The Sadness (2008)

   
Produced & Directed by: R.F. Pangborn

Written by: F.J. Pangborn, R.F. Pangborn & Mike Perrette

Starring:


Alexa Werrlein .... The Kid
Stephanie Werrlein .... The Mom
Eric Werrlein ....
Boyfriend
Mike Perrette .... Junior
Julie Miller .... Carla
Jessica Spiess .... Ms. Ashley
John Caponigro .... Father
Joseph Avila .... Joey
Clarence Jones .... Kate

Release Date: Direct-to-DVD: March 18, 2008

 
Rating:

 

A trouble girl is verbally abused by her mother and boyfriend as all they do is shoot up heroin and a couple of people who owe them money can't pay them to feed their addiction so instead they give this poor little girl away and are taken to a bunch of psychopathic wannabe satan worshippers for a sacrifice.
She returns from the dead by killing others who caused her grief making them into zombie killers as well.
Meanwhile a couple of detectives try to get to the bottom of the cases in which they find dead bodies or animals due to these sacrifices.

 

The film looked incredibly amateurish as it seemed like some people decided to make a feature and use their neighbors or friends to be in it as there's not really a boom mic for the dialogues. The story of course does start off with an abused child with a mother verbally abusing her in which this moment was supposed to be quite disturbing but due to it's lack of budget which looks like a home movie it fails in order to do so.
There's a moment with two sick bullies killing this little girls cat which disturbed me but yet even this was so stale looking that it isn't overly shocking at all.
Then there's other moments like a hit man and a hit woman killing some people who owe money in which some of this seemed pretty brutal but again due to how it was written and performed this was just another scene that was considered a joke. Next there's detecitives trying to look for dead bodies and other types of sacrifices due to some satanic rituals and sacrifices. When I was watching all of this I was thinking to myself that the plot doesn't make any sense as it seems to jump from one story to another. It does come together but yet watching all of this looked terribly unorganised. Then we spot someone about to take out a chainsaw and then it jumps to another scene in which made me wonder if there was something wrong with what I was playing but it was terrible editing.
Of course there's some scene's with the nast mother and boyfriend shooting up drugs which totally looked like a dysfunctional family making you feel sorry for this little girl who seems quite innocent along with the hitman beating up on the boyfriend for not owing them the money for the drugs in which this was supposed to look intense but it is so wooden.
There is a good moment with a neighbor teying to help this little gierl which I liked showing that someone cares but watching it this scene looked incredibly amateurishly done. However there's a moment with this child colouring deadly pictures which seemed to work well.
Then later on there's a satanic sacrifice with cult members on this girl as her Mom gives her away for not paying for her addiction which looked incredibly corny and ungothic like too.
But the only thing that saved this film from bombing was when this little girl rises from the dead to seek revenge by killing the people who were mean to her and making them zombies too. There were many moments that these zombies acted goofy but it seemed to work due to the corny writing that was involved with all of this. We even see this girl cutting a woman's fingers off with some clippers in which Cropsy from The Burning would be highly amused by this. Of course there's the moment continuing with the chainsaw and using it on the satanic preacher which Leatherface may puke finding this moment really bad.
Bottom line is this movie sucked big time in which this was supposed to be a shocking type of a gorefest making it hard to watch in which in many cases it was but not due to the shocking horror events but that it was dragging alot and right when you think the film has finished it carries on and making alot of these moments incredibly pointless. That's what I mean by when I said it's hard to watch.

The actors in this film seem amateurish and a bit inexperienced for the most part but they try their best in which you can tell.
Lead child actress Alexa Werrlein (The Kid) seemed to do a failry okay job as a disturbed child and tried to pull off some energy but yet she seemed to try too hard and not enough effort. She also didn't show many expressions by what she does along with very little emotions with her behavior too. She does well falling to the ground after being struck in a certain scene but yet her expressions on losing conciousness looked quite fake. She threatens someone with revenge during a satanic ritual in which seemed a tiny bit unconvincing. However when she's resurrected into a zombie of some sort she seemed to pull off her evil vengeful behavior quite well. A good approach on her by showing an evil grin which looked good and well as pointing a shotgun towards someone.
Stephanie Werrlein
(The Mom) seemed to pull off some spots as a junkie mother with her nasty attitude and demanding stern behavior. However she wasn't intense enough like you'd picture in a character like this. However, she does show some descent energy nonetheless. She does well reacting to getting intoxicated after shooting up heroin.
Mike Perrette
(Junior) seemed to have the good bad ass attitude as a hitman on some sort along with his masculine looks too. But however I've seen much better. A good strike with him by coming up from behind someone in a certain scene. Once he's resurrected he sure showed a good goofy ghoulish attitude along with his facial expressions too. I can see him doing comedy horror's than serious one's.
Julie Miller
(Carla) really got on my nerves with her acting as she portrayed an irritating type of sleazy hitwoman. Well she was sure irritating but a talented actress she was NOT! Oh well not everyone was born to act.
Jessica Spiess
(Ms. Ashley) portrays a deceivingly caring type but yet she was way too over the top and had a shrilly type of speaking voice which got to me as well.
a great terrifying scream a good shocked expression when the terror strikes her.

Jessica Spiess has her blouse torn open with her breasts briefly exposed

A cat is slaughtered
A back is brutally stabbed
Many scene's on epeople's bodies torn open and gutted
A person is sliced in half but it looked incredibly fake with the computerised effects
A head is chopped off
A persons body is torn open
A person is brutally stabbed by wooden sharp sticks
Eyes are plucked out
A womans face is scarred
Many bloody gunshots

There's great windy, ghostly echoey types of sounds effects as well as the odd metal sounds and groaning too. There's also good clanging sounds with deep low gloomy gruesome synthesizer music too. In some spots there's great icy high pitched keyboard playing for the ghoulish moments. During the beginnging we hear many quiverring organ sounds in which you'd picture in a Grindhouse or a drive in type of horror flick which worked quite well... In fact too good for this clunker.

There's many songtracks by death metal groups which I don't find music at all just alot of noise with growly voices in which you can't understand a word they're saying. So duhpressing.