanners" coming anywhere close to topping it. Aside from his bloody creations, Savini occasionally steps in front of the camera too. His most notable performance, excluding the aforementioned "Manic" head scene, is a critical role in the Quentin Tarentino/George Clooney film "From Dusk to Dawn." He also appeared in Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" as an outlaw biker. Good stuff all around, especially when realizing that the guy has directed a film or two as well. He lensed the 1990 remake of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." Is there anything this guy can't do well? Sad to say, the answer is yes. His appearance in "Vicious" does nothing to save the movie from utter mediocrity.

"Vicious" is a film so bad on every level that it boggles the mind. Savini stars as Kane, a top secret military operative currently out in the field serving as an overseer for Project Carnivore. What does his job entail? Riding around in the woods in a souped up, rigged with explosives van monitoring a biological monstrosity's bloody activities. The Army, in this instance represented by some loudmouthed Colonel, wants to keep the very much successful project going despite a few niggling setbacks. Sadly, some high level suit orders the officer to close down the operation by terminating the monster and Kane. It's probably just as well considering Kane appears to have snapped somewhere along the line and is now actively helping the creature kill innocent people. The Colonel responds to this grave threat by dispatching tanks, planes, attack helicopters, and thousands of troops armed with the latest technology available. Sounds like a plan, right? Not exactly since the Colonel doesn't do any of this. In order to close down a project as dangerous as this one, he sends in TWO Marines armed with rifles. Wow! I understand trying to keep the mop up operation under wraps, but at least give these guys some flamethrowers or something. No chance. Predictably, Kane and the beast make quick work of these two unfortunate wretches.

Even worse, a bunch of innocent civilians end up running head first into the snafu that has become Project Carnivore. Enter a fishing expedition consisting of Doug (Brian Bremer), his soon to be wife Barbara (Melanie Parker), and his two buddies Steve (Robert Pralgo) and Hal (Ted Huckabee). Right from the start the group experiences tensions, mainly revolving around the issue of Barbara joining the guys for a trip into the sticks. Hal and Steve resent the fact that she insists on an alcohol free jaunt, and they also strongly disapprove of Doug's spinelessness in the matter. It isn't too long before veiled comments turn into open warfare, with Hal and Steve slinking off to pick up a load of beverages from a nearby village. While nursing a few cold ones in the local pub, Kane ambles by to inform them of a really great fishing spot. That said lake sits securely inside the area where Project Carnivore is rocking and rolling is a fact he conveniently omits. Steve and Hal head over to check the area out, much to their lasting detriment. Doug, noticing his pals never returned, insists on going out to look for them. Soon Doug and Barbara are in a struggle for their very lives with the wily Kane and his vicious pet.

Good god is this a cruddy picture! First, the movie looks like it was shot on video, the kiss of death for any serious horror effort. Second, with the exception of Savini the acting uniformly tanks. The worst offenders in "Vicious" are without a doubt the two thespians in the roles of Steve and Hal. These guys are so annoying that I felt like taking a sledgehammer to my DVD player every time the two lunkheads appeared onscreen. I have to say these two characters present the most formidable argument in favor of prohibition seen in years. Compared to these two, the Doug and Barbara characters turn in Oscar worthy performances. Third, and easily the most damaging component of "Vicious," is the atrocious CGI effects used to simulate the monster. In all the films I have watched since the inception of computer generated effects, the design of the monster here ranks as the worst. The color scheme consists of gray with these cheesy looking red streaks all over the place, a truly awful combination that will make your jaw hit the floor in disbelief at the inanity of it all. I can look past a shot on video format and poor acting some of the time, but the presence of this lousy CGI effect is impossible to move beyond.

Surprisingly, a bountiful supply of supplemental materials awaits your inspection after viewing the film. A lengthy behind the scenes feature includes interviews with the director, Savini, Brian Bremer, and Melanie Parker. The commentary track, which all the makers of bad movies seem to love putting on their discs, allows us to listen to Savini and the director try to talk some sense into a senseless movie. Trailers for "Detour," "Slaves of the Realm," "Lucky," and "Sleepless Nights" round out the "Vicious" DVD experience. I recommend skipping the extras as well as the film--that way, the viewer can maintain a high opinion of Tom Savini. I wish I had.




Rating:
Summary: THE WAY OF THE HORROR FILM
Review: When I was just a wee lad several thousand years ago, I spent most of my weekends at the local theater, basking in double features of such classic horror films as THE TINGLER, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, DEMENTIA 13, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, so on and so forth. Over the years, I have maintained my affinity for horror films and sadly in the past five years, many of the horror films have gone the way of mindless drivel like VICIOUS. It's gotten so that I am extremely surprised when I find a really good horror film (don't even think of films like THE VILLAGE or THE GRUDGE as good horror films). So when one decides to either rent or buy some of these films from studios like MTI, FULL MOON and God forbid DEAD ALIVE PRODUCTIONS, one must not set expectations high. In VICIOUS, we once again get a government controlled mutation going awry, this time with kind of a zookeeper who gets food for the mutant beast. We hardly get a good look at the monster in this one, and it's probably for the best, because the few times we even get close to a glance, it looks pretty awful. Horror "legend" Tom Savini plays the unusually sane psycho, and the rest of the cast, well don't hold your breath for Oscar nominations for any of them. Even the usually interesting Brinke Stevens (one of those awful scream queens like Linnea Quigley and Debbie Rochon) is wasted in a brief cameo at the beginning of the film. Marco St. John who plays the colonel got his start years ago on the AS THE WORLD TURNS soap opera, and I'm sure he would rather be remembered for that than his awfully performed role in this one. But then again, since this is the kind of film we get these days, VICIOUS isn't as bad as some of the other terrible films I've viewed recently (TAIL STING, THE VAULT, etc.). Be warned---this is not a great horror movie.