Terror Nation (2010)

   

Associate Produced & Directed by: Shane Mather

Written by: John Shand

Starring:


Andy Callaghan .... Johnny Valentine
Sid White .... Shaun Mitchum
Johnny Lynch .... Paul Milland
David Frost .... Lennard Stalin
Claire Louise Catterall .... Kathy
Ivan Brady .... Simon
Gary Smith .... Vicar

Samuel Victor .... Ray MacMurray

Release Date: Direct-to-Video: May 16, 2010 (UK)

 

 

Rating:

  

 

After a heist goes violently wrong four criminals find their meticulous plans quickly unravelling as they are drawn into events beyond their control.

Not realizing that they are being manipulated at every turn they soon find themselves trapped in a desolated village. With the reason for the desolation becoming ever more sinister and terrifying.

Now it's a fight for survival. But it isn't only their own lives at stake...

 

The film has a nice opening with the clouds in the air and the opening credits appearing. Then a bit later there's the gang getting ready to break in and shoot people in which this seemed to be done in a cheesy but fast paced fashion in which the moments were supposed to look disturbing but this seemed to be fairly rusty but nice shocking death moments nonetheless.
The writing seemed to improve a bit when they drag two punks out of a car after they have sex. Of course we need this since wild one's deserve to die in a horror film after forniacating and they try to reason with the male and he gets vicious towards them in which this is a big no no as it will change his mind. The murders start to happen and he witnesses his girlfirnjed getting sliced and diced. However some of this was a bit over the top.
There's also some gross scene's with the character Paul Milland dragging a drug pusher around in a washroom and sinking his head in a dirty toilet in which this seemed to be a nice common thing for a mafia to do to someone who has some unfinished business giving them some warning as well as beating them up in which this almost seemed impressive and trying to make this look violent and disturbing but yet shows off alot of cheesiness.
In another scene there's a nice blue screen which seemed interesting to watch showing some hallucination sequence with one of the mafia members watching a threesome out in the woods. Yet it seemed to be a bit too long to watch but not much though. Still I was thinking to myself this seemed to be a bit of an excuse to keep the film going and for someone to have a sexual fantasy like this dude was while watching this.
Then after this we spot what seems to look like an old fashioned adult film with two heavy set people really showing it off and then a fellow named Charlie watching this while talking to the head mafia Johnny which looked impressive on a situation going down as well as a guy in black about to shoot Charlie in which the setting looked dark and still as well making this enjoyable to watch and wondering what's going to happen next as this almost looked like a murder mystery.
You kinda wonder where the horror is going to come into all of this as this seems like a plain crime flick but trust me it does as there's a scene with a woman tied up and tortured along with another fellow tied down and a drill grinding through his head which looked very crafty while watching this and should please horror fans big time. This was my favourite scene to watch as the settings looked perfect.
There's some interesting one liners at a pub where Johnny is about to drink some beer that looks like dish soap and one of the supporting characters named Kathy telling him not to drink it calmly and then freaks out as well as running away. This really drew into a nice mysterious moment like she knows something and he doesn't. Could the beer be poisonous????
After this Johnny tries to steal a vehicle that was stalled with two married couples which Johnny demands them to get out of the vehicle and the wife constantly nags at them and taunts them which shows some interesting dark humor fitting into the story in a good fashion since it seems to be necessary to add some comedic lines into a horror flick. While watching this you have a bad feeling that this woman is going to get shot since she drives you to be provoked.
We spot another lustful moment between Ray and Kathy as this looked very relaxing with them in the forest and then there's some flashback sequences in which there's nice lighting black and white effects as well as shocking moments on characters in gas masks breaking this peaceful moment proving more so that this is for sure a horror flick by what's going on which seemed cleverly done.
The action really picks up greatly in which there's more gun shooting as well as Johnny smacking someone who betrays him around named Lennard Statlin revealing some good dark and twisted secrets as all of this was well put in along with people dressed in gas masks approaching.
The story gets even weirder when Johnny and Shaun Mitchum spot a family sitting still as if they were statues. This was nicely put in too making you want to watch some more weird scenarios along the way.
The story becomes very clever with Lennard grabbing Kathy and showing her a corpse of her dead grandma in which this looked pretty gruesome and almost disturbing but the scenery was a little too low budget and a bit cheesy for that. Yet this guy actually has sex with this corpse which makes you cringe big time and be grossed out. So the cheesiness is made up with all of this which can really gross you out big time.
There's more grizzly scene's like a naked body on a table with a killer in a gas mask and white uniform slicing this body in half in which this seemed impressive to watch if you love gruesome horror effects.
Alot of great bloody gunshootings with some of the mafia members against the people in the gas masks as well as alot of running around in which this would look perfect for a Grindhouse type of horror flick along with the action used in it too.
Bottom line is the film seemed clever and well done for an independent flick but sometimes it seems a little too trite and tiresome. The flick also looked like a paying tribute to George A. Romero's cult classic The Crazies but this one seemed to be in a bit better style with all that was happening.

