The Violent Kind

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Sometimes when I go digging for some of that underground horror, I can come across something decent. There's a certain aspect to low-budget horror that can make things creepier, and if done up right, can be quite effective proving that often, with horror, less is more. But the thing is, there needs to be a good dose of originality to them. 'Friday the 13th', for example, copies from 'Halloween'. But in that first film, the killer reveal still came as a big surprise. 'The Violent Kind' is a combination of rip offs, taking 'Evil Dead' and various home invasion movies and making something that just plain does not suck a horror fan in.

I got this title from a list of supposedly good horror movies we may not have heard of, so I gave it a shot. What I got, however, was a bit more in the realm of a high school drama project if the teacher said "you're allowed to make it a hard-R". And what can I say? This is going to be a short one, and a lot of that is admittedly my complete lack of interest I was left with. Things start off with a biker beat-down, just to ensure we know what kind of movie we're in for. We meet Cody (Cory Knauf), Q (Bret Roberts) and Elroy (Nick Tagas); second-gen bikers who head to a remote cabin for Cody's mother's (Samantha Stone - a name I might have wrong, so feel free to correct) birthday. They are joined by Shade (Taylor Cole); Q's girlfriend and Cody's cousin and... the cousin relationship we see here does feel a touch 'Game of Thrones'-ish, but it's hinted at more than established and therefore ultimately confusing.

Upon reaching the party, they run into Cody's ex, Michelle (Tiffany Shepis) and her sister, Megan (Christina McDowell), who is actually into Cody. So, everyone leaves the party, eventually leaving Cody, Q, Elroy, Shade and Megan alone while her sister takes off. Things go off the rails when Michelle comes back all messed up and seemingly possessed. These new problems eventually lead to the home invasion aspect, involving three dangerous characters named Vernon (Joe Egender), Jazz (Joseph McKelheer) and Murderball (Samuel Child). They are seeking out Michelle and whatever is possessing her, but everyone denies knowing her location. Anyway, the movie takes a super weird turn here and when it's all said and done, it is a bit of a "what the hell did I just watch?" kind of flick.

That's basically all there is to it, and I get the feeling this might have a cult following that I don't fully understand. But quite honestly, even with scenes meant to make you cringe or turn away, I just plain wasn't affected by any of it and the biggest emotion it got from me was annoyance. It's full of tropes, right along with a girl going out into the darkness asking stupid questions like "is anyone there?" The three big villains are so incredibly irritating to me. Once they hit the scene, everything feels like it's trying way, way too hard to pay tribute to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. They even have two psycho women with them named Trixie (Mackenzie Firgens) and... *cringe*... Pussywagon (Ilea Alfaro), and I sincerely didn't get some of the choices they went with here.

So, just to make sure this review remains the short one I said it would be, I'll keep it simple. 'Evil Dead' is a classic, there is a decent selection of home invasion movies to pick from that are better, and this is not worth your time. I will give kudos to the filmmakers for managing to get it out there and reaching a section of that underground horror audience as newcomers, because that's a difficult one to accomplish. But I can say with full confidence that there is far better, similar material out there. There was nothing for me here at all, really.

1/5

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