With such films as Inside and Frontier(s), I really just couldn't find a spot for this one. The films started out pretty generic and pretty much stayed that way throughout. With characters that hardly have life to begin with made it very easy to not care who died, when they died, or how they died.
From the opening scene in a small bar type setting we meet one of the many friends that will be brought along for, I am assuming, what the directors thought would be a fun and wild trip for the viewer. Quickly, you see the plot start to unfold. It's raining, the group of friends pack into a small van to embark on their journey. Then out of now where, as the van starts to pull forward, and the headlights come on. A young attractive girl appears out of the thin air in front of the van.
At this point, I am sure you are thinking to yourself, "Wait, this may sound a little familiar." there's more! Of course one of the horny young male friends jumps out of the van, talks with the girl, comes back to van only to ask if they can just simply give her a ride home. (mind you there is a young married couple, with a wife that looks like she may give birth at any given moment.) after very little resistance from the group, everyone crams in, and hit the road.
A few seconds later we arrive to a very darkly lit house/ranch property where we immediately find out the Hitchhikers family are not who they appear to be....... Wait a minute, they actually do appear to be exactly what they are. I am sure by this far in, you can already start to draw the connections to other film favorites of most of us horror goers, two of which I listed above.
While I normally love the basic "a family that kills together stays together" plot. Here, it just dont work. The films pacing seemed off to me at parts. Then again, I guess that could have been done to try and make Macabre seem more chaotic then what it really was. The kills seemed to just happen "one down four more to go style." As I stated above, you actually build no relation to any of the characters of the film, good or bad.
It is really a shame they skipped out on any character build up. They touch on a few minor things at the start of the film, but it all seems a little sloppy and forced. It really is shameful though. The kills in this one are rather nice with nice gore to match. Sticking with a fairly realistic style of killing made it a little off setting when something way over-the-top happened. One thing that really stands out to me in any horror film is lack of the struggle. If you see a scene where someone is being choked to death but the strangler's hands just appear to be placed around the neck, it really loses a lot of impact. I could be just harsh here, but I did notice it more then a few times.
With all of that being said, the film was not a complete let down. Then again it was. At times Macabre did try and set itself far apart from all the other "crazy family" films out there, but then again it really didn't. I didn't hate this film, I just felt it was a little on the bland side. It stayed at a very uneven pace and ended with a very lack luster climax. You can't have every other kill in the movie be better then the final kill in the movie. I just didn't understand a lot of the motive in this one. Just seemed like lot of stuff happening to happen and hopefully win gorehounds over with its special effects and what they wanted us to think as brutal deaths. It did try and touch on some things with pregnancy and dead babies, but I saw that coming as soon as I seen a pregnant character that the camera couldn't seem to stay off of.
I have to say, with everything I have said negative about this film, they did do a couple of things right, but I will not tell you what I thought they were. Best for you to watch this and decide for yourself what they did right and wrong in this one! Macabre is coming in soft on my sheet with a 4 outa 11. I can't say I enjoyed my experience. So Macabre will not be seeing my blu ray player again.
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