Strangeland (1998)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This movie is one of the few examples of the whole being greater than the sum of its' parts. The acting isn't great, the storyline is imperfect, the stereotypes are a little painful - in fact the only 2 things about this movie that border on being divine are the soundtrack... and the sum total of all these second rate parts - the creation of this movie is somewhat similar to having a statue manufactured from recycled car parts (if you look at the individual parts, you will think "piece of crap", but if you take a step back and look at it as a whole, you will see the magnificent glory of a work of art). If more movies were made like this, Hollywood would seem less like a factory and more like an artists, workshop.

This sounded like it was going to be like Silence of the Lambs or Zodiac or something, but it wasn't. It really was more like one of the Halloween movies without all the jump scenes. It was a little like Plan 9 From Outer Space in the sense that the main bad guy kept making inane speeches that made me want to go get a snack without pushing pause. The idea of a person who is so crazy that he would abduct people and torture them as a form of spiritual enlightenment is actually an interesting idea, but the execution was too made-for-TV feeling. I have to say it was better than I expected for a movie written and starring Dee Snider. A good first effort. Maybe he'll learn some lessons and his next effort will be less clumsy.

First, the acting is horrible. I get the archetype of the disaffected detective, but disaffected does not mean disconnected. Gage is an iceberg except when he finds his daughter, than he becomes an emotional wreck before allowing himself to get beat up by a skinny kid. How did he make detective without learning self-defense? When he found the house, why didn't he call for backup? Next, the chat scene is completely unbelievable. There's no way you set up a new chat account and go right after the subject, and get an invitation for a face to face in 15 minutes. It's takes the FBI weeks, sometimes months, to get a suspect to trust them enough to meet. They were made as soon as they changed the profile, which was also bogus. The whole idea of a chat-room is anonymity. You can't get exact names and addresses. If you could, there would be no point to having a screen name. Also, ISPs did not store IM chats then. Only recently has the technology been developed to store them with a third party service. The technology didn't exist in 1998. At best, they might be able to trace the screen name back to a credit card.The tracing scene was also a joke. The guy's father was a marine. He had to learn something about tactics, like, I don't know, using an untraceable peer-to-peer network for his computer.As someone commented earlier, the 2nd half of the movie is pointless. If you are a seasoned detective, and you get a call from the guy who kidnapped your daughter, don't you grab her up right away? He seemed surprised that she was taken again after the nut-case sees him let the lynch mob take him. His powers of deduction are nonexistent.When this movie was released, it was scarier. This time, I spent more time laughing at all the mistakes and bad acting. This is now a 5***** rotten tomato.

Dee Snider's "Strangeland" had a long, strange trip. It really started with Twisted Sister songs, then Dee tried writing about a psycho clown, but "IT" had that idea, so Dee set about writing a horror film like "Seven". Hey, Dee! I liked this better than "Seven."Strangeland" is a really sick film. The protagonist, played by Dee himself, is a sicko named Carleton Hendricks aka Captain Howdy, a deviant with tattoos and piercings galore, he stalks young girls online and does really depraved stuff to them. Poor Geniveve Gage is the 1st victim. Note the actress! It ER"'s Linda Cardellini! What follows is really nasty, and scary, note the cauterization! But the film pulls a shocker early!Later on, see Dee in Mr. Rogers mode! Perhaps the most frightening shot in the movie! Kevin Gage plays Gage and yeah he sucks. Actually other than Robert Englund, delightfully playing a righteous redneck, the acting stinks. And the director's idea of suspense is cutting to black every three minutes! Still the heavy metal soundtrack, featuring, Marylin Manson, Pantera, Coal Chamber, Megadeth, Twisted Sister and Snot is truly awesome. Buy it."Strangeland" offers some great stuff and certainly doesn't stint on the horror, though its not anywhere near as bad as I was led to believe. For you DVD fans, Dee's commentary is every bit as disturbing as the movie! A really good horror flick with some very interesting twits and turns. I really have to agree with Robert Englund, the truly frightening thing about this flick isn't the death, its the suffering.. Cool!