I’ve learned a long time ago that you can never judge a film by it’s trailer, simply because trailers consist of all the good parts of the film and never the bad. LAID TO REST had a great trailer, so I was a bit skeptical about how great of a film it was going to be. Then I saw early reviews and saw how many people praised the it. Then friends of mine saw it and didn’t care much for it. I for one found it to be a movie that has it’s ups and downs.
LAID TO REST starts off with a women who is trapped in a coffin. She does not know how she got there and seems to be suffering from some form of amnesia. She escapes the confines of the coffin only to awake into another nightmare. She is being stalked by a crazed killer who carries two very sharp knifes and wears a chrome skull mask. The women escapes the funeral home she is being held in and finds her way to a road where she is picked up by a passerby named Tucker (Kevin Gage). Tucker brings her back to his house where his wife is waiting for him. They both agree to take of this girl and try to help her remember who she is. However, with the help of modern technology and a camcorder the chrome faced killer is able to track them down and forces then to experience one hell of a night as he chases them all over town killing anyone that gets in his way.
The story behind LAID TO REST is not original in it’s concept but adds original elements that make the film stand out as more than just another slasher flick. While you can compare the Chrome Skull Killer to the likes of Michael Meyers, he is a bit more brutal with the way in which he kills his victims. He’s a killer you can’t per sway the slightest to even think it over if he’s going to kill you or not. He simply just kills everyone. The script is pretty good, but does have a few flaws with it’s dialogue and scene placement. It does have a good story but it does tend to jump around a lot from location to location. The character development is very good and even though we do have some characters that fit that horror film cliché, we do tend to take a liking to them very quickly.
I’m not going to say that the acting in the film was great, but it wasn’t too bad. The film did have a lot of familiar faces, even though many of them were in small roles. They include, Sean Whalen, Richard Lynch, Johnathon Schaech and of course Kevin Gage who was in a much larger role. Our lead actress as the girl is Bobbi Sue Luther, who’s name is known by wrestling fans whom was Semi-Finalist in the WWE Diva search. But she also has had roles in a few other horror flicks such as The Poughkeepsie Tapes and the upcoming remake of Night of the Demons. She also produced the film with her husband and Writer/Director of LAID TO REST Robert Hall.
The film’s production value was not half bad. While it did have a that look of an eighties direct to video horror flick, it only added to the overall creepy fell of the film. The style kind of reminded me of the way Don Coscarelli shot PHANTASM. I did find it to be edited a bit sloppy and some of the cuts seemed a bit off, but nothing that the average fan would notice. One thing that this film did do well where a lot of other low budget horror films fail is in it’s effects. There are plenty of original kill scenes, and the effects are like ones you’ve never seen before. For fans who need a lot of gore to enjoy their horror films, LAID TO REST has plenty of it. There are scenes that are going to make you turn your head. I guess when you have a effects expect directing the film your going to get great effects. In this case it’s a positive for the film as a whole, as the effects help push the film to a level of being just more than another slasher film.
While LAID TO REST does have it’s flaws, it’s a horror film that is very entertaining and does have it’s fare share of scares and plenty of blood, guts and gore. I had a fun time watching it and I think the majority of horror fans will enjoy this one as well. It’s not masterpiece but it’s one of those horror films that takes a few ideas from other past horror films and puts it’s own original twist on them.
The DVD has a few bonus features which include Audio commentary with Writer/Director Robert Hall and Actor/Producer Bobbi Sue Luther. There is also two featurettes; one called Postmortem: The Making of LAID TO REST and Torture: The Special Effects of LAID TO REST. There are also trailers, deleted scenes and a bloopers reel.
– 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
