Saturday, April 14, 2012
Los Angeles Ripper
Los Angeles Ripper
Date: 2011
Director: Craig McIntyre
The film wastes no time in introducing us to Graham, a rape van driving drug dealer who loves the ladies. He picks up a hooker and takes her back to a motel. Predictable yes, but as I watch I`m waiting for a nice brutal attack. Sorely its a quick choke that I don't think would have hurt my grandmother. I`m sorry but lets start this film off with a bang.
Any film lives and dies, (mostly dies in horror films) by the way the viewers can connect with the characters on the screen. We must feel something for them or we wont care if they live or die. Unfortunately the characters in Ripper are very flat and two dimensional. Nobody I would want to spend any amount of time with. Even Christie the main actress seems to have some depth but it never is actually explored to any length. A perfect example is a scene in which Christie and a girlfriend is out on the beach, there are very subtle hints that Christie is hitting on her friend but its never taken any further. Somethings also just don't really add up, Aunt Peggy is a shut in afraid of even going outside yet all she watches on TV is horror films. Maybe I missed a step in logic here. I would have loved to see more exploration of the characters. In a psychological thriller there is a whole world of different aspects one can delve into. Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer really shows what can be done with the psychological profile of a serial murdered and on a low budget at that. Henry. What made Henry the film that it is, was not just that it was graphic but that the people in it had scoop and back stories. Sadly though this has none of that. While us horror fans all love our blood and tits, it doesn't make a whole movie. And it seems like all this film was into doing was giving us brutal acts. To me the violence should add a layer to the horror not be used merely as a crutch,its just lazy directing and writing.
Ripper suffers the most do to the fact that its just plain dull at points. For example the lead Christie is I`m guessing trying to become a singer (I`m guessing because its never really made clear) yet the film really doesn't need to show us so much of this, it bogs the movie down. And we spend time watching our lead actress doing the dishes and talking to Aunt Peggy, or sight seeing. Yawn.
Its not all bad. I mean the gore F.X are above par and there are a few funny such as the heavy metal singer at the vocal lessons, and the surreal orange scene in the Asian girls apartment.
I don't believe in spoiling an ending, but don't expect anything awesome. The ending if you can really call it so, was very boring and the film seemed to have given up on itself and couldn't be bothered anymore. Even a clever twist or something really wild happening would have at least added something.
While I think McIntyre seems to have tried to make a film that hankered back to grind house slashers it falls flat at given us a compelling story or characters. I would say let someone else write the next one and focus more on directing. Even though this Ripper had a knife I couldn't help notice it was dull with no edge.
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