All Saints Eve: Slasher Film That Could
I came into watching that film with no preconceived notions at all, so I had an open mind to everything and every detail that I possibly could. All Saint's Eve tries to go back to the basics of horror itself, you know the times in the 70's and 80's when horror was truly at its elemental and originality peaks. The keyword is tries, because it some parts of the movie it goes over greatly, and at other points like sound production it fails drastically. I am a fan of going back to basics as long as the film stays true and doesn't go for the lazy way, and slack on things like production, quality, and especially post production for mistakes and corrections etc. The thing that truly holds this film together, isn't the amazing effects or dramatically long pausing shots of girls jiggling in slow motion, but purely the casting. It took me a while to realize it, but with director Gerry Lively’s most important works in the 80s and 90s. Credits also including Children of the Corn III and Necronomicon: Book of Dead, All Saints Eve has that atmosphere attached to it.
As previously stated, the cast is the one thing that holds this film together as tightly as it is. The onscreen interactions including chemistry is very solid and worth getting sucked into, throughout the film. In some cases horror/slasher movies make some of dialogue on the fly and is made to look completely awkward to the movie goers. As I realized this was going to kind of be the real deal, the next thing I looked for was the of course the death frames which was kind of...out of frame. The death scenes were never directly filmed, meaning it was either on the left or right side or out of the shot. Also light on gore sometimes when bodies were discovered. One last thing that threw my off was the sound production throughout the film. Sometimes, when a door closed, feet interacting with the ground, or something being hit against a hard surface the sound was missing, not quiet but missing. Shouldn't this have been corrected on post production?
This movie comes down to the basics of film making. There is no fancy angles or screen motions or anything of the sort, and it is just what you would expect a good film to be. It isn't the best by far and has some holes within the plot as well as effects (sound) but still the core is still solid and is held up by the casting without a doubt. Most importantly the film is just fun to watch and enjoy. When is the last time beyond blockbusters has there been a film you could just sit down and enjoy? In conclusion, this is a great rent, or buy depending on your preference and sitting down to enjoying yourself for a night and taking everything in for once, and not worrying about is the film going to be over soon. More likely you should be thinking that this needs to a replay once in a while to see something you've missed.
Pros: Character interaction, Plot line, Old 80's Feel.
Cons: Sound production, Death scenes out of frame.
reviewed by Paul
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