[2.00/10] Donner Pass (2012)

Donner Pass (2012)

Brief review: Teen slasher meets cannibalism in this low-budget horror film inspired by the campfire legend of 'The Donner Party' tragedy back in 1846. "Donner Pass" uses this unfortunate event as a gimmick, thinking that's a winning move, but truth to be told, it never works in its favor, not even for a moment. The whole plot is as absurd as it's stupid, and the movie itself becomes more and more nonsensical as the story progresses, leading to a ridiculous conclusion with one of the most laughably bad twists ever put on film. Set in a remote fancy cabin deep in the woods, surrounded by a snowy environment, "Donner Pass" is at least nice to look at. However, the plain, unpolished cinematography makes it look too inexpensive and uninteresting, visually. The gore effects are passable, even if the gore itself isn't particularly satisfying in terms of graphicness and frequency. Worst of all, there's nothing even remotely frightening or creepy about this film, which fails to provide even cheap thrills and boo scares. Actually, there is one dreadful thing about "Donner Pass", and that is the acting. Apart from Desiree Hall, who delivers the only decent and believable performance as the reasonable Kayley, the rest of the performances range from amateurish to annoying. 99% of the characters are so dumb and shallow, and act so unnaturally and illogically, you'll find yourself begging to see them all dead.

Overall summary: Cliched, poorly-made, terribly-acted and lacking in any thrills whatsoever, "Donner Pass" is yet another 'urban legend'-inspired horror flick with very low entertainment value, that brings absolutely nothing new to the table in terms of fresh ideas.

[2.00/10] Insane (2010)

Insane (2010)

After the amazing and super-successful "Let the Right One In", which set the bar for Scandinavian horror very very high, everyone is expecting from Sweden to deliver a good horror flicks to say the least. Unfortunately, it turned out that Swedish filmmakers are neither as good nor as creative as their Norwegian fellas, when speaking of horror. Norway provided some truly great films of this genre, like "Cold Prey" and its sequel, "Dead Snow" and the upcoming moc-doc phenomenon "Troll Hunter", to name a few, while Sweden brought only one great film, "Let the Right One In", and some other pretty poor horror flicks, including the atrocious "Insane" - an extremely dull, completely amateurish and terribly-crafted slasher, that fails to deliver thrills, suspense and tolerable story. A lonely hotel by a lonely road. Sarah is lost, looking for somewhere to sleep. She’s come to the wrong place. A lonely hotel by a lonely road. Sarah is lost, Jenny is looking for her. She’s come to the right place. The Bridgeburn Hotel. The synopsis above tries hard to sound creepy, but instead it ends up quite silly, just like the movie itself. No need to comment on the script, as it is, well, lacking, just like everything else. All the characters in "Insane" are flat and one-dimensional, badly-portrayed by a bunch of amateurish actors, who perform stiffly and perform stiffly and speak in self-consciously stagy accents. Therefore, none of them deserve to be mentioned. The mysterious killer is wearing a gas mask, which is supposed to be creepy, but it's just rather uninteresting and pretty unoriginal. Putting his looks aside, the killer is surprisingly dull and un-scary, as are the death scenes themselves. Yes, they're gory and everything, but they're done with such a lack of inventiveness, that they quickly become boring to watch. The way predictable and quite ridiculous twist in the end, adds to the overall awfulness of "Insane", to make it probably the worst Scandinavian horror ever created. In terms of visuals, "Insane" is also a lackluster. Yes, the motel in the middle of nowhere is nicely-designed in the style of the 60s, and rather creepy, but that's about it. Dumb, tedious and horribly-executed, this Swedish slasher flick is nothing, but "insanely" terrible.

• My Rating: 2.00/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
• IMDb: 5.3/10