HACK! DVD Review:
Hack! is the type of movie you've seen a million times before as a horror fan....And trust me that is not a compliment. Basically the plot boils down to this: A group of horny (arent they all?) college students take a field trip to King's Island to study the plants and wildlife in that region (sent by their teacher Mr. Argento no less...WOW).The group includes a Jock (football in hand just in case you didnt know), The sexy Foregien Exchange Student, The "Metal" tough chick, A "Geek" but cute type of character (played by winnie of wonder years at that!), The Black Guy pot head, The good looking guy with a heart of gold, And for good measure add in the Flaming Gay Asian guy. They unwittingly have been drawn to the island by a couple (They are named Mr. King and Mary Shelley....I kid you not) that lives there to "star" in their new horror film as they are both obsessed with horror films of the past and present. They kill each kid in a homage to horror films of the past in essence making a snuff film set for Italian audiences.( to top it all of the sheriffs are named Sheriff Stoker and Sheriff Radley who are looking for a missing person named Mr. Carpenter...GROAN!!!!) If this hasnt been enough, read on it gets worse.
The film was made for about 2 million dollars ( Not too shabby for a direct to DVD horror film) but it appears the filmmakers spent the money on cameos and cast members from known and respected genre actors. These include Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th, Hatchet), William Forsythe (The Devils Rejects,Halloween,MOH), Burt Young (ROCKY,The Outer Limits,Tales From The Crypt), Tony Burton (ROCKY, The Shining), Juliet Landau (Toolbox Murders,Fatal Reunion), Etc.
I usually would be applauding this type of casting had they all been used effectively and for a reason relevant to the actual plot. All these actors and actresses basically are tossed into throw away roles...some of which have nothing at all to do with the plot and the scenes appear to be tacked on to utilize the actor and nothing else. Take Kane for example.......his scene is at the beggining of the film and he's killed of in the matter of 30 seconds. Yet it has nothing to do with the film at all. I will be the first to point out that this can be cool in certain movies (Rob Zombie's films for example) but not at the expense of the rest of the film. |