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Don’t Let Him In Review

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Don't Let Him In Cover PosterMovie: Don’t Let Him In
Year: 2011
Studio: Straightwire Films
Director: Kelly Smith
Language: English
Length: 80 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Slasher

Plot: A fun-filled weekend getaway turns into a real-life nightmare for two couples who find themselves targeted by a serial killer. To make matters worse, the revelation of a dark secret divides the group when they need each other most.

Review: As in all slashers, the tension is ratcheted up from the get-go. You see some deranged man sawing off body parts while another woman is struggling with getting free. From there we jump back in time 2 days earlier.

We meet 2 couples heading out into isolation for a peaceful getaway. One of the ladies (Gemma Harvey) just had a one-night stand with a macho guy (Gordon Alexander), who is actually the younger sister of the other gentleman (Sam Hazeldine). That leaves one character left, Paige (Sophie Linfield), who was the tied up chick from the beginning.

You meet 3 other characters along the way in Don’t Let Him In; a hitchhiker, a sheriff, and a palm reader. This is a small cast, but nothing out of the norm for a low budget slasher. The story unfolds at a quick and steady pace which is always a positive for any movie, plus, you learn about “The Tree Surgeon,” a sadistic serial killer who hangs body parts from tree branches. There is not much down time, and the acting was fine, so at no point are you taken out of the film.

As slashers are my forte, Don’t Let Him In had some decent kills and some scary moments. Even a few back-and-forth twists are thrown in which made it enjoyable. There are some excellent throat slices that the camera focused on, giving gore fans a treat, outside of that, there were no inventive kills or nothing you haven’t seen before. The music and score was sort of a letdown. I would of liked a more chilling and bone-jarring track.

On a whole, Don’t Let Him In is a better than average horror flick from the UK, and one that needs to be seen. The movie was released less than 2 weeks ago on January 3rd of 2012, on DVD, BluRay and even for a 3-day rental at Amazon VOD, and if you have a Roku set-top box, it is available there also. My recommendation is; rent it or stream it, there is plenty there for horror fans to embellish one-time.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 01/14/2012
Rating: 6/10
Recommendation: Rental		 Trailer: Watch
DVD: Overstock
BluRay: Amazon
Social Media: Facebook

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Horror Palace Network & IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase)

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HPN And IMDB

All Horror Palace Network written posts will be available on IMDB. (www.imdb.com). We thank IMDB for posting every critics written review that appears on Horror Palace. IMDB has an excellent feature when looking for horror critic specific reviews.

At the top of the page of a specific movie, you will notice “Reviews,” these are user reviews from IMDB, but if you look to the right of that you will see “Critics” this takes you to a separate page that will show you external websites (including us) that has reviewed the movie.

This is a great feature as IMDB specific reviews and comments are generally biased and not coming from a horror fan or reviewer perspective. This is why you should always go to the Critics link on IMDB and find out what an actual horror movie reviewer thinks of the movie you are looking at.

We thank IMDB for listing all of the written reviews on Horror Palace!

Night Drive Review

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Night Drive Cover PosterMovie: Night Drive
Year: 2011
Studio: The Film Factory
Director: Justin Head
Language: English
Length: 102 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Slasher, Thriller, Animals

Plot: Night Drive is a gritty South African thriller/horror, set against the backdrop of the beautifully romantic African Bush, where an eclectic mix of tourists is left stranded during a night drive. It is only when they realize that they are being hunted by a group of poachers that the terror truly begins.

Review: The opening scene of Night Drive really captivates the imagination. You get glimpses of African tribesmen doing bizarre things with body parts, bullets and this unknown juice that it drank. There are glimpses of gore, bloody machetes, internal organs and hyenas all rolled into one.

After the beginning montage of random things it jumps to a cop somewhere in South Africa. The story unwinds at a slow pace, he is chasing after a drug lord and events happen that cause him to lose his job. From there we are taken to this so-called “Night Drive” where vacationers are taken on a wildlife excursion through the deadly terrain of South Africa, in search of expanding their horizons, with peace, tranquility and the hopes of seeing wild animals.

The story finally starts to unfold about 45-50 minutes in. The basic concept to Night Drive is; poachers are not killing animals but humans, they need fresh, internal body parts to perform their cult-like rituals involving hyenas. After the brutal killings, the bodies are left for the hyenas to munch on.

As you can see by the summary, the story is wild, very hard to follow at times, especially since they go back-and-forth with transitional scenes, and most of the time the camera is not fixed, causing jerkiness during the action scenes. The acting was surprisingly good for a horror movie of this type. The music and sound effects were engaging, not scary, but more of a riveting type. There are many machete scenes, that gets a point right there! But actually, there was only one effective kill scene in this whole movie and it was done extremely well.

The story is the biggest downfall along with the quick cutaways of the most gruesome scenes. There is a handy little twist in the end I enjoyed and never seen coming. I was never bored, but then again I never thoroughly could see what was happening, so we have a mixed bag. I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out, but if you come across Night Drive online or at a local movie rental shop, pick it up, I think you will get something out of it.

Reviewer: BillChete
Date: 01/05/2012
Rating: 5½/10
Recommendation: Rental		 Trailer: Watch
DVD: DVD Empire
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Facebook