Amusement (2009)

Boring

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I rented this for 3 dollars on Google Play. Why? Im a big horror fan but this is just idiotic. I would agree with those reviews here that says the script makes no sense. Fx why would the guy with the glasses be some kind of psycho? What is the connection of the two psychos from the first segment to the laughing man? The plot is a boy tortured a rat when a child and he wants revenge on three of his female classmates for making fun of him. So who are those two psychos from the first segment and what are their connection to the laughing man? Besides that everything is just jumping out of air to connect and suddenly she goes from a building to a truck and stabs the laughing man and then gets out of her trap. I agree with those that say the clown is pretty cool. This segment was a bit like A Stranger Calls. Pretty good actually. Anyway I am all for suspension of disbelief but this movie just does not make much sense.

As Horror films go, especially in the last decade, this film is surprisingly good. Its not great but a solid horror film that will make your girl hold you close while on the couch. I actually like the way Mr Simpson told the story. Building the suspense only to not show what happens because the end is where everything is tied together. I thought the performances were good, although the bad guy could have been better cast. I would like to have seen more blood through out and he missed something that just about all good horror films have, boobs. Some good places to insert them but didn't. In the end though, I was pleasantly surprised with the story. A little something different. I would like to have seen the way it all came about when they were kids played out a bit more but that is me. Overall the film is well made and shot very well. The cinematography and set design are top notch as low budget horror films go. At 6 mil though, i think they could have stretched for a better bad guy and blood. Still, I enjoyed it.

I read a lot of bad reviews on this site, but I saw this DVD yesterday and don't think the movie is that bad. O.k., there are a lot of plot holes, the movie is way too short and it could have been a lot better with a better scenario, but there are a few very good scenes, especially the scene with the clown... This is the creepiest clown since 'It'! The first scene is also good and scary. And the scene with the mute person... The end was not very satisfying, but if you want to see a creepy movie on a late Saturday night, you won't be disappointed. On internet the movie is often compared to 'torture porn' like 'Saw' and 'Hostel', but those movies have much more gory scenes than 'Amusement'.

When I first saw the preview for this film I thought, "Wow looks pretty freaky." So, one day I looked it up on netflix and watched it. Well by the end of the movie the only thing I could say was "What?" I mean right from the beginning this movie made absolutely no sense. So here's an example/SPOILER. The first scene of the movie shows a young couple going on a convoy (following someone completely random)to a gas station. Once they get there they get out of the car and meet the person they were following (which just happens to be the killer who is targeting the girl out of the young couple). Another small example/SPOILER would be when the main character is being interviewed by a detective and then once she leaves the room, the main character follows only to find that she's not even in a police station, instead she's in what appears to be a large dungeon? This didn't make an ounce of sense to me. But anyway, the only thing that was good was the production value, but that's it. Cheap dialogue, corny acting and lack of common sense are seen every character making this nothing more than another typically crappy horror film. The story was weird and was a bit pointless in a sense of logic, but it was creepy at a few points. This movie is short though, so watch it if you want something to make fun of. I gave it 1 star for the decent gore and the other for production value.