The Last Horror Movie
June. 25,2004 RA serial killer uses a horror video rental to lure his next victim. What begins as a teen slasher transforms into a disturbing journey through the mind of Max Parry, a mild mannered wedding photographer with a taste for human flesh.
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If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
A Brilliant Conflict
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
I've been a fan of horror movies and thrillers since I was a child. I'd like to think I know a little about the way they work, having studied film at university (not that that makes me an expert, mind you). In the post-modern world we live in now, there is a glut of cinema verite in our televisual entertainment, what with the plethora of reality TV shows and so on. Horror movies seem to have moved in a similar direction in some ways: witness The Blair Witch Project, Rec, Cloverfield etc. There is also an emphasis on taking the horror to its "logical" extreme by exposing the viewer to total violence and sadistic torture - note for instance the current trend of torture porn with films like Hostel and Saw. All these movies aim to place us in the action and make it seem more "real".Taking this theme of placing-the-viewer-in-reality, the writer of The Last Horror Movie would like to think he is being desperately clever, but the script in this film is so patronising and transparent it can't even pass as "art". The lead actor is just plain awful - his performance is incredibly affected and bland, with almost no nuance. Others give good performances however, especially the Assistant.The serial killer constantly looks at the camera intensely and asks us "insightful" questions like "why are you still watching?" and "don't you want to see what happened?" and so on. Utterly tedious. We KNOW why we watch horror - we don't need to be lectured about it. Horror performs a sort of ritual of exorcism for our daily lives - it enables us to live vicariously through the fictional suffering of others, knowing we would never do it ourselves (and hoping that it will never happen to us). This sort of thematic material was explored with so much more finesse and artfulness in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (which is truly shocking in its coldness), Pasolini's incredible Salo (the end sequence where we are looking through binoculars at soundless torture scenes), Belgium's excellent "Man Bites Dog" (which was ahead of its time) and even less graphic movies like Hitchcock's Rear Window and the excellent "Peeping Tom" from the early 60s. Voyeurism being explored in film is nothing new. The premise of The Last Horror Movie therefore appears incredibly naive to me, with nothing new to say. The murders are rather silly, and the whole "I followed you from the video store" line just tacky. It's one thing to take the tack of "the viewer is complicit in this murder" theme, it's quite another to shove it down their throats.
I saw this film last night and i really like it. For me is just a unique horror film with a very particular style. i know that a lot of people put here that this film was just a copy of a Belgian film: Man Bites Dog (1992) but i can tell you that is not, just the fact that both are about a film of a serial killer but both have diferents points and different style. So like Quentin Tarantino said one time: "i take ideas from other great films just like every other great filmmaker", because i'm pretty sure that Julian Richards (director) watch Man Bites Dog and he love it.Well about the plot and the cast:The way the film starts with a scene of the original film that you supposedly buy and later Max (Kevin Howarth) start to talk with you is nothing but great. The plot is about Max (who works as a wedding video grapher), a psycho who wants to make an "interesting" real horror film about his own murderers. The plot is a little repetitive but you also can see the relation of Max with his assistant, his grandma, sister, his nephews and some of his friends. Is great because Max doesn't look like a psycho and because you and his assistant are the unique persons who knows about Max's horror film.And finally the idea of the tape is nothing but great.So for me this is an excellent horror film with a lot of great ideas that make it unique.The Cast is just great, Kevin Howart (Max) is really a great actor and for the low budget the visual part of the film is amazing.About the DVD: I buy recent the DVD of this excellent film for a very good price: $3.4, this film is not very famous in Mexico so i think that the unique reason because this film was release in DVD was that have the "Fangoria presents", for me was great because it was a really good price and i could watch this film. The region 4 DVD have some good bonus material like delete scenes , a documentary about the film and interviews with the director, the producer and with Kevin Howart. Excellent for my collection.PS: the Spanish title for this film is "Diario De Un Psicopata" that in English means "Diary of a Psychopath"
"The Last Horror Movie" is an effective film that could be described as a British "Man Bites Dog". Unpredictable, witty and thought-provoking, Julian Richards' film rises above the limitations of its budget and the result is a haunting production that is difficult to forget.The film's star and narrator, Kevin Howarth, is superb as the psychopathic wedding video organiser, Max. Howarth's performance is right on the mark. Like Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho" Patrick Bateman, Max reveals the thought-processes that go through his disturbed mind. The film has the ability to put the viewer in an uncomfortable place and some scenes have a genuinely surprising outcome. This won't appeal to viewers expecting an "August Underground"-style gore-fest but it does have moments where the visual effects are excellent.An ingenious film, this is worthy of a viewing. Unlike most films, "The Last Horror Story" works best on VHS or DVD rather than the big screen. 8 out of 10.
I'm just writing here to warn people so they not get to be deceived (like I did) by the good reviews some have been giving to this crappy film. It's a disaster of a movie, and, considering it never actually gets to "move" anything, it should more be consider as a "still" than as a "movie".I have to say that there were a couple good ideas in it, but its really just a couple: the first one, at the very beginning of the movie, and the last one, let's say the two final minutes. The 75 minutes left were very, extremely, undeniable boring. There is no suspense whatsoever, and all we get is to see a crazy psycho boring us with his tedious blablabla theories of murders , psychology and human kind, looking directly to the camera, while he shows shorts scenes of his murders. I was so bored that I started counting the wrinkles on his face, cause he's that much of time on screen, just talking.I need to repeat it: What a lame movie! I really hated it. I don't remember being bored like this since I was on detention at high school. This movie really should be used as a punishment device.It was that boring. I wish I'd bought this darn film so I got to burn it. Now that would've been fun!.