just as annoyingly whiney and over dramatic as The Big Chill and even more boring and devoid of plot than Silent Hill
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When 2006´s "Crazy Eights" played in theaters last fall as one of the eight films picked to be part of the nationwide, second-annual After Dark Horrorfest, the movie was marketed as "The Big Chill" meets "Silent Hill." And for once, the generally misleading folks who write such ad-copy drivel were right. "Crazy Eights" is just as annoyingly whiney and over dramatic as "The Big Chill" and even more boring and devoid of plot than "Silent Hill." I just don´t know why After Dark films paid somebody to make these comparisons. I thought they wanted people to pay to see their movies. Wait, they included the comparisons as a compliment?
For the second March in a row, failed director Courtney Solomon´s horrid production company, After Dark Films, has released the eight films from their November Horrorfest on DVD. And for the second year in a row rather than elevate the horror community by putting out eight great or even good films, After Dark drops a bunch of turds into fans´ laps and expects them to pick them up for twenty bucks a pop. While almost half of last year´s crop were either enjoyable or at least noteworthy, this year´s lineup is simply awful, and at the bottom of the list, standing on the shoulders of "Nightmare Man," is "Crazy Eights."
The plot for "Crazy Eights" is something that must have been scraped off the floor of "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling´s floor. Six childhood friends are brought together at the funeral of a seventh friend, and during the settling of his estate a map to a time capsule the friends made as children is discovered. Inside the time capsule are the remains of a long-dead child. It´s now-awakened ghost haunts the seven friends, trapping them in an abandoned hospital and eventually begins to pick them off one by one. The group tries to understand what the phantom wants, and in doing so the story reveals a secret about their past they never saw coming, unless they read the film´s on-screen prologue that essentially gives away the film´s "shock" ending.
"Crazy Eights" is a boring uninspired mess. There isn´t a likeable character in the group, and the bulk of the film is just people running through rooms. First time feature film director James Koya Jones tries to cover up the film´s lack of "substance" by going overboard on the "style." Annoying camera tricks, music-video-worthy lighting effects, and lame scene transitions fail to hide the amateurish nature of the flick.
The only effective or memorable moment in "Crazy Eights" occurs when the skeleton formally known as Gabrielle Anwar is attacked by the ghostly fiend, and we see the gory aftermath of her encounter. But that´s it. There are no other scares to be found, precious little gore, and not a drop of nudity to be seen. I´m not suggesting that gore or nudity are essential to a successful horror film, but if you aren´t going to bother to try and scare me, at least try to titillate me.
