Twists, Setting, Gore Save Generic See No Evil

     See No Evil is more nauseating than it is scary. It is brutally excruciating to watch on as person after person has their eyes manually pried out of their skulls, but I am sure that is what the folks behind the new horror movie were banking on. The flick is chock-full of disgusting death sequences capable of making even the most serious horror fan turn away from the screen.

     Most impressive about the motion picture is the set design. It is far from being even remotely original (haven’t we seen this place before in Saw II?), but it gets the job done. The eerie mood is set immediately after the characters step foot into the creaky old hotel that the villain calls home-sweet-home. In a way, the hotel takes on a life of its own since it is complex enough to present a plethora of puzzling mazes yet familiar enough to recognize where we’ve been and where certain passageways lead. It is a horror fan’s dream setting.

     See No Evil is the first movie produced by WWE (yes, as in World Wrestling Entertainment) Films. However, aside from its star, Kane (aka Glen Jacobs), the movie doesn’t exactly let on that it has anything to do with wrestling. In fact, it stands on its own two feet beside other hardcore horror flicks like Hostel and High Tension.

     The movie opens as a police officer investigating a disturbance shoots a serial killer in the head but loses an arm in the process. Four years later, he is now in charge of a group of eight delinquents who are sent to clean and help renovate the Blackwell Hotel one weekend. Each of them have their hang-ups with one another but they must soon learn to get along if they have any hope to survive.

     Kane stars as Jacob Goodnight, the somewhat-supernatural serial killer that the police officer shot four years ago. Now residing within the secret passageways of the hotel, Goodnight is known for prying the eyeballs out of his victims’ heads (but is not too proud to wield a chained hook). Goodnight is not the happiest fellow when the teens and police officer make their way onto his property. Instead of calling the cops, though, he deals with the home invasion in his own traditional way.

     The plot is fairly generic so its success depends on the way in which things go down – or, cinematically speaking (<-- this could be a great new title for my website… dibs!), the movie’s style is key. Once again, we’ve seen similar styles in other flicks from the genre and any original material comes in the form of odd camera angels that only result in a dizzying effect.

     Still, the movie isn’t as bad as one would expect. In fact, I would highly recommend it to all hardcore horror fans. At the same time, I would advise folks that don’t take to horror flicks to stay far away from See No Evil. However, that is more a result of the blood and gore than it is the quality of the movie.

      See No Evil is a decent horror flick that is as fun as it is short. It is unlikely that anyone will be referencing the motion picture with any praise in terms of originality or inventiveness, but this in-the-moment film is a whole lot of fierce fun. There are several twists and turns that are rather surprising – an effect not easy to accomplish in this genre. For these intelligent twists, the perfectly creepy locale, and the myriad gruesome special effects, See No Evil is one comparatively bad movie that demands to be seen.