Laid To Rest Review

 So, I happened to be at Walmart the other day and while doing my grocery shopping, I somehow found myself in the DVD section.  How did this happen…it’s like I am drawn to it or something.  Anyway, I wanted to see if they had the movie Martyrs which I have heard a lot of buzz about.  They did have the DVD but unfortunately it was the R rated version and not the unrated version I was looking for. 

Right next to this movie was one called ‘Laid To Rest” which looked like it would be right up my alley.  It looked low budget, I had never heard of it before and it looked promising.  Again, this was the R rated version so I went home and looked it up on Netflix.  Just a few days ago, I received the unrated edition of Laid to Rest via Netflix and after putting my little ones to bed and after my wife had retired for the night…it was slasher cinema at the Briel household.

If you google the movie, you will find quite a lot of buzz about how great it is put together and how amazing Robert Hall did in writing and directing the movie.  Robert Hall has made a name for himself for being an amazing special effects / make-up artist and this movie “Laid to Rest” promised to have outstanding kill scenes and gore.  That it had…top notch gore if I say so myself.

Now, I decided a while back not to write bad reviews of movies and I will continue with that thinking, however I didn’t think it was a great movie.  I mean, I did love the kill scenes, the special effects were outstanding, but to me it felt like it was a bit hodge podge of a film.  I didn’t hate it, I was entertained and stuck through the film from start to finish… I just don’t think it deserves the buzz it has been receiving on the internet.

The acting was pretty weak in my opinion and there seems to be a big disconnect between the viewer and the actors.  For instance, there is a whole bunch of scenes where no one has a phone (home or cell) and honestly…who doesn’t have at least a cell phone?  Another scene has a guy using the internet and no one seems to know what the internet is.  Really?   This movie doesn’t take place back in the day either, the main villain drives a new Chrysler 300M with a spiffy navigation system in it with a top of the line chrome cell phone. 

This leads me to the Villain; his name is Chrome Skull.  Yeah, I said it…Chrome Skull.  I am sorry but that name is horrible.  He is a guy who wears a chrome skull over his face (which we never really get to see until the end and even that doesn’t count) who wears a camcorder on his shoulder and videos all his killings.  He then mails the tapes into the police to taunt them.  Ol Chrome Skull can’t speak because apparently he has a fucked up face and is missing some important facial features (which we never really see) so he communicates by texting. 

The story is pretty good, I like the beginning and I like what happens throughout the movie, I just think a little more development would have been nice.  For instance, the main protagonist in the movie is a girl who wakes up in a coffin and has amnesia.  This is good because at least when she does dumb shit like run out into the woods when there is a killer out on the loose…well we just chalk it up to; “she just can’t remember shit.” 

The saving grace for the movie with me is that it did have spectacular kills and it actually looked realistic.  I mean, there is a scene where a guy gets shot in the face with a shotgun and it looks beautiful.  Well, I guess beautiful isn’t the correct word…it looks…maybe…authentic?  Yeah, that’s the right description.  Also, have you ever wondered what it would look like if someone cut the front of a person’s face off with a knife looks like?  If so, this is the movie for you.

Overall, I would say this film is entertaining, it is very brutal in terms of gore and there are some good concepts.  It isn’t the most original movie I have seen but it is worth a rent if you like to see people dismembered and brutalized.  Check it out and let me know what you think.