DVD
REVIEW: THE SICKHOUSE
03/17/08
SYNOPSIS: While excavating
the site of a 17th century plague hospital, archaeologist
Anna (Gina Philips) accidentally unleashes the malevolent
spirit of a plague doctor responsible for a series of
gruesome murders 350 years earlier…and he’s ready to
practice again! Trapped inside the hospital with four
trespassing teens and hunted by the murderous spirit, Anna
must find a way for the living to escape the building before
history repeats itself and they become permanent patients.
REVIEW: There are two words
to describe this movie: Dark and Confusing. The movie starts
with great intensity with a voice of an evil little girl and
slowly begins to develop an interesting and attractive story
for fans of the horror genre. Director and producers took a
great approach by telling an alternate story about one of
the most terrible episodes live in Europe: The Plague. The
setting and camera used in my opinion is very well used, and
some of the gore scenes are just amazing. The actors
performed really well their characters, specially Gina
Phillips in its role as Anna, which looked real enough for
the movie, and Alex Hassell in his role as Nick, the setting
is also well designed since it creates a claustrophobic
atmosphere since the beginning of the movie that some how
makes the audience feel what the main character are feeling.
sound wise is great if you have a home theater system since
you can hear many creepy sounds in the background like
Little children crying making the audience getting more into
the movie.
Unfortunately the movie is far from
perfect, director Curtis Radclyffe confuses the audience
showing sporadic scenes that makes the audience wonder what
is going on, and sometimes, for some reason the movie seems
repetitive with characters moving back and forth by the same
places. The movie also makes used of the clichés of the
genre, like the cell phone without battery, the inexplicable
locking of all the doors, and the video camera that catches
what the eye can’t. There is nothing wrong with showing some
of these qualities but for some reason I think it is
overused, and it takes out momentum to the story. Its
villain also lacks imagination the designing team actually
did a terrible job designing this character for some reason
they reminded me of the old penguin from “Happy Feet.,” also
in the development the characters and the script itself is
very weak; the characters’ actions are too predictable and
sometimes the f -word is forced too much.
The Sickhouse is a great movie to
watch if there is some time to spare, I recommended this
movie to people who like weird horror movies like the Blair
Witch project, since some of the camera effects are very
similar, and to people who like to see blood, some scenes
are just nasty. Once the story peaks up it will grab you an
entertain you, but my advise is to really paid attention
since the ending is kind of confusing and you might end up
lost.
VIDEO:
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Full Screen 1.33:1
AUDIO:
English
5.1 Surround Sound, Stereo Surround Sound
Subtitles: English and Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES: The
Special Features the DVD are disappointing since it did not
have any, it would have been nice for it to have some
features explaining better the story behind the birds, the
fox, and the ending since some how is left unclear. Another
“feature” is that it has the option to be played either in
full screen or widescreen.
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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| BONUS
FEATURES |
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Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
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