The acting is pretty well done in which lead actor Andy Callaghan (Johnny Valentine) seemed to really know his craft playing a mafia type leader in which he shows a perfect gruff seriousness to his role along with his good rough serious and angry looks which was another bonus to his part. He really knew on how to act violent with everything that he did in into his part of the film and was a worthy character actor to say the least. He showsa good sneering and blocking reactions as well as getting forceful which seems fairly impressive along with a good brutal smacking and punching scene's. He does a good job falling onto a table after being shot which is a great reaction and then choking out his words which looked believeably touching here. A great shot and energetic moment with him jumping out, shouting and firing his gun in which his vengeful reaction looked very natural.
Sid White (Shaun Mitchum) really brought a good uplifting bubbly attitude into his role as one of the easy going types but can really change that when he seriously means business and shows off a ton of good energy when he is gun fighting or doing other types of events not letting his characteristics lack at all.
Johnny Lynch (Paul Milland) was another example in which he also shows a good bubbly type of behavior along with adding some wit and charm into his role but yet can show a nice nasty and violent behavior to his role when he has some unfinished business. I really admired this guy since he does this well and has the right looks for this part too. Yet he isn't convincing while beating up someone in the bathroom which seems to be too set out.
David Frost (Lennard Stalin) stood out perfectly in his effective supporting role in which he had a good slick and smooth talking type of personality in his role seeming a little too easy going and then really knowing on how to get into a crazy mode and crazily goofy too. He just did all of this nicely. He does well acting insane and abusive towards someone by speaking wickedly with good hype. He was the real key role into the horror story and really shows it off terrifically.
Claire Louise Catterall (Kathy) however was a little too over the top and quite mellodramatic into what she did in her role as someone who was disturbed. She tried way too hard and was getting carried away. She seemed to be the only criticism out of the whole cast and needs some acting lessons cause she didn't impress me at all. However, there's nice blocking moments and shots on supporting her tumbling and running awkwardly out of a church towards one of the other actors embracing towards him which seemed a bit cheesy but fairly energetic at the same time. There's a moment when she calmly tells someone not to drink a beer and then freaks as well as running away which seemed roughly performed as you could tell this scene needed to look a bit intense. She is getting aggressive towards some people getting out of a vehicle which seemed well paced but at times it also seemed a little over the top. She gets into a lustful scene pretty well along with a nice reaction on her shrieking and acting energetic attacking. There is a moment on her not reacting too well with her sobbing like she's supposed to during an intimidating moment in the flick.

There's a threesome getting it on in the woods showing a good breast shot on a woman
A big woman is bare breasted on a TV screen of a porn flick
A butt shot on a guy is revealed while making love to a corpse
A full naked body is lying on a table while about to be chopped up

Many bloody gunshots with blood splurting out
People being beaten to a pulp
A woman is being stabbed with strips of flesh being cut
A woman is tied up having her neck slit by a machette as well as a guy having his head drilled and blood gushing out
Many bloody stabbings and slashings

A sharp object is stabbed in a guy's neck with blood gushing out
A slimy corpse is revealed with maggots etc
A body is sawed in half with lots of blood gushing out
Heads are bloodily shot
A corpse is badly bloodied lying on the ground

The music seems to be conducted by a synthesizer but yet it has some amazing classical sounds to it like some good pounding showdown during scene's at a forest when someone is about to get killed. There's also good metal clanging as well as synthesizer high pitched trombone playing too as this works incredibly well too. Along with the shooting sequences and the chasing moments there's perfect high pitched and fast paced violin sounds as this almost sounds very mainstream like. The music was put together by Ken Moore.