The Forsaken

An “okay” video rental for those looking for something quick, bloody and unoriginal. The one surprising thing about this flick for me, was that it actually had some T&A in it…and quite a few shots, too! What the hell?? I was expecting another one of them “teen” horror flicks, in which they show us people getting stabbed deep into their chests, but nothing more than tight-shirted girls otherwise.

Well, this movie begins with a shot of a naked girl in the shower, covered in blood, washing the mess away. Well, that’s a pretty decent opening, if anything…

But ultimately this film turns into a “road picture” and they generally need something original happening, otherwise they get kinda stale and this one got a little redundant about halfway through. I mean, how many times do we have to sit through scenes of exposition, where Brendan Fehr (aka Yoda) is explaining the entire movie to his partner (and to us, of course). There should’ve been a cooler way to do this.

I also liked the whole flash-back thing every now and then, and the chases, but even they got a little “old” after a while. At some point, I WANTED more background info, and there were only flashes.

Acting-wise, everyone played their parts pretty well, but I especially like Kerr Smith’s performance as the “regular guy” who gets thrown into these very irregular circumstances, and Johnathon Schaech, who despite looking great, made for a pretty creepy “bad guy” (I love the scene where he takes the snake and well…you’ll see). And how ’bout that heart still pounding…yuck!

The effects were mostly half-assed throughout (although the shot of the black chick getting her head blown off was pretty rock-solid) and poor Izabella Miko didn’t have much to do but “be naked” and sleep during the entire movie. But the ending was “okay” and on the whole, the theory behind the film (although unoriginal– see LOST BOYS, NEAR DARK, etc…) was pretty interesting, and thankfully, it only lasted about 85 minutes in all, so I’d recommend it as a rental for cheap, cheesy fun.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian