Gnaw

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  October 15, 2009

  sportboy

  For me I found this horror quite weak the story was boring most the way through until the last 30 minutes that was Interesting but thats not good enough the first hour was just slow and boring.
  
  A really boring script that was certainly not for me it was a shame that it was bor...( read more)ing most the way through because the last 30 minutes was done very good like there was no storyline really for the first 1 hour.
  
  The acting also started off quite weak the acting did improve right at the end everything seemed to just drag until the last 30 minutes.
  
  The begining was bad and they had a strange ending I didn't realise to be honest that the film had ended it seemed as if they cut out some of the story like.It just didn't seem like a ending for me.
  
  The story however did make a bit of sense at the last 30 minutes but the story just dragged through the first hour and it was hard to keep forcused on the film so you could understand what was happening.
  
  Overall I just didn't like this film and will not reccomend this to anyone it had the most strangest ending ever.

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  November 5, 2009

  jonnydaddy

  Very predictable, little gore and no scare tactic. But they where cannibals! Who doesnt like cannibals?

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  October 14, 2009

  jasonvargo

  THE FLICK
  The horror genre on film goes back, roughly, to the 1890's and Le Manoir du diable by Georges Méliès. In the intervening years, filmmakers from across the globe have tried to put their spin on the genre, some successfully and some...well, less so. In the last decade or ...( read more)so, there is a new school of thought which equates blood and gore with horror at the expense of rational, logical decision making. Wes Craven's Scream series pointed this out to great effect, yet some people still haven't taken the hint. It's not enough to carve up a half dozen teenagers in the middle of nowhere anymore. Nor is it enough to pay lip service to the things they should be doing to survive the film. Rather, horror films (and the associated sub-genre's of chiller, slasher and torture, among others) need to create a realistic world for the characters and audience to get caught up in. The British import Gnaw does none of these things and opts, instead, to be one part slasher and one part gross out flick.
  
  As with most films in the genre, Gnaw starts out with a group of six teens heading out into the middle of nowhere, where they are systematically killed off because they have no idea how slasher pics work. Seriously, this is the modern day United Kingdom. Doesn't anyone watch a movie or television show? Don't you know the minute you decide to go off into the country you will end up dead? How many times do we have to see one person (in this case, the movie's lone asset, the Slaughterman) killing the entire group when, by all rights, at least one person should survive the carnage? Oh no, Gnaw doesn't stop there. On top of being mind numbingly banal, it has the audacity to think it has the smarts to bring cannibals into the story. Cannibals! It's not director Gregory Mandry who's the problem. Nope, it's the "been there, seen that" script by Michael Bell and Max Waller which cuts off its own foot in the before the marathon even starts.
  
  Gnaw doesn't just tip its hand far, far too early (the bad guy is shown at the very beginning of the film); it has no hand to tip. See, nothing in the film feels remotely original. It may be the lack of any true story arc. Mandry tries to make a case for the arc being Slaughterman's obsession with Lorrie (Sara Dylan)-who is pregnant, by the way-with Jack's (Nigel Croft-Adams) kid. Alas, Jack's girlfriend Jill (Rachel Mitchem) doesn't know this. And she doesn't get the chance to figure it out precisely because the script doesn't deem it important. So much for that story arc, right? All the characters are merely a distraction and cannon fodder for Slaughterman. If the only rationale for the story is to watch people die, is that worth it?
  
  It's not, in case there was a doubt. There is no bottom to the story, nothing to propel it forward with any meaning. Typically, that reason would either be a story arc or character development. Since we've ruled out a story arc, then it must be the wonderfully complex characters, right? Wrong. They simple run from place to place-usually alone-and get massacred. And that supposed story arc? It's non-existent precisely because Slaughterman has no personality. He's just a killer, grinding up his prey into meat pies. Freddy Krueger had a motive. Jason Voorhees had a motive. Michael Myers...heck, even the shark(s) in the Jaws films. Slaughterman? Eh, there's nothing on television.
  
  I apologize if it sounds as though I'm being hyperbolic. Gnaw doesn't do much right. The acting is categorically over the top, especially Croft-Adams as Jack. Loud, grating and obnoxious, Jack is the jock of the pic without anything particular jock-y to do. Bell and Waller are unable to do anything but paint with the broadest of strokes. Each character has one, maybe two, defining personality traits. Asthmatic Matt (Oliver Lee Squires) pines for Lorrie...and that's all we know about him. Jill is just as shrill as Jack and prudish on top of that. And so on. Everyone involved seems to have a cognitive disconnect about what a horror movie is. Yes, blood and guts, but scary blood and guts which puts the audience in the position of the characters. We can identify with some of the characteristics, but simultaneously can't wait for the six leads to die so the end credits can roll.
  
