The Catcher (1998)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Captivating movie !

Boring

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

This movie was actually pretty cool. It's got a killer baseball catcher going around killing people at a baseball stadium. It is low budget, but has some pretty original death scenes and a big twist near the end. The movie is very cheap too; I bought it online for only $1 new! It's probably the best $1 I've ever spent online too. Joe Estevez as the Father was my favorite character in the movie. He was one mean dad in this movie; no wonder his kid had problems and went nuts. I like the fact that he comes back as a ghost in the movie too. The movie is pretty low budget though and the only extras you get are a few trailers from Dead Alive's other films. There website is apparently gone now, so that's not a good sign. It's worth seeing at least once, I'd say. It's not for everyone though, my sister hated the movie, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Since Black Christmas hit cinemas thirty years ago, the slasher genre has terrorised nearly every form of escapism that humankind has ever known. From holidays to carnivals, trains and houseboats and even ski resorts and building sites have become the stomping ground of an insane killer with some sort of deadly weapon(s) and animosity scalded into his or her heart. It came as a shocking surprise then, when I first discovered that no one had yet decided to put a deranged slasher at America's (second) favourite past time. That's right, surprisingly enough, not one psychopath had yet invaded a Baseball field, despite a glaring amount of victims and potential. Until now… Yes that's right, this authentic but somewhat obscure offering involves a twisted ex-ball player with murder on his mind and a deadly bat in his grip! Who needs a hockey mask when you can wear a helmet? Who needs summer camp, when you can stalk a stadium? And who needs a machete, when a baseball bat can do just as much damage? Guy Crawford and Yvette Hoffman obviously saw the possibilities, and so, here's The Catcher... It begins in 1981, Taft California. The camera pans down on a boy and his dad playing catch in their front garden outside a neat little house in a bright and tidy street. The plump elder hurls the eager kiddie a fast ball, which he accidentally drops, much to the dislike of his grouchy father. `I thought you said you were gonna catch it' he shouts threateningly. He continues to holler abuse at the youngster until eventually the child looses his patience and beats him to death with a handy baseball bat. Next we head to the compounds of The Devils' stadium, presumably some time in the future. (We never find out for sure.) ‘The Devils' have been unable to recover from a slump that the players believe is down to the performance of David Walker (David Heavener), their one-time top hitter for the club. It's the last day of the season and Walker has already been thrown out of the game and whilst he's waiting to say good-bye to his teammates, his girlfriend enters the locker room to tell him that she's leaving him. As if that wasn't enough of an excuse to turn someone into a homicidal masked-maniac, next up he finds out that his new manager (Monique Parent) is about to sack him. (Well, we all get days like that, don't we!) Before long, a mysterious killer begins slaughtering the sportsmen one by one using various macabre methods. Is it Dave Walker getting revenge for being fired? Or has someone else got something against the players?For a direct to video horror movie, The Catcher is fairly well financed. I noticed a couple of crane shots that must have cost quite a bit and the inclusion of cast members that have actually ‘acted' before, makes an impressive difference from the usual Film 2000 schlock. Even though none of them can qualify as ‘good' performers, David Heavener had the odd moment and Parent wasn't dreadful either. The only really obnoxious character was Joe Estevez, who certainly proves that Francis Ford Coppola chose the right brother to send up the Do Lung River to terminate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz! It's a real shame that he hasn't got the talent of his younger sibling, or perhaps he just wasn't inspired enough to give us his best, which is probably the more likely scenario.Crawford and Hoffman direct fairly well for first timers and the use of dolly tracks and steady-cam means that they haven't scrimped on what's needed to make the right impression. There were various baseball themed killings that were convivial, from ‘death by pitching machine' to a bat up the bottom (!), which was rather cleverly staged to look as if the killer was raping the victim at first, just to add a little dark humour. A B-ball themed slasher wouldn't be much good if you didn't get a customarily cheesy first-person shot through a helmet, would it? Well, we get two; and they don't miss any of the other essential clichés either! Although the suspense is lamentable, some of the photography is moderately good and the mystery is interesting enough to prevent things from becoming too boring. They've included a few decent twists to keep you guessing, and although completists will have seen most of them before in previous efforts, there's the odd authentic touch that was commendable. One scene stuck in my mind, in which the killer and one of the players were dressed in the same garb and the surviving girl has to decide which one to stab with a broken bat. Without giving away the conclusion, let's just say that it works fairly well, without sticking to the conventional story directions. There's no memorable gore that warrants a mention and most of the murders are either off screen or just involve a splash of corn syrup, which was disappointing. The script could have done with a few re-writes too, we never even found out where the killer came from - after his identity was revealed. Did he escape an asylum, or did he work on a Hot Dog stand? Who knows? The lighting also left a lot to be desired and Paul Amorosi's music was patently under-produced in places, leaving scenes that could have generated tension crying out for accompaniment. The editing and sound mixing was somewhat ‘chop-socky' as well, jumping like a drunk playing hopscotch on occasion. The apparition parts were laughable to say the least and the psycho's motives were never resolved, leaving an unavoidable feeling of half-heartedness. One of the chase sequences involves Monique Parent fleeing Walker through the corridors of the stadium. Although the pursuing shots weren't really that bad, it was obvious to see that she was ‘running' at the speed of a tortoise that was recovering from a leg operation, so as not to out sprint the dolly track! The Catcher isn't a good film, by any means. But it at least manages to provide a few corny thrills that'll bring about the odd giggle. There are a couple of bright ideas on offer, but the bad ones usually ruin them and to be honest we could've done without Joe Estevez's unconvincing shouting fits. He died at the start of the movie, but makes a comeback later as an imaginary fiend in the killer's mind, which we really didn't need. But like I said, it wasn't all problems; there were certain bits and pieces that proved to be a whole lot of fun. I also go a free postcard with a picture of The Catcher's mask (complete with ‘glow in the dark' eyes) inside the cover! At least now we've had a baseball ground massacre to add to the other more frequently used locations. All we need next is an assassin at the Oscars! Now that I'd love to see...

