Frayed (2007)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A twist, in a twist, in a twist, in a twist, in a twist, with a side of twist, BY THE WAY, its all made up and in the person head anyway, so there is really no point to watching this festering pot of rubbish to begin with. A typical clown killer, nice good job for originality writers. I respected the part where the mother gets killed with the bat, i pretty much felt that exact pain the entire way through the movie. "This movie had so much potential" No it didn't. The plot. Where can I even start? It was crapped out in 2 minutes, basically they just said "hey for our lack of good plot or plot at all, lets throw in 10 twists and stack them on top of each other for extra value" Lets make the lead character that is with the victims, the killer the whole time! thatll get em! "wait bob your forgetting that he cant be the killer,because how is he going to be in the front seat of the car when the driver is killed from the killer in the back seat?" Shut up. I don't know if you heard but there's this new age thing called a twist that you probubly don't know a thing about. All in all, it was pretty laughable at the end watching every twist unfold in about 2 minutes, thats why this movie got a 1 and its lucky for that.

A sheriff's wife is murdered by his young son. Years later, that son escapes from a mental institution and goes berserk, beginning a killing spree of those who cross his path, including the family who left him behind.There are many good aspects and many bad aspects to this film. Let's start with the good. The film quality was excellent, and I felt everything was put together very professionally, especially for a cast and crew of unknowns. This certainly has the ability to cut it as an After Dark Horrorfest film. The gore was also nicely done, with the mother's early murder being much more graphic than I expected.But let's focus on the bad now... the things that are going to eat at me every time I think about this film. Some of these were summed up by other reviewers, so I'm glad they noticed the same things I did. First and foremost, the similarities between this film and "Halloween" and "High Tension". Especially "Halloween": a killer child who escapes from a mental institute to go after his now much older sister? Hmmmm...The over-use of the clip showing Kurt looking at the softball photo. I understand that this plays an important part later on, but I didn't need to see it five or six times to grasp the concept. And the mask that seems like it was borrowed from the band Slipknot. Many horror movies use masks, but this was the first that made me think of Slipknot, so I have to think it wasn't an accident.Beyond that, the plot is largely nonsense. The film has twists and turns, which is good, but probably has too many. I was particularly bothered by what seemed like a few fake endings. As always, I don't want to spoil the film, but let's just say this: the writers should have picked a story and told it, not tried to have so many stories within each other like a Russian nesting doll.As this film is still better than many I've seen, I wouldn't say you should avoid it. Grab a friend and a few bottles of Labatt Blue and this will make for a fine evening. But don't blame me if you get frustrated or confused. I warned you.

Son of a sheriff who bludgeoned his mother to death, an event caught on videotape, is sent to a mental hospital. Years later he comes home and the killings continue.Only loosely similar to Halloween this is an odd little film that doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense. Certainly it doesn't have enough material to cover its almost two hour running time. I kept looking at my watch while this was running. The story jumps around between now, then and inside the mind and memories of the various characters to the point that its not always clear as to who is who and what is what. For some people this makes it scary for me it just makes it confusing. I'm not a fan. Other than the opening moments where we see the mother being beaten to death I don't think this really has any scares or tension.I'd take a pass.

I watched the movie over the weekend with a group of my daughters' friends (about a dozen kids all in high school). It was great to watch a horror movie that I enjoyed and they did too.The film really is a thinking person's horror movie, and I really appreciated the fact that they didn't dumb it down or insult the intelligence of the audience at any point in the film. There are very few movies where I really respect how the filmmakers treat the audience, and this is one of them where I do. Frayed pays homage to some of the earlier slasher movies, but never appears to be copying them. There are some of the standard scary movie ingredients, but the plot goes way beyond what you expect from a horror movie. The filmmakers were able to take a favorite genre of their own, and make something really creative.The other thing that really impressed me was the production quality of the film especially when considering the budget constraints of making it. In particular, the special effects were amazingly well done. The thing that most impressed me about the digital effects was the fact that I didn't know most of them were digital effects. After the movie I watched the very brief overview of the special effects and was surprised by some of the things that were done on the computer rather than on the set. This was very well done and I believe the special effects guys deserve huge kudos (and an award for one specific scene) for their accomplishment.The best endorsement I can give the movie is that I want to watch it again. I know I missed clues and I want to see the movie at least one more time to see what I catch that went over my head the first time. In addition, everyone knows how impatient high school aged kids are, and they not only enjoyed watching the movie, but they watched it again that evening because they all really wanted to see it over again that night.As for the very violent scene that occurs early in the movie, yes it is uncomfortable to watch. I believe the team earned an award for that one, but they probably won't get one since it is in a small independent movie. The scene is very difficult to watch or even think back to, which is why I recommend watching the bonus feature on that section of the movie. Watching the character/victim in the make up for the final stage jokingly saying "I'm ready for my close up" helped ease the discomfort that the filmmakers were trying (successfully) to make everyone feel.I recommend watching it with a few friends so you can bat around ideas after the movie. That really helps everyone figure out what actually happens. Frayed goes way beyond a standard slasher movie genre with a tight complex plot, great cinematography, good acting, and remarkable visual effects to deliver a great horror movie.If the same team makes another movie (which I hope they do), I can't wait to see it.