| Last House on Dead End Street | The New York Ripper | The Toolbox Murders | The Abominable Dr. Phibes |
continued...
... result is a bloodbath and a couple of cute teens running around as they try to survive Chamber's wrath and flee from the small rural hospital. No twist and turns in site and nothing too original will be found throughout Heartstoppers total running time. In the end, it's really just a shaky plot that's designed to give reason to a whole lot of blood to be spilt in one hour. The problem here is that, although the body count is rather high, most of the deaths are repetitive and a bit dull at best.
Bob Keen does a pretty good job at giving the hospital a rather gloomy and unsanitary feel but the problem is that the film doesn't have enough of a cast to really make us believe that our characters are running around in an actual hospital. Set pieces used to make you believe that we're actually in a hospital are used but most of the time the place feels more like a high school than an actual medical building. Keen does what he can but his character direction is also lacking in nearly every frame. James Binkley delivers probably the worst performance of a horror villain that I have ever seen and our director doesn't help in the least to establish him as some kind of a supernatural bad guy. Instead, it is up to Binkley to spout out ridiculous one liners. Try this one on for size: "Come back here you Christ infected bitch...when I get inside you, I'm going to make you a hell slut!" Ohhhh the pain!
So if you are looking to rent an Englund film that isn't a Freddy movie, you might want to just pop in 2001 Maniacs. Heartstopper is just another example of an effects designer who should have stayed far far away from the camera.
Extras consist of a preview of the film and a nice little interview with Bob Keen and the famous Robert Englund. He is quite the character!
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