  By the way, here's a note for future filmmakers who want to dabble in this genre. If you're going to commit to a slasher film, you need to be willing and able to show slashing. Especially if your characters and plot are worthless. Gnaw shows precious little of its alleged blood-letting. It even tries, if you read between the lines, to up the scare ante by not showing knives cutting into bodies or other acts. But that philosophy is to the film's overall detriment. Something has to make people want to see the flick. Jaws doesn't feature a lot of blood or violence, yet it works because the tension from the menace is there. Slaughterman has no hope of being iconic or thrilling. One well placed whack to the head and he should be down for the count. Try that with a shark.
  
  The intention was for every element in the film to come off as being realistic to the modern day, at least according to Mandry. That's why a cell phone is used to take a short video of Lorrie and Matt makes a point to check his cell phone when the group arrives at the country house. I guess the script should get some props for thinking of the cell phone angle even if it doesn't quite get around to thinking about anything else. Why go back to a car which doesn't start in order to escape? Didn't any of these kids tell parents where they were going? And when they don't return, no one mounts a search and rescue, which would invariably lead right to Slaughterman and Mrs. Obadiah (Carrie Cohen)? A credits sequence suggests these two have been at their killing rampage for years and years. Apparently, there are over 200,000 cases of missing persons in the UK every year. Some people are recovered alive and others aren't. There's not a lick of information about where they might have gone? Really?
  
  THE LOOK
  There is a distinctive look to films produced outside of America. They tend to have a color palette veering into red/brown territory and slight picture softness. Neither of those hallmarks are actual transfer issues and need to be removed from the discussion when talking about Gnaw. Instead, the anamorphic picture is generally well done with no visible scratches or blemishes. Black crush plays a part in further diminishing texture and detail in dark scenes. While we can make out some specifics, a lot of the film-especially the background-is hard to see. The black's tend to be a bit too bright also, making them more gray than actually black. Fleshtones are acceptable keeping in mind all the picture caveats.
  
  THE SOUND
  The disc includes both an English 5.1 mix as well as a 2.0 versions. Both are clean and free of distractions, allowing the dialogue to come through clearly. (This is especially important considering the English accent of all the actors.) Very early on in the 5.1 iteration the use of the rear speakers jumps to the forefront. Scratching and clawing sounds, not to mention mental-on-metal, enhance the main title sequence. From then on, these ambient sounds are toned down a bit in favor of the front speakers. Directional effects are relatively sparse, usually coming in the form of a car driving down the road and not other sounds going across the screen. The track also does a very good job in balancing the score, sound effects and dialogue, making sure one does not overpower the other. English subtitles are included.
  
  THE STUFF
  One note about the run time on the box art: Gnaw is purported to clock in at 90 minutes. The film itself lasts for roughly 74 minutes.
  
  Now then, director Gregory Mandry doesn't have a lot to say in the feature-length commentary. He either doesn't have the necessary anecdotes and behind-the-scenes information with him or he's not quite sure these kinds of things work. Long gaps in the film go by with nothing from him, essentially making the audience watch the production for a second time. When he does interject, the information isn't terribly compelling. The movie took 2 weeks to shoot, certain sequences kept getting expanded, the coldest day of the year (that always happens when a film is shooting, it seems like) and the startling fact he had a relatively closed set for the sex scenes. Mandry needs someone to play off of or, at the very least, a good stack of notes about his film.
  
  The nearly ten minute making of is world's better in terms of providing background trivia, however lame and useless it might be. There are references here to the nursery rhyme allusions in the movie (Jack and Jill, for instance), the drive to make Slaughterman as iconic as Freddy or Jason (psst...EPIC FAIL, as the kids say) or the crew patting themselves on the back for keeping Slaughterman out of the picture for as long as they did (Ridley Scott. Alien. Check it out.). This is the kind of stuff that should have been in the commentary. A terribly spoilery trailer for the movie is also included. The film comes in a clear keepcase without an insert. There are 13 chapter stops.

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  August 18, 2009

  Ametrine

  One of the worst horror movies ever made. The actors are awful, the plot is just not there and it doesn't have any sense. There are no scary moments at all the the whole movie is an insult to our intelligence.
  Do your self a favor and avoid it by any means.

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  July 3, 2009

  EbertsLittleApprentice

  Retarted-ass Horror films always come from the Uk. I was more or less drawn away from the film after the first minute.

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