Review of Laid to Rest (2009) by Ian B — 16 Sep 2010

Laid to Rest tries to be a throwback to the cheesy slashers of the 80's, but in the end just comes off as another bland effort highlighted by some decent gore effects. As with most low budget horror flicks the main problems here are the shitty acting and dialogue. Even by horror movie standards this is some of the most wooden and cliched dialogue and acting you're likely to see. It's too bad, because with a better script and lead actress this could have been a decent little movie.

Writer/director Robert Hall and cinematographer Scott Winig have created a very good looking film for something so low budget, but it's diminished by the awful music video/ADD editing (when will filmmakers get the clue this style of editing is GARBAGE?). While Hall may have a knack for creating a decent looking horror film, he can't write a script to save his life. Seriously, the dialogue and plot holes in this movie are more annoying and frustrating than the last 50 bad horror movies I've seen combined. I just can't help but laugh thinking of Hall writing the dialogue and thinking to himself "man, this is good!". Stay away from scripts...we've suffered enough.

What hurts the film just as much as the weak script is watching one god-awful lead actress try and carry this movie. With her performance as "the girl", Bobbi Sue Luther (married to the director - shock!) cements herself as one of the worst actress of all time, and has beaten Halloween 5's Tina as the most annoying horror movie chick of all time! This girl just kept getting dumber, more selfish and annoying as the movie went on. A poorly written, annoying lead character who we want to see die combined with a wooden, laughable performance equals one hard to watch movie. One the plus side, the supporting cast are actually quite good as they seem to be having a little more fun with the idiocy of the movie.

Aside from Hall's surprisingly good visuals, the only other positive you can take away from this movie are the gore effects. In fact they're the only thing that will keep most people from turning this movie off. Hall (who is also an FX man) sure knows how to put creative and over-the-top gore on screen. And no CGI blood to be found anywhere is also a big plus. Causing all this carnage is the film's villain, Chrome Skull. A creepy looking dude who's a little too full of himself (a vanity license plate, really?) and never really comes off too frightening. The fact he has to keep gluing his mask back on is a bit silly. Never heard of straps, buddy?

Okay, so Laid to Rest isn't the absolute worst slasher movie to come along in the last few years, but the awful script and lead actress sure make this a hard one to sit through. Robert Hall proves he can make a good looking film (get a new editor) and effectively pile on the red stuff, just hand over the writing duties to someone else and don't fall into the Rob Zombie trap of hiring your horrid actress of a wife to be in all your movies. Worth a look only for die hard slasher fans and gore hounds.