My good friends over at Bloodtypeonline have been raving about this film for the past few months now saying it was one of the best independent horror films they’ve seen in 2006. Needless to say, they were right. And I’m glad I was able to get a screener copy sent to me from the director, Fred Vogel. On a side note Fred was even kind enough to sign the screener for me as well. Anyway on to my review…..
Redsin Tower has a very well developed plot, one of which takes the concept of a bad breakup and turns it into an all out horror film. Right off the bat I able to relate. Not so much to the “Oh I’m so confused, can’t chose between my bitch of a friend or my loving boyfriend bitch” Kim. But the great guy turned crazy psycho Mitch. I’ve been in Mitch’s shoes before. Not so much to go get a gun and threaten to kill people over a break up. But close enough.
Now getting back to the plot. The Redskin Tower is a bout, as I mentioned above a girl named Kim who just broke up with her boyfriend Mitch. Mitch heart has been broken so bad, that he actually becomes the psycho ex-boyfriend. Constantly calling Kim, letting her know how much he loves her, and so on…. Kim’s friends are happy she broke it off with Mitch, and invite her to go out and hang out with a few guys. So Kim agrees to go out, and meet new people and hang out and everything. While Mitch goes on a rampage, even going so far as to borrow a gun from a friend. Kim and her friend go to this party and the guys and girls hanging out there all want to go to The Redsin Tower and hang out. Redsin the former owner of the Tower, was a nut job who went crazy and killed women or some shit. He buried his wife alive in a wall, ala Edgar Allen Poe’s story. And did some other messed up stuff. Anyway it’s kind of local urban legend. However urban legend it’s not, and When Kim and her new friends enter The Redsin Tower they will soon find out that the tower is more than just a spooky place to hang out, it can actually kill you.
Alright so, you want the skinny about why this film worked so well for me? Well you might be surprised. First off, Redsin Tower has your basic horror plot elements. Ones that usually never go over so well with me, but in this film they did. You have your basic group of late teen’s/twenty something year olds, all of them are young, horney and just want to get drunk and do some drugs. So yeah we have some drug use, drinking and of course your usual topless young women running around and a lot of simulated sex. So yes it has the formula for what could be a disaster of a horror film. But not this film. This film uses it to it’s advantage which most independent films fail to do. What Redsin Tower has it good character development and a story that may not be that tight, but in the end all ties together in a positive way. As a horror film Redsin Tower has enough gore to make all the gore fiends happy. And enough story and tight filmmaking to keep most basic horror fans and fellow filmmakers glued to the screen.
The acting for a low budget horror film is surprisingly pretty good. Nothing that can garnish an academy award, but with the large amounts of low budget horror films I’ve seen, it was nice to see that Fred Vogel can actually direct his actors to the point where their performances were believable. Mr. Vogel did put his lead actress though hell though. But you know what; Bethany Newell should be proud of her performance. This girls a trooper, to put up with the things she had to do. My hats off to her. Perry Tiberio who played Mitch, I have the utmost respect for. I’m not sure if he himself ever went though a bad breakup before, so he was able to garnish such a great performance from. But his ability to act like a psycho ex-boyfriend was perfect.
On the issue of special effects; Lets just say that we get plenty of gore which makes this film become what it is. We really don’t get much in terms of blood and guts until the second half of the film, but it’s well worth the wait. If your a fan of the effects from The Evil Dead, Redsin Tower has similar, yet a more updated look to the makeup effects of Evil Dead.
Overall, I may be going out on a limb by saying this, and some people might think I need to go on some heavy meds for this. But I think that Redsin Tower is to independent horror right now as Evil Dead was to independent horror in the 1980’s. An overall great independent horror films, and one of the best I’ve seen this past year.
– 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
