NOBODY LOVES ALICE, and either do I. Ever since the term “Torture Porn” or as I like to put it “the Torture Slasher” like HOSTEL, SAW, and the recent foreign films INSIDE & Frontier(s); it seems that a flocculation in these kind of films has made it impact on the independent scene & among new filmmakers. NOBODY LOVES ALICE falls into that category, but takes a different approach in terms of style.
NOBODY LOVES ALICE is about a young girl named Alice ( Nitzan Mager) whom out of her friends seems to be the quite one. When her co-worker Abigail (Amanda Taylor) asks her to help her out to test her soon to be fiancée Alex’s (Phillip Ward) commitment to her. Alice agrees to meet with him to test his love for Abigail. However Alice finds herself wanting more from him, and invites him back to her place, where she takes him captive and chains him up in a room in her place. While there Alice has flashbacks of her past with her abusive stepfather which triggers Alice to go insane and make up all kind of fantasy like love stories about her getting married to Alex and so on.. She also tortures him, by cutting off his leg and so on. But Abigail begins to worry because Alex has not called her in days and gets the police involved. Alice must hide the fact that she is the one that has taken Alex captive and she will do anything to keep her secret from being revealed.
I have some major issues with this films script. I understand that the beginning of the film was meant to develop the characters and the story, the problem is that it drags on forever and ever with very long and boring conversations fill of major dialogue and it slows the down the first half of the film and by the time we get to the real action in the second act we’re already bored from having to sit though these long scenes from the beginning. The second half of the film is when all the horrific stuff starts to happen and is when the story starts to move ahead full force. But if it wasn’t for the fact that I watched this film in two parts, and decided to give it a second chance, and the fact that the script does somewhat deliver during the second half, I don’t think I would be giving the film the two stars I think it deserves. Sure the script does have decent character development, but the story takes forever to get established.
The film does have some flaws in it’s production value, however depending on the kind of viewer you are you might like the artistic way in which this film was shot and edited. Personally I think it had that flat digital blown out look which to me reeks of a boring film in the works especially with this script. In a nutshell the picture complemented the script in that they both dragged. I’m thinking that the director wanted to give the film this look to show the mood of how Alice was feeling, but for me it just didn’t’ work. What did work was the use of plan sets and locations as I did get the connection with the emptiness of the character of Alice and how she effects her surroundings, also the visual and special effects were pretty good as well, and I have to give director Roger Scheck credit for not making this films effects to over the top, but giving it the right mixture of gore when needed and using the less is more technique to let the audience use their imagination during some of the more brutal scenes.
The films acting is so-so, nothing really great here, but nothing so bad that your laughing at the characters. I mean the leads in the film were alright, but in some scenes, especially the violent ones they didn’t seem to convincing that their character lives were in extreme danger. During the drawn out dialogue scenes they all seemed to do decent, but where it really needed to count I felt they didn’t step up and give it their all.
Overall, I read a lot of reviews for this movie and they seem to be mixed. My guess is that this film will have more of an appeal to the art house horror fans or fans of art house film than it will with the hardcore horror fans. It has a lot of artistic feeling to it, but it lacks in many ways to be considered a true horror film. As for myself I felt it was more of a drama that leads into an insane ending. It’s not a bad film, but it’s far from a good one. It has it’s moments, but for the most part I don’t think it’s something that will go over well with the average horror fan.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
