Reesy-192-687595 This film makes Dr Giggles (previously my worst ever film) look good. The acting is poor, the storyline is poor, the Gore is poor! I thought that the spoof zombie film shown at the end of Super 8 was better. I said after 2 minutes - it's the teacher - granted there is a bit of a twist at the end which I hadn't counted on but that doesn't gain any points. If you want to see Kenny from south park throw a precision axe while the victim stands perfectly still - probably from stage fright because they've forgotten their lines then this could be the film for you. Luckily I watched this film on the horror channel on sky so had the adverts to look forward to for entertainment.

Paul Andrews The Retreat starts as scientist & school teacher Dr. Barren (Peter Carey) gives a group of his pupil's who have been helping him with his experiments unlimited use of his isolated log cabin situated on a snow covered island in Michigan. Dr. Barren gives a set of keys to Pete (David Craze) & Nicole (Melissa Schuman) who intend to take the other's up there, Pete gets there first with his lot & they are quickly killed off one-by-one by a duffel coated killer. Then Nicole gets there the following day with her group & it's not long before they discover what happened to their friends & are fighting for their lives...Written & directed by Matt Cantu & Lance Kawas & more commonly known under the title Silent Scream one has to say that The Retreat is average at best & a generic boring piece of crap at worst. I have seen loads of these low budget teen slashers & I can write reviews for them in my sleep, I can pretty much Copy & Paste one teen slasher comment & use it on another with a few edits. I mean there's not much to analyze or comment on in this sort of film, there's the isolated location, there's the body & nudity count, there's the question of if the kills are any good, there's the question of whether the killer is of your mysterious human variety as seen in Scream (1996) or your undead one-liner zombie killer like Freddy or Jason & then there's the most pertinent question of the lot are the reasons for everyone to keep splitting up plausible? Well lets address those issues, the location is alright but I never felt that it was that isolated, the body count is surprisingly high with a lot of murders in the first twenty odd minutes before Nicole & her group gets there & the film almost starts again with a new fresh batch of teen victims, the nudity count is reasonable with a bit of lesbianism & some bare female breasts on show, the kills are pretty poor & rather unimaginative & there's a distinct lack of blood or gore, the killer is definitely of the human variety although their identity is very obvious & the reasons for everyone to keep splitting up are moronic & annoying. If that wasn't enough there's a terrible twist within a twist ending that makes no sense whatsoever & leaves you feeling cheated. The Retreat isn't the worst example of the genre, at least it moves along at a reasonable pace & has a decent body-count, but it's hardly a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination & that ending really does suck.This one looks alright actually, it's quite well made with decent cinematography. I would have preferred some proper gore though, the goriest it gets is when someone is decapitated with some wire, there's a severed leg, there's a bloodless axe in the had, a bloodless axe in the back of the neck, an off screen face burning, someones neck is broken, someone is suffocated, someones eyeball is poked out in a scene that lacks any logic, someone is drowned & not a lot else worth mentioning. I wouldn't say there's anything scary here, the kills don't really have any build up & are over pretty quickly.Technically the film is fine, it appears to have decent production values but the budget obviously didn't stretch to proper special effects & the script sucked which is a fundamental problem no matter how well made a film is. Apparently filmed in Harbor Springs in Michigan. The acting is forgettable, no-one is totally awful but on the other hand no-one is particularly good.The Retreat is a pretty average & generic teens slasher for most of it's duration with a duffel coated killer who is a complete rip-off of the killer from Urban Legend (1998) & a terrible tacked on double barrelled twist ending which makes zero sense.

Coventry This movie is so bad I don't even want to joke about it. The only Raison d'être of this review is warn people to stay far away from "Silent Scream". For a friend of mine it's already too late, as he blind-bought this rubbish on DVD, but you can still be saved if you just manage resist the promising-looking cover image and the pictures of ravishing girls on the back of the box. "Silent Scream" is as bad as low-budget teen horror gets, with a plot that gets more retarded with each minute that passes, the dumbest characters in history (even though they're supposed to be psychology students) and dialogs so painful they make your ears cringe. One could state that the body count is remarkably higher than usually the case in slasher films, but even then, the murder sequences are totally uninspired and the complete lack of continuity and/or a plausible plot is simply intolerable. In order to thank the entire class for helping with his dreams-manipulation research, a weak-acting psychology professor rewards them with the keys of his vacation resort on a snowy Michigan island. The first part of the group arrives and have some mindless sex and too much tequila before getting slaughtered the exact same night by an individual wearing a hooded winter jacket. The second group arrives the day after and teams up with the last two survivors of group one. Unfortunately they offer a little more resistance to the killer and even come close to escaping the island. Then comes the hopelessly predictable and imbecile twist-in-the-end. The script is just a non-stop series of stupidities, dire clichés and insufferable stereotypes. The empty-headed characters say the dumbest things at the most inappropriate moments and, as if that wasn't bad enough already, they constantly repeat themselves as well. Especially the male lead Mark is a pitiable character, as he keeps nagging to his ex-girlfriend that he still loves her even though they're being chased by a maniac holding an axe. All the girls are great eye-candy (except for Melissa Schuman who tries to act too much like Sarah Michelle Gellar) and some of them even show their ravishing flesh, but they're just too stupid and obnoxious to be likable characters. "Silent Scream" is boring, irritating as hell, ugly to look at, poorly directed and completely unoriginal. Next time you pick it up in a shop or videostore, just put it back.

mackroman Plot: college kids go to a secluded cabin and suffer lots and lots of death, twist at the end so the film can claim some intellect.Aims of the film: to be a typical "slasher" flick, with everyday kids getting horribly stabbed, beheaded, split in two, slapped and generally treated badly. twist at the end and leave it wide open for a sequel (please no!!!!) Actuality: terrible acting matches the apparently drunken camera-work and is only outshone idiocy of any member of production/post production that didn't realise this and get their name far far away form this thing! the twist is unexpected but also never hinted and therefore impossible to guess! the killer obvious to anyone familiar with the genre, and on the subject of genre i (and 3 friends a saw it with) believe reclassification to "comedy" or, if not "a big hole with no escape" is in order. TP