A
maniac everyone called the Laugh (Keir
O'Donnell) seems to stalk and trap three
women who were involved in his childhood
past in school and were longtime friends
with one another that went their separate
ways.
One of them named Shelby (Laura
Breckenridge) was in a car with her
boyfriend Dan (Reid Scott) and encounters
a beat up woman who was thrown out of a
truck and they try to catch who did this
only to have her boyfriend slaughtered.
Another named Tabitha (Katherine Winnick)
discovered that a babysitter who was
hired was missing and had to keep an eye
on two children named Danny (Brennan
Bailey) and Max (Preston Bailey) in which
they have a huge clown collection that
gives her the creeps in which she spots a
person sized clown but the parents on the
phone she talks to tells her they don't
have a clown that big.
The third friend named Lisa (Jessica
Lucas) and her boyfriend Rob (Tad
Hilgenbrink) goes to search their other
friends that were missing in which they
resided at a mansion of some sort but
Rob's luck just ran out.
Tabitha is in a ward with a psychiatrist
(Rena Owen) after what she encountered on
her babysitting job but later on seems to
find her friends there too with the grasp
of this maniac as they try to find a way
of escaping but don'r know where to go.
The film
shows a good beginning with a couple of people named Dan and Shelby in their car having a
discussion bringing it to life as well as
some good angle shots on them in the car.
There's many good takes on the car and a
black truck driving with them giving it a
nice creepiness to what's going on. We
have a good shot on a woman in the truck landing onto the
windshield of the car giving it a good
shocking moment.
There's a good brief discussion with both Dan and this woman about catching
the truck driver with her doing well by acting weak in pain on the
ground.
We have a good moment with Dan speaking to the character known as The Laugh when he's injured and choking out his
words which looked impressive and
mysterious on why this is happening with
the assaults from the truck driver.
There's a good shot on The Laugh standing
behind a house acting nervous next to a
window with Tryton talking
on a phone and then about to head out of
the house with The Laugh whacking
him with an axe which looked brutal while spotting this and
then cackling evilly coming up towards a few other people in
their vehicle getting scared as that
looked greatly twisted.
We spot nice camera takes on the character Tabitha opening a door to talk to someone outside
with a shot on The Laugh standing
outside in the rain with a raincoat
speaking very strangelike.
There's also a good shot on her in a room
acting a bit uncomfortable with what's in
the room with camera shots a bunch of toy
clowns which gives you a chill as the
camera shots on them looked horrorlike.
There's alos some good discussions with Tabitha spending time with two of her children in their bedroom in which the
setting looked nice and peaceful.
There's a good moment with Tabitha going up to a giant toy clown slowly
reaching and trying to touch the clowns
face as well as reaching for a tv clicker
this toy is holding hoping the toy won't
leap out which looked really scary since
everything was still with the rain
falling outside and thunder clapping at
times making her jump which is a good
jumping moment too while watching this.
There's a nice close up shot on her lying in her bed with a background shot
on the clown moving it's head towards
her.
Things seem impressive when she is talking on the phone
complaining about a giant clown giving
her the creeps and then the person on the
other line telling her they don't have
one that big in which her blocking looked
great when she turns around and realises
the clown is out of it's chair in which this gives you a chilling impression here when we spot on how she reacts to this.
Things look even more suspenseful when we spot her running into the
children's room and locking the door
acting very frightened and panting along
with good shots on some sharp objects
breaking through the door.
There's good shots and discussions between
a psychiatrist and Tabitha in a
room in with her acting disturbed by what all
has happened as this leaves a perfect impression to the story.
We spot a good discussion between The Laugh acting strangely towards the character Rob about a large type of
music box and getting him to wind it up
to play music. There's a good shot on him peeking through a hole in the music box
with a sharp object quickly stabbing his
eye.
There's a nice moment with a character named Lisa running away in a mansion and
then having a discussion with The Laugh acting like a deaf person which was
nicely done making it look strange
and twisted. Then later on we have a good
shot on him showing some
evil expressions and cackling towards
her.
