An American Terror (2013)

hyped garbage

Fantastic!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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

This movie is a great tribute to some of the best classic horror films with a new and surprising spin. It is not just a violent movie but one that has a solid core that causes reflection on its content. For fans of classic horror or Rob Zombie films, this is for you. I am amazed what this group could do with a low budget. There are dark moments and some terrifying sequences wrapped up in pure frustration by the characters. I would highly recommend this movie to any true fan of the genre. It is hard to stop watching this heart pounding ride through a labyrinth of fear and excitement. It has a similar feel to House of 1000 Corpses with a modern twist with plausible realities. It is almost two great horror films in one taken the viewer to a new level of thrill.

'A group of friends hatch a plan to get revenge on the bullies who have been tormenting them. In doing so, they stumble upon an underground torture chamber filled with unspeakable horrors. ...' While the director may be attempting something old school, like 'Halloween,' or 'Friday The 13th,' he pretty much fails at every aspect. The acting is fairly bad all around, and I'm not talking in a humorous way either. What really drives these types of films - is the villain. If you don't have a good villain, you really don't have anything to fall back on, and that goes for the old school 'classics,' as well.The villain here, or seen on the cover - end up being two different killers. The guy on the cover looks passable for a straight to DVD flick - Unfortunately, the guy on the cover didn't make it into the final release (Maybe the guy in the actual film ate him?) Instead, we get a 400 pound hillbilly who spends his time getting his inspiration from Woody Woodpecker reruns, kidnapping attractive cheerleaders, and having intercourse with his toy doll. Now, most real life serial killers are known for their sexual acts before or after killing their victims - but not this guy. I'm not sure why horror films avoid this detail, but I haven't heard of many serial killers who would choose a toy doll over an actual victim. Random Ramblings of a Madman: One of the reviewers of this film has been a member of IMDb for 15 years, and has 1 total review, which just happens to be of 'An American Terror,' which he makes a case for best film of the year. As you can probably tell, we're not in agreement.

This movie is really two stories in one. It has the cool, slasher side, which can be brutal at times and the even more prevalent story of bullying in high school. I feel it very realistically shows how even seemingly tough kids can't handle bullying. As a parent, I feel all kids need to be taught how to treat each other. I felt for these kids and could understand why they wanted to do what they did. The acting was amazing. Even though the majority of the cast is younger actors, their range is wonderful! This movie hits you in all the right spots getting it's point across. It makes you think back to your high school days...did you witness anyone being treated this way, did you treat anyone this way, or were you the one being bullied. I love that it took a horror film to so brutally show us how painful bullying can be. It's gritty, gross, tense, and disturbing...everything you want in a horror/thriller!

I really wanted to like this movie. Based on the initial stars (7.4 at the time) I was expecting a throw-back to the vintage slasher films. What I got was a mess of choppy sequences followed by a few minutes of actual dialogue, then some weird angle nonsense. It seems like they used every scene transition from every horror movie they could get there hands on and just couldn't decide on one.I also could have done without whatever filter they used to film this...some sort of a greenish hue was cast over everything.One review refers to Friday the 13th, Halloween, etc... as a benchmark for this movie. This is nothing like those movies. The 'lunatic' reminds me of one of the Spy vs Spy birds from the Mad Magazine.I'm convinced that the good reviews were given by people affiliated with the creation of this film.The acting is not horrible, but there is no character development so you don't really care what happens to any of them. I didn't even remember which character was which..though the Mohawk fellow seemed to be the best actor of the bunch.I've watched a lot of B horror movies and have seen quite a few decent ones and some I recommend to watch as a time waster...This does not fall into either of those categories.I gave it two stars because I have seen worse, but not by much. Also, there was mention of awards being won for this film in another review...I don't know how true that is, but I would hate to see the other movies this was up against if that is the case.