<b><u>Directed by:</u> Peter Burger.</b>
<b><u>Starring:</u> Jason Behr, Mia Blake, Michael Hurst.</b>
Only released in New Zealand for now (being co financed and made here) and possible chances of worldwide releases next year, I can… More
<b><u>Directed by:</u> Peter Burger.</b>
<b><u>Starring:</u> Jason Behr, Mia Blake, Michael Hurst.</b>
Only released in New Zealand for now (being co financed and made here) and possible chances of worldwide releases next year, I can see why I had to add this page to Flixster. I had hoped to make the page to show people that this could possibly be a good film, but even the moments of potential can't make up for other things.
The story follows an American tattoo artist (played by Jason Behr....I guess to make the film look better) who explores the world, taking ideas from ethnic tattoo designs. When he stops off in Singapore and finds the traditional Samoan art of tattooing, he is instantly fascinated by not only the designs, but the young cousin of one of the tattooists. He decides to steal one of the traditional tools and accidentally stabs himself with one, this gives him something like a curse, where every person he tattoos from then on, an unknown force finishes it. The concept of the Samoan tattoo tradition appears silly at first, but it comes out as quite interesting, this is where part of the potential is. The writers slowly build the film, only giving us ideas to start off with, this works in parts, others it doesn't, but from there, any chance of going indepth and drawing the eeriness and horror from the concept is ruined by many things. Although the ideas of these rituals are interesting, they don't expand from it, instead they go down a cliché path with there storytelling (guy tries to find source before close one dies, blah blah) and they don't leave from it. Me living in New Zealand, I see what maoris can be like, most are rude and come across as terribly dumb, to keep the NZ audience entertained (I guess that was the plan), they give us some of these characters to inject humour, problem is, you can't help but want to hurt yourself by the way they act on screen. Each other character is nothing worth mentioning, they are very much 'cardboard cutouts' and they never build on them to make us care. Visually, the film is stunning in parts, director Peter Burger does show promise by giving us some interesting scenes setups and he works well with the great visual effects, but like the writers, he ruins any potential to make the film different by not fully grasping the concept and drawing anything chilling from it, instead, its slow buildups with little tension and loud noises. The acting is nothing great, Jason Behr isn't exactly the best actor, but he is clearly the better in the film, Caroline Cheong, an unknown Singaporian actress gives colour to some scenes, some sub-actors give average performances but its every other NZ 'step in' that ruin many scenes with terribly wooden acting. One actor in particular does do well (Michael Hurst), but he is on the screen for no longer than 5 minutes in the first half hour, then he magically disappears.
The film showed potential in scenes, due mainly to the interesting concept, some visually excellent CGI and cinematography, but the filmmakers don't expand upon this great concept, they aim to make a horror film out of this, but they take it down the wrong path. And with some terrible NZ moments to 'try' and make the audience laugh....and the out of place music (why couldn't they use traditional Samoan music to build some eeriness?), this film goes to waste. If you see this film released in your country, don't expect much.
