Thursday, 3 March 2011

The Last Horror Movie

I really don't have much to say about this one, but I feel I need to comment nonetheless.

I watched it because it purports to be a movie about snuff.  Yeah, I know how that sounds.  But anyway, the synopsis went something like this: Kevin has taped over the VHS copy of a film called "The Last Horror Movie" with his own snuff film.  He arrives at the home of the renters and then kills them, adding their deaths to the video.

Seems promising, right?

Now that I've actually seen The Last Horror Movie, I'm here to tell you that it is not at all what that synopsis suggests.  Yes, there's a video that's been taped over.  And yes, there's a Kevin that goes around filming murders.  But this movie isn't about that, it is that.

I've got no problems with mocumentaries.  I've got few problems with recursive horror movies.  But I've got a lot of problems with recursive mocumentaries that are self-conscious and self-aware to the point of diminishing their postmodern premise.  The Last Horror Movie is little more than one man's sophomoric philosophizing on morality and psychopathy.

Kevin's waxing is repetitive and tiresome.  Also, he fails to understand the difference between knowing right from wrong and caring about it.  This misunderstanding fuels a lot of his discussion.  He's also impossibly egotistical, which I suppose is an effect of him being psychopathic, but really it's just irritating.  The kills are good, I have to say.  And there is one funny moment, when Kevin comments on self-conscious horror movies--it's delightfully self-reflexive, but it can't redeem the film's overblown sense of self-importance.

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