A Horrible Way to Die (2010)

the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent, a Must See

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A textbook way to engineer a low-budget horror story without losing any of the tension and humanity. The use of music was a bit heavy-handed but did its job and covered for the lack of budget in creating more interesting visuals.Very slow, methodical and gritty. I could have used less of the bouncy camera, though. Both leads were original and well-acted. The killer's reluctance was somewhat evident throughout (but not enough) and clarified at the end with his monologue. But it was clarified at the end. Something more was needed to put his self-hatred into focus. Not reveal it all, but focus it much earlier. Thus, there was more to this story that was not explored.Now it was clearly stated that this killer had internet friends. So someone was going to give away her location from early on. That was giving away the store and should have been reigned in. But who?I'm surprised that it took me so long but I finally got it when the new boyfriend showed after the friend's murder. Maybe that was due to the good performance. After that it was waiting for the inevitable in 3 minutes. I didn't catch on that the work friends were in it, though. Then the killer shows up due to contact with one of the friends. I initially bought it and it was explained. But then I got to thinking'. Why didn't the killer alert the cops at the onset? Why didn't the killer make a bee-line to the woman if he was so concerned? Granted, the ending was done very well, but I had doubts about the timing as it took a couple weeks at least. Why did the phony boyfriend go through the relationship? (Could have been explained easily, but was not. They explained contacting the killer.) And why did the other two wait so long for the murder they wanted to commit? But good ending with the killer saving her and his monologue. Left me with an uneasy feeling on who to root for. And a very horrible feeling because she can never really trust again. I'd be curious what a sequel would look like.

A serial killer does his usually stchick on unsuspecting characters after he escapes from jail. His ex-girl friend is in hiding and under witness protection because she testified against him.But, the cinematography was so bad, it was hard to follow the story.I think the director got a string of Christmas lights and decided to use them in an out of focus foreground for a 'anxiety' effect. Really? A very poorly conceived decision. 'Shaky cam' was used on Blair Witch and a few others. You might try a tight story line, good actors, and scenes and presto a movie and a tripod.Rather than move you into the story, such techniques take you out of the story since you are very aware of the effects and fail to follow the story. But maybe the cinematographer had the d'ts'Pulp Fiction had very little 'artsy out of focus lights' as an effect to get the audience in a tipsy mood.Story line wasn't bad, but ruined by the constant use of out of focus lights and jumpy camera work. Did you not have access to a pair of sticks?Plot at the end was good though and should have been extended instead of endless AA meetings.

Good action story. The filming is rather amateurish giving the viewer a headache watching the movie with so much camera shakes and sways which was done on purpose for unnecessary effects. This is aggravated by scenes switching back & forth. Luckily we have the main character's beard to help out. (The main actor with full beard means the scene is from the past, If it shows the man just with mustache then it is at the present!). Otherwise this is not a bad movie. The acting is quite good and full of fast moving action. The movie is all about killing and showed how it can be done horribly. It should be classified as adults only. It can also be classified as a horror movie.

A horrible way to die is nothing more than a horrible way to make a movie. It looks like they just blasted some lights, cranked the shutter speed and did hand-held to make an "artistic" movie. Well, there is nothing "artistic" about this, and this is coming from someone who is a huge fun of unique and original F-U Hollywood film making. I'm a huge fan of Gaspar Noe, and I appreciate directors who "break the rules." These guys do nothing but shaky hand-held the whole time, and man is it annoying! The acting and music is good, but I feel like the camera man has never operated a camera before! It's the same type of shot over, and over, and over. You couldn't beat a dead horse any more than they used out of focus shots to transition scenes, and hand-held shakiness to show hectic moments in the movie.I could understand if they used some hand-held and shakiness, but maybe for 5 percent of the movie, not 95 percent! Even if your a film student, I don't think you'll like this. It looks like they shot it all in 3 days. The camera work is a far cry from human vision. Human's don't float their eyes aimlessly in a shaky haze. The only point of view shot is the point of view of a really bad camera man! It's like a really depressing and poorly made reality show.Please don't compare this movie to anything Gaspar Noe has done. Gaspar Noe's camera style isn't shaky vision, it's Gaspar Noe vision, and isn't easy to replicate, as these guys probably found out. Everything Gaspar Noe does is delivered with an original and innovative sense of technical brilliance, which this movie doesn't touch with a mile long pole. Gaspar Noe films make you interested and actually want to watch the rest of the movie, not take your eyes off screen because you have a head ache.This movie is not much more than a student film with a really nice camera and good actors. The camera work just makes it impossible to actually get into. The script doesn't really go anywhere, and there's not much suspense. The music, color grading, and acting are all decent but unfortunately, they don't know how to set up a tripod or dolly, so you have to torture yourself to see if the acting is good or not. Please invest in a tripod, or Steadicam, or just quit floating around like a film student trying to be artistic! Hand-held film making can be really awesome, but this is a very poor example. The camera-work in Blairwitch Project was better, and they didn't even know how to use a camera! Hold the camera against your head if you have to, the more points of contact the more stable. What a horrible way to make a movie.