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Reviews
Stripped (2013)
Garbage in a disk
A group of friends go to Las Vegas for a birthday party. The guys visit some strippers, only to be killed by organ thieves. Unfortunately, "Stripped" is the latest hand-held disaster to hit the Horror genre, this time completely ripping off "Hostel" in the worst of all possible ways. The film feels like a bunch of obnoxious 20-somethings just grabbed a phone camera and began filming their idiotic adventures in Vegas, which just makes us hate each and every character minutes after they are introduced. Anyone who doesn't turn this film off after the first ten minutes and waits to see the murders will be sorely let down again by the boring death scenes and the ludicrous killer. The director breaks all of the rules of the "found-footage" genre by frequently switching to a third-person perspective in a failed attempt to heighten the tension. In the end, you'll be wishing you never wasted your time or money watching this garbage.
Aftershock (2012)
You can do better than this Mr. Roth
Three friends (one of which is portrayed by Eli Roth) party in Chile. We spend the first half of the film meeting these guys, and learning about each of them. They meet a trio of women, and party with them throughout Chile too. While in an underground dance club in the city, an earthquake hits. Following that initial earthquake, we follow the survivors as they face many obstacles, including aftershocks from the initial blast, missing limbs, looters in the streets, loud storm sirens indicating an incoming tsunami, and freed prisoners who escaped when the initial earthquake opened up the prison. The build-up to the disaster takes forever though, and we spend half of the film meeting the characters before the earthquake. There isn't much to note in terms of acting, as no one stands out, but no one is annoying enough to warrant loads of complaints. There are small roles by Selena Gomez and RZA as well. Not the worst horror movie I've rented recently, but with Eli Roth involved, one would expect better.
Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Not very good
The idea of an "extreme tour" of an abandoned city is a good one, this city being Pripyat, which was home to the workers and their families that ran the Chernobyl reactor, up until the disaster in 1986 which led to its abandonment. A group of young tourists go in a van to see this place but are turned away at the checkpoint due to "maintenance". Their tour guide, however, knows more than one way into the place, so the group gets to see the abandoned city, but something else is going on and they're stranded when someone or something tampers with their van. The good bits are that the film is creepy and the atmosphere is good. The bad bits is that the film becomes increasingly clumsy and events are well beyond belief as the film rolls on toward the end. As the surviving members flee for their lives from mostly unseen assailants and you realize where they actually are, it's a bit shocking, but the ending itself is just a bit too ridiculous. Overall, not great but certainly passable.