There's another good moment with the psychiatrist speaking to Tabitha in which she is acting snappy like towards her and
showing frustrations too as this drew in perfectly.
We have some good shots on Tabitha walking out in a hallway discovering that
she is in some sort of a mansion with the
dark and gloomy shots surrounding her.
We also spot a good chase between her and The Laugh as he still does well with
his evil laughter during all of this.
There's a good shot on him flashing his flashlight to his face
laughing evilly.
There's a nice shot on Tabitha acting
intense near a glass wall seeing The Laugh taunting Shelby with a
knife while she's chained up
There's a perfect close up shots onThe Laugh laughing and Winnick too showing crazy expressions.
Bottom line is that this film was
almost like a horror anthology showing
different stories with the character but
yet at the same time it was a movie in
one. It very much seemed like a tribute
to those other well done horror flicks
but let me explain.
The beginning of the movie was incredibly
mysterious about some of the people
chasing after some truck driver after an
injured passenger is thrown out which
reminded me very much of Joyride as it even had the same dark feeling to
it too along with what is going on a
totally unsolved mystery about to be
unraveled.
Second chapter of the lead woman
babysitting some kids and having a
feeling someone else is in the house
after spotting toy clowns and then a
giant clown wondering if the clown is a
person watching her reminds me of When
a Stranger Calls but a different
twist with the clown story.
The rest of the plots however were a
bunch of other kinds of horror flicks in
a Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone type of
fashion with the creepy mansion and the
maniac taunting the women there as well
as slowly killing them.
It's about time we see a good film
instead of a remake as I hope that this
film will inspire other good horror films
too. Definetely check this one out if you
were a fan of the movies I just mentioned
that this one seemed to pay a tribute to.
The acting is
excellent as lead actor Keir
O'Donnell (The Laugh) was a true gifted horror
film actor showing so much versitality to
his role as the character called the
Laugh and disgusies himself terrifically
as I was convinced that these were
different people at first. He also showed
terrific insane expressions and a
terrific evil cackle too. He was also terrific with his brutal behavior especially with his blocking actions while doing in someone. I honestly
think that he deserves an award for his
role in this film if he hasn't already.
Katheryn
Winnick (Tabitha) knows her stuff too as the
lead target for this maniac showing great
emotions and aggressions too. She also
knew how to acted stunned or frightened
for the various scene's that were
necessary for her to be that way too by getting scared stiff with perfect shocked reactions by what she spots. She also has perfect struggling energy too with what she does.
Jessica Lucas (Lisa) had good energy to her
role in the film especially her
struggling attitude on how to escape from
a strange looking mansion. She proves
herself worthy as a character actress
indeed if I do say so myself.
We have a supporting performance by Rena
Owen (Psychiatrist) even if she didn't have a whole
lot of scene's as a psychiatrist but I
had to give her credit as well cause she
really came across as mysterious and
untrustworthy too with her words as I was
convinced that something wasn't right
about her and she really made her part
the key to this horror story too. She also does well by getting snappy in one scene which is a nice change of a character for her.
Reid Scott (Dan) had a nice effective supporting role in the flick in which he shows off great energy when he lunges in for a struggling moment as well as acting believeable choking out his words when he acts injured in a scene of the film.
An axe is plowed
in a truckers head with blood gushing out
Insides of a rat is exposed
A person's eye is stabbed
Barb wire objects are impaled in people
lying on old beds
A woman's insides are exposed
The maniac is stabbed through the head
with two sharp objects
Some deep low
grinding sounds along with the classical
music as well as the odd high quivering
violin music. We hear the odd low piano
tapping too. There's some nice screeches
for when someone approaches a childs room
with creepy looking toys. Of course we
get great sharp deep violin music for the
silent moment when something terrifying
will unravel later on. There's many
intense violin chants too. All of this
was composed by Marco Beltrami and
so far it's the best orchestral music
I've heard in a long time.
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