Nailed

Image Entertainment

R1 DVD

Nailed is a very surprising low budget horror film, while most indie horror releases tend to focus on gore this is a film high in tension and psychological terror. The violence and gore is present but inferred and character development is the prime focus.

The film opens as a crime drama. Keller and Scott (Charles Porter and Sam Sarpong) are on their way to a budding career as bag men. They run drugs for a local dealer and bring him back the cash. But this time they are in for a shock, their buyer is a cop and they are about to beg busted. Things however don’t go as plan and a cop gets shot, Scott is wounded and they are on the run. They see an old house and they think it is somewhere good to hide; but this is a very bad move. The movement from a crime, even gang/drugs tale to a supernatural story is smooth and very effective. It works well as you do not expect it and as strange things happen you get quite a start.

The house is occupied by two rather strange people; Adam a carer who seems to have a malicious streak and a man wrapped in bandaged who seems in constant pain. As Adam treats Scott’s wounds he plays mind games with them but there seems to be something else going on in the house. Both Keller and Scott begin to have strange visions involving a ghostly woman. The ghost is well presented nearly having a Japanese horror style look and with little funds horror elements are brought into the tale. The psychological aspects of the story include the tension between young and cocky Scott and the brutal Keller add a further dimension as does the final revelations about how Adam knows Keller and what the house is really all about.

The story is intriguing as it cuts back and forward in time, has elements of voodoo and the supernatural and a surprise ending. Considering the nature of the conclusion the film could have easily opted for graphic gore but instead used mood to tell the tale.

For a low budget horror this is surprisingly original and well worth seeing.

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