Mena, who continues a trilogy that began with Malevolence in 2003 and continued with a prequel, Bereavement, in 2010, is clearly a fan of John Carpenter. So much so he makes no attempt to hide it. In fact, he embraces it.
The way Mean composes his shots, stages his kills, and even scores his music, the flick feels like a Carpenter movie and the countless imitations the Master of Horror inspired.
Now, this can sink a film, but it doesn't hurt Malevolence 3: Killer one bit. Yes, this does feel like we've been there and done that, but its crystal clear Mena is paying tribute to the films that inspired him, and isn't trying to milk their success. For this, I give the film a passing grade.
While he was clearly trying to ape early Carpenter, this entry felt more like a Friday the 13th Part 3 or 4. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but it does to me.
I give part of the credit for this flick's success to leading lady Katie Gibson, who sells her Scream Queen role for all its worth. She looks good, is willing to strip down for a shower scene, and puts up a world class fight at the end. Kudos to her.
It was also good to see genre veteran Adrianne Barbeau back in front of the camera. It'd been too long.
For fans of this kind of thing, Malevolence 3: Killer is worth seeing at least once. I doubt I'll catch it again, but I had a good enough time with the watch. I'll give it a Bad and move on.
Don't do a shower scene if you don't want to show your boobies. And if it's a dude, to show no prejudice, it goes for them too...
ReplyDeleteTrue. Very, very true.
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