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Amusement
is an anthology consisting of four stories
in which a demented serial killer tracks down and
hunts innocent victims for his amusement.
Finally, the movie that we've all been waiting for
is here. On DVD, but nevertheless, it's still here.
To be honest with you, I don't think that it would
have been very successful had it actually gone
theatrical but as a DTV slasher flick this is just
terrific. Amusement is somewhat an anthology but not
quite because there are three stories that are
tied together so cleverly that it doesn't feel like
an anthology. The movie opens with a couple driving
home late one night and end up in a convoy. They
figure that it's a good way to get home quicker so
they stick with it. What they don't know is that
they're in a convoy with a serial killer.
The second story is the classic terrorized babysitter
story where a babysitter is freaked out by a big
clown doll that's in the room that she's staying in.
This is by far my favourite story as it was extremely
creepy and had a terrific atmosphere. The third
story involves a girl looking for her missing friend
in an old bed and breakfast and there's nothing
really special about this story until the end of
it. In fact, none of the stories are very spectacular,
it's the clever and refreshing twists that make them
so brilliant. Finally, the fourth story is the one
that ties all the stories together and I really
don't want to go into detail with this one but this
is where things really got good.
Amusement is a bumpy ride, I'll tell you that. It's
not a perfect horror flick by any means but the
pay-off is so great that you forget about the flaws.
In fact, I dare to say that Amusement has one of the
best endings that I've seen in a horror flick in
almost ten years. A funny thing about Amusement is
that the writer, Jake Wade Wall also wrote the
screenplays for the remakes of The Hitcher and When
A Stranger Calls as well as the script for the
upcoming horror flick Clock Tower. In other words,
he's used the basic ideas from his other works and
made something fresh and exciting out of them. Maybe
this was his way to show that he really does have
some talent, or maybe he just got lucky. What's
even more impressive is that director John Simpson
only has two full-length features behind him and
I've never heard of either of them.
When you take everything into consideration, I guess
that Amusement shouldn't have come out as good as it
did but all I know is that this is the most fun
I've had watching a movie since Eden Lake. It's an
outstanding horror movie and has something for
everyone. I guarantee that everyone will like at least
one of these stories but try to forget that it was
meant to be theatrical. As a direct to video flick
it's brilliant, as a theatrical flick, it's not
quite strong enough. On the other hand, compared to
movies like One Missed Call and Shutter I guess
anything deserves a theatrical release.
Some minor gore, not a lot actually.
Stellar score. Does the trick.
Well the title doesn't lie. Amusement is indeed very
amusing in many ways. It's refreshing, it's clever
and it will outsmart you whether you like it or not.
I highly recommend that you check this outstanding
horror flick out as soon as possible.
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