Review of The Last Horror Movie (2004) by Michael C — 28 Jul 2011

An inferior pseudo-remake of the terrific Belgium horror mockumentary "Man Bites Dog". Its not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination; in fact there are some moments in it that are effectively chilling; and the twist at the conclusion of the film was certainly not something I expected.

But the overall effect of the film didn't live up to its promise of bringing you into the movie as much as it wanted to; even though it is filmed like a series of home movies, it is shot in such a way that I never once felt like I was watching documentary type footage but instead was watching a filmed performance.

The key to making a film like this work is to have the film stock and the performances appear as if they were not really acting but just capturing moments as they occur. As fun as Kevin Howarth's performance, with its flamboyance and its swagger, might be, it is always abundantly clear in all its scenery-chewing flashiness that it is in fact a performance.

On the flipside, the thing that made "Man Bites Dog" triumph over this film is that it often felt as if you had found lost amateur footage of a highly disturbing nature, and that film kept its satirical sense of humor much more in touch than this one.

A fun little entry into the horror genre and a decent effort for such a low budget but not the revelation some horror aficionados made it out to be (at least not in my estimation).