"The Catcher" is a DTV slasher that few people have heard of or seen. The premise sounds intriguing, as slasher films have been set in a plethora of creative locations from bowling alleys to supermarkets to cruise ships, but this is the first and only one that I know of that is set in a baseball stadium. However, having a creative location does not equate to a great film, and the filmmakers here really failed to do anything but create a lazy, incompetent film that offers nothing new or original to the genre. At the beginning of the movie we get a kid who murders his verbally abusive father with a baseball bat during one of their practices. Well, then we flash forward to a few years to a the last game of the season at a minor league baseball stadium. The catcher, a character named Davey Walker, finds out his contract isn't getting renewed for the following year, and, as one one expect, starts the murder of several players who have decided to stay in the stadium for one reason or another after the game. This film set-up a lot of creative death scenes, mainly involving a baseball bat, but they were done off screen with very little blood or gore. Now, I don't like excessive gore, but with a movie like this where plot isn't a priority, I think that it should be thrown in as a redeeming quality.The isolated setting of the baseball stadium is effective enough; the shots of the dark corridors and empty locker rooms are uneasy, but used very minimally. A stronger director would have utilized this setting to create suspense and tension, but it is virtually wasted here.Instead, with this we get mediocre acting and a very rushed, confusing ending. I mean, who WAS the killer after all?? My suggestion, avoid this one. There is a reason you have never heard of it.My Grade: F

This review may contain some SPOILERS.David Heavener has proven many times that he can't act. I have watched two other movies he made: `Outlaw Force' and `Deadly Reactor.' `Outlaw Force' wasn't a total bust because there were good scenes featuring Paul Smith and Frank Stallone, but Heavener wasn't in any of those scenes. `Deadly Reactor,' quick frankly, was one of the worst movies I have ever seen, which sure says a lot coming from me. And now I get Strike Three from Heavener, `The Catcher.' Heavener has one mode of acting: stink. He never gives any emotion, no depth to his characters, and reads his dialogue like it were on a cue card in front of him. Still, I can't blame Heavener for what I got in `The Catcher.' That honor goes to EVERYONE else involved, except for one person, whom I will speak of later. Truly `The Catcher' is a step-by-step pamphlet on how not to make a slasher movie. The plot is simple and could have worked in proper hands. It is set in a baseball stadium where a minor league team, named The Devils, has just played the last game of the season. They didn't do so well because their catcher, Heavener, is no longer the hotshot player he used to be. He botched the game and made everyone look bad. So bad, in fact, that a new team employee in charge of personnel, Monique Parent, has been commanded by the owners to fire Heavener. So now the stadium is ready to close down and there are a few people hanging around. Suddenly, someone dressed up in Heavener's uniform begins to eradicate the players still in the stadium one by one. Is it Heavener, getting revenge on his teammates for their hatred of him? Or is it someone else? And why is this happening? The answers are extremely laughable. But then again, so is the entire movie. Never before have I seen such banal filmmaking in a horror movie. The whole thing is set-up, slash; set-up, slash; set-up, slash. The slashing in question goes beyond tasteless and sensibility. Some are laughable in their impossibility, the rest are just lame. And there is virtually no backstory to any character, so it consists entirely of the bad slashing. Factor in bad acting and extremely terrible editing and directing, and you have yourself one big foul ball. Just watch the scene with the automatic pitching machine very closely. You will see a blip right in the middle of the scene. If you pause the tape in that spot you will see the first frame of an entirely different scene! I couldn't believe my eyes. Nor could I believe them when I saw characters (Parent being the biggest offender) that are supposed to be running for their lives instead trot oh-so-slowly down a hallway like the only thing of to be concerned with is an overflowing toilet. Factor in almost inaudible, tension-sucking music, too. I mentioned that one person was good. Joe Estevez, of all people, was the only one that even tried to add life to this movie. He plays the ghost of the killer's father, and his lines and the vivacity with which he says them are the best things in the movie. I think he was ad-libbing. When I think about it, I bet everyone was ad-libbing, with Estevez being the only one who was any good at it. I mean, there is no writer credited, which could mean there was no script for anyone to work off of. That would explain some, but not all, of the movie's atrocities. I'd like to add one more thing: the being responsible for this movie was caught on tape. Oh, I know it was supposed to be a guy in a rubber mask playing the mascot for The Devils, but you can't fool me. I know the Prince of Darkness is at work in the lives of mortals, and I need present no further proof than the existence of this film. Zantara's score: 1 out of 10.