By Geno McGahee
An amusement park is a great setting for a horror movie. SCREAM PARK got points right out of the gate for just that, but, sadly, the rest of the film didn’t offer much. Wild Eye Releasing is bringing this film to VOD and DVD on April 22nd and it’s advertised as a “retro slasher,” which it is, but don’t get too excited.
We have a group of high school kids working at an amusement park that is closing and they convince the manager to let them stay and party considering that it’s the last night of the park. He reluctantly agrees and that’s when two masked men show up and start killing off people. Cary Hill, the writer and director of this, was an obvious fan of THE STRANGERS, but is also an obvious fan of the old school horror. The influences are quite clear.
The two killers are walking the park, one in a burlap bag mask and the other in a strange bird-like mask, and they are both rednecks. The leader is trying to be Bill Mosley from HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES but the acting chops just aren’t there. It’s rough to stay with this one.
The survivors try to survive and leave us with one girl, Missi (Nicole Beattie) making it out alive. The explanation that the owner of the park set this up to generate business is silly, but this is horror and horror is supposed to be silly. I can give it a pass on that one, but I am getting the sneaking suspicion that the makers of this film had access to this park, realized that it’s the ideal location for a horror film and just couldn’t come up with anything good to shoot.
The cinematography is not very good and distracting. There was also a great deal of bad CGI that seemed unnecessary at times. I found that it took away from the film and every time that this CGI would be used, I would lose interest. The film had this raw feel to it and I really liked that, but the CGI hurt the overall feel.
SCREAM PARK reminds me of the movies that I used to rent from Hollywood Video back in the early 2000s and it was nice to have somewhat of a throwback, but the story just isn’t good, the characters not developed, acting not believable, and camerawork shoddy. I wanted badly to love this, but, in the end, there was too much wrong with it. It did bring me back to a time when the video stores were all over the place. There was some charm here but this film could have been so much more.
Rating: 5/10
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| Scream Park (Official Trailer) |
The DVD release of Scream Park (SRP $14.95) will exclusively include a commentary with director Cary Hill, bloopers and trailers, available at major retailers nationwide including Best Buy and Walmart .
