Starting off my worst of the worst is a slasher film that just wasn’t up to snuff, coming from first time feature writer/director Jason Christopher. Undeniably rough around the edges, Nobody Gets Out Alive is a mess of cliches and stereotypes that basically borrows from every generic genre film, simultaneously showing signs of filmmaking immaturity that fails to create a distinctive voice from Christopher. There’s a local legend, some vacationing kids ignore it, they start disappearing one by one, and boom – you’ve got a horror movie.
There is positivity to this scenario though, because Christopher is still very young. His Hollywood journey is just starting, and while this script and its delivery may have been an absolute mess, some pretty brutal kills hint that some much needed tightening up could hone Christopher’s passion into a much more memorable project. While not a particularly good one, Nobody Get Out Alive is a first step for the young Jason Christopher, a name I’ll still be looking out for in the future.
[h2]4) American Mary[/h2]
The Soska sisters are getting a lot of hype after their two features Dead Hooker In A Trunk and American Mary, with many having the duo on their “Rising Stars Of Horror” list, but maybe I’m missing something. Admittedly, I haven’t seen their grindhouse inspired story about a dead hooker, but American Mary just didn’t do it for me. While the whole body modification angle was certainly interesting, enveloping me in a world I knew little about, the story didn’t have that female hero angle so many are praising the film for.
While Katharine Isabelle does what I believe to be the best she can with the character Mary, her actions seemed to lack emotion, depth, and real motivation. This traumatic event forever changes her life, but after a while you forget why Mary even started getting into the body modification game in the first place. Sure, some pretty neat effects can be found as Mary slices and dices her way to fame, but the allure of people with horns and piercings in weird places grows tiresome after a while.
The Soska’s definitely don’t lack style, but for me, American Mary failed to establish the themes that would turn Mary into a modern day superhero.