Gruesome
Madman
Entertainment
R4
DVD
What if every day you relived your own torture
and murder?
In the gripping and brutal film, college
student Claire Parker (Lauren Currie Lewis) gets a ride home one night and
finds herself in the clutches of a psychotic madman, Duke. Duke is not a simply
madman but a brutal serial killer and he violently attacks Clair and dragging
her to the basement tortures and kills her. At least, that is how it seems,
because Claire wakes up and finds she is still very much alive. She assumes it
was a bad dream, but is haunted by the vividness of the experience. Again and
again, she experiences memories of her supposed death
but these seem to not only reveal her own demise, but that of her boyfriend and
the killing of Duke by the police.
Gruesome is a very intelligent horror
film which while certainly delivering on the violence and gore scale, focuses
on the distortion of memory, dreams and reflections. It is a film which
deliberately plays with the viewer. Is this a violent version of “Ground Hog
Day” where life
is repeated day after day, or is it something more. If it is simply Claire
remembering the day of her death, why can she see the capture of the killer and
other seemingly unrelated events. Why do the events change and the story replay
in different versions.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the
film is how different “versions” of Claire’s murder are revealed, the story
varies greatly, but whatever she does, no matter how different, it seems to
lead to the same place with the same brutally inevitable results.
This is a relatively low budget film
which while using some powerfully violent episodes primarily uses character
development and plot to provide a superb horror experience. It is not until the
very last moments of the film that you realize what has been really occurring,
while there are a few hints here and there it is only in retrospect they make
sense.
I highly recommend Gruesome it shows what
can be done with a small budget and some creativity, rather than relying on old
horror clichés or over the top special effects, it uses character, mood and
plot to achieve a high level of tension. This is a film which takes us on a
terrifying ride and offers enough twists and turns that it keeps you on the
edge of your seat right the way through.
While we saw this as a preview, the official
release will include such Special Features as a Director's Commentary, a Theatrical
Trailer and a Stills Gallery.