Review of Bruiser (2000) by Jesse O — 17 Jul 2017

You know, I mentioned George Romero in my review for Speech and Debate. I mentioned him because, in the context of that review, I was talking about how I hate public speaking. But, in school, the best oral report I ever gave was on Mr.

Romero. I posted that review the day prior to Romero's death and it's just weird to me to be writing this review right now, knowing that one of my favorite horror filmmakers has passed away. Romero, in a way, helped me overcome that fear of speaking in public because I knew his career so damn well.

You see, the thing about George, and why I believe he still remains influential, is the fact that he was one of the first people in horror to look at the genre as something more than shock entertainment.

His films explored themes relevant to the society of his time. He will forever be known to the mainstream horror audience as being the grandfather of the zombie genre, which has grown in popularity exponentially, he will be forever valued for legitimizing the horror genre in the eyes of naysayers by exploring themes that many would never have expected to associate with the genre.

This is why I decided to watch one of his movies tonight, in honor of the man. I didn't wanna watch any 'Of the Dead' movies simply because that is what he is most known for. Sadly, however, I'm only limited to what Netflix (which had nothing from Romero) and Amazon Prime.

So that, obviously, limited my choices. If either of these services had Creepshow, I would have watched that again, I fucking love Creepshow. I, eventually, decided on this one (only three movies were available, I believe).

I honestly wish I could have picked one of his better movies to pay tribute to the man, cause this movie was...missing something. By this point of Romero's career, while he's still influential, he has seen better days in terms of commercial and, maybe, even creative success.

Really, at this point, Romero doesn't really need to get up to work if he doesn't want to, he's got nothing left to prove. But, for some reason, he decided that he needed to make this film.

And it didn't make a dent in the slightest. Though, to be fair, horror at this time (2000) wasn't exactly in the best of spots, so I don't think this film with its limited budget and slight story could have made much of an impact anyway.

I'd say that this is a decent movie, at best. That might be generous to some, but there are some things that I legitimately like about the film. For example, it has a darkly comedic tone, which I wasn't expecting.

Plus Peter Stormare was entertaining in his role. The film has some interesting ideas about a man that is simply stepped on by everyone around him. This mask gives him the confidence to stand up to the people he feels have wronged him.

Of course, this sticking up for himself manifests itself through murder, but what can you do? I also like the idea that they play with (at least for a bit) in that, maybe, the effects of this mask are psychological.

It is teased that Henry's mask has attached itself to his face and he cannot remove it. But, again, psychologically speaking, this mask gave Henry the courage to stand up to himself. If he removes the mask, he might lose that courage.

Jason Flemyng is very good in his role. He doesn't give an award-winning performance, but he's more than solid here. The problem I have with the film is that it just has a cheap look and feel to it.

Again, I know I've said that the budget doesn't matter as long as a film is good, but this just screams direct-to-video and the quality of some scenes is really weak. Like, for example, the whole scene at the costume party at this underground club was so fucking hokey.

It's completely in contrast to the rest of the film. Some of the dialogue was cringe-worthy and the audio was just weird. It's just a really bad chunk of the film. Bad enough that it ended up downgrading this from 2.

5 to 2 stars. How was the gore? Let's just say forgettable and, to me, there's actually very little, if any, of it. I think the limited budget put the kibosh on having a lot of gore. And that might not have been Romero's goal anyway, maybe Romero's goal was to tell a story.

If that was his goal, then his did an OK job, at best. The story of a man who's pushed too far has been told many times before and Romero brings nothing new to the table. It's basic and elements of it feel like an old 40s noir movie mixed in with some pulp.

It's just a strange movie and not in the good way, where you're compelled by it. Again, the darkly comedic tone helped, but there's just something about this that's off-putting (outside of the costume party that I already mentioned).

Romero's influence on horror will continue to be felt for generations to come, but this is clearly not his best film, I think even Romero himself would have admitted that. You will be missed, kind sir, thank you very much for the years of great horror.