Red Hook (2009)

A Masterpiece!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

An agoraphobic freshman in New York City must join a scavenger hunt to save her boyfriend from a murderous game master.Right now (October 2012) this film is sitting on a rating of 3.2, which is among the lowest ratings possible (you rarely see anything under a 2.7). Can this film really be so bad? I mean, yeah, it is kind of bad, but not that bad.I actually liked the concept of a college scavenger hunt. The actual hunt did not start until 34 minutes into the film (the first half hour had mostly annoying character development of characters I had no interest in being developed). But, once it got going, it seemed cool and I really loved the scavenger map with the strings and pins.Ultimately, though, too little action and not enough reason for me to care.

There was an episode on "CSI--New York" during the past month with a very similar plot to RED HOOK. Despite having just an ad-shortened 38 minutes or so to work with, CSI-NY's Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and his crew got about five times as much accomplished entertainment-wise as the bumbling New York City police detective Lt. Tom Fox (Terrence Mann) and the rest of the RED HOOK cast managed to provide in 85 minutes. It's a sad commentary when an "unrated" feature film--where presumably anything goes--comes off as duller and less sexy than a prime-time network TV offering on a similar subject. While RED HOOK is billed as a horror flick, it's a sure fire bet to put the viewer to sleep more quickly than a CBS police procedural aimed as bed-time fare for the 60- to 90-year-old demographic. Gavin (Tate Ellington), the perverter of a lame Welcome Week scavenger hunt for the RED HOOK collegians, offs about half the campus, with less a sense of plausible threat than that created in just a few seconds of screen time by the twisted frat pledge master in the CSI episode, whose game playing is intended to kill no one. RED HOOK may spray a little crimson fake blood, but it offers little to hook the horror buff's attention.

This film takes a whole lot of time to get started. There is a lot of talking, and nothing else in the first hour.It isn't until the end that we see the slasher. Anyone looking for displays of flesh that is typical of slasher films in the past are going to be sorely disappointed. Despite numerous opportunities, the film is as chaste as a nunnery.Lots of blood and a predictable ending.The acting is pretty good throughout, so it will keep you interested enough to stay the course and find out who the killer is, if you haven't guessed before.

A scavenger hunt is concocted by an annoying guidance counselor, and it's only when her beau ends up supposedly kidnapped and in danger that a paranoid, Jenny(Christina Brucato), who saw her sister stabbed repeatedly by a killer posing as a cop, will join in on the festivities, looking for clues in New York City with other participants who reluctantly join in the hopes of winning a pair of White Stripes tickets. What seems like a harmless game turns deadly as a psychopath starts plunging his knife into the bodies of the college kids, with Jenny not only worried for her own life, but of Gavin(Tate Ellington)and her fellow students as well. The scavenger hunt itself seems like a novel idea, but it takes so long to set up the scenario that I imagine many slasher fans will find it intolerable and frustrating. So much of the film is dedicated to the Gavin and Jenny romance, and the scavenger hunt itself doesn't get particularly bloody until well over and hour. I think the film's plus is that the cast isn't too bad. Brucato and her new lesbian friend Deena(Frankie Shaw)actually have good chemistry together(..the film seems to flirt with the idea of a possible intimacy, but, sadly, nothing ever comes of it, although Deena does attempt to kiss Jenny, interrupted by Paula(Karla Mosley), concerned about her boyfriend Higginbotham(Decargo Sanyal)). Bryan Fenkart is the insufferable Tim, who is so pleased with how he designed the hunt, yet has a really hard time getting others to partake. Hollis Scarborough is a wannabe drama actress, AnGela(she really stresses the "GEL" in her name), whose love for her craft tends to make her a bit of off-putting. Other characters include Roy(Alex Brightman), Chappy(Brian J Smith), and blond hottie slut Camille(Karissa Staples)..they service the plot as extra fodder for the psycho in a hoody. The movie has those scenes where cell phones don't work and characters get out of the car when a suspicious sound is heard on the outside. To the film's credit, there are moments of potent ultra-violence through the vicious use of the knife, such as when the killer guts one victim like a fish, and plants it in the mouth of another who attempts to cry out(not to mention the murder sequence where the knife goes through the victim's head and out her throat). Ultimately, "Red Hook" is simply just another slasher which will eventually find itself darkening the back of a rental store on some DVD shelf with all the others collecting dust. The identity of the killer will come as no surprise to anyone, I imagine, unless you are totally clueless, and the reasoning behind such heinous acts leaves much to be desired. Bottom line, "Red Hook" is bland, mediocre, and forgettable.