Verdict
Summary
The movie looks pretty slick and has a nice synth score (and it’s set in the ’80s, but never feels like it), and yet the movie is a failure for horror fans because it offers nothing in the way of the feeling that you should care about it. It’s nasty, knows it’s nasty, and has an abrupt and unsatisfying ending to boot. Where does that leave us? Without a paddle, frankly.
Plot:
A silent serial killer escapes incarceration and goes on another killing rampage.
Review:
We get the picture pretty quickly: “Benny” (Jason Brooks whose face we never really see beyond masks and heavy makeup) is a heinous mass murderer. Incarcerated in an institution, but never quite taken as seriously as he should considering his history, a psychologist who likes to play useless games with him while he’s chained to a table makes a huge mistake and lets his guard down and pays for it with his life. Benny gets free and completely obliterates the psychologist and a helpless nurse, and is aided by another nurse who may or not be related to Benny. Benny proceeds to terrorize the small town nearby – and it’s freaking Halloween of all days, no less, which gives Benny the opportunity to put on a scarecrow mask and some makeup (he does a great job with the meticulous design of his face, by the way, so kudos to his appliance skills), and starts killing. He likes to goof around while he kills too, which should remind you of other recent would-be micro budget horror icons such as Art the Clown or The Jester. He grins, play-acts, and pretends to have a ball (or maybe it’s not pretending) while chopping limbs off or ripping faces from skulls, making sure brains drip out of the gaping holes he makes with his stomping feet. Meanwhile there’s a pretty girl (played by Eden Campbell who at 19 has already accrued a pretty impressive list of horror titles as an actress) about to go trick or treating for perhaps the last time … because Benny is out there and looking to cause as much mayhem as possible before the night is done.
Look: I’m a horror movie fan, as big as they come, or bigger. I’ve seen virtually all the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and beyond horror films, everything from the little stuff to the big stuff, and my favorite type of horror film is slashers. I love me a good slasher, but here’s the thing: They have to be fun and follow the simple formula that makes all the good ones great. Give me a good enough villain, and I don’t even need an iconic looking mask, but that helps. I also like a sense of fun with the basic stalk-and-slash setup, with a little suspense. I like to know that the killer might not get to kill everyone, no matter how strong he might be. There has to be a little give and take. If the killer just grabs and dismembers and rips people apart and the camera lingers on that, I’m out. This is why I hate the Terrifier movies so much. They’re disgusting and disheartening. There’s no payoff because they ruin the formula. The good slasher horror films give you a little T&A, some good gore, but they also have room to flex a little in the plot department and some style helps too. Die’ced Reloaded (which is called Reloaded because it was expanded from a short film that got enough attention to build into a feature) is absolutely no fun and follows in the footsteps of Terrifier (and unfortunately the terrible The Jester movies too) by making the gore and kill scenes the whole purpose. I didn’t care about the poor souls who are clobbered and dismembered by Benny the Scarecrow, but I should have because that’s the formula that should work. The movie looks pretty slick and has a nice synth score (and it’s set in the ’80s, but never feels like it), and yet the movie is a failure for horror fans because it offers nothing in the way of the feeling that you should care about it. It’s nasty, knows it’s nasty, and has an abrupt and unsatisfying ending to boot. Where does that leave us? Without a paddle, frankly. Jeremy Rudd directed.
Epic / Dread has just released Die’ced Reloaded onto Blu-ray, and it comes with the original short film that started the whole thing, plus extra trailers. It’s numbered #56 on the spine if you’re collecting Dread titles.
