The Violent Kind (2010)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

People are voting emotionally.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The plot: A group of petty drug dealers head to their remote cabin for a birthday celebration, but the real party begins when one of them becomes possessed by something beyond time and space.The biggest problem is that this film has too much filler. If this had been half as long, it would have been twice as good. The first 30 minutes consists of tedious character development, but once you get past that, things start getting pretty interesting. The setup seems to be going toward a stereotypical, derivative biker film, but it takes a series of progressively weirder left turns into possession film, home invasion, surreal torture porn, and finally a David Lynch-style ending that leaves you with plenty of questions and no answers. If you like David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Takashi Miike, you'll probably like this film, but mainstream horror fans who resent endings that make no sense will probably want to stay away from this messy film.There are definitely some interesting ideas, and the filmmakers tried to do something different and non-mainstream. However, it comes across as a mish-mash of postmodern concepts that are not fully realized. I would have preferred more focus and less filler, but this was actually a pretty good attempt. If you're patient, forgiving of low budget horror films, and like weird stories that make no sense, you should give The Violent Kind a try. It's worth a 6 or 7 -- not the 4 that it currently has.

It's one thing to be the sort of crappy filmmakers who can't come up with enough story to fill up a feature length project so they just kill time with a bunch of pointless nonsense. It's another thing to be the sort of crappy filmmakers who can't come up with enough story to fill up a feature length project so they just kill time with a bunch of pointless nonsense…and then have the balls to acknowledge to the audience that's exactly what they did. If you admire that sort of proud defiance, maybe you could get into The Violent Kind. I prefer that when filmmakers suck and they know they suck, they should at least have the humility to try and cover it up.And before I get into the actual movie, let me clear something up. If you take a look at the DVD cover for this thing or the other promotional imagery, you may be fooled into thinking this is some sort of "Sons of Anarchy" knockoff with more graphic violence and actual nudity. Well, there is nudity. The violence, however, is honestly a bit tamer and less well done than you'll see on that FX show about biker Hamlet. Fundamentally, though, The Violent Kind isn't a biker flick at all. It's a low budget, sci-fi, end of the world horror film with just a hint of Lovecraft that uses bikers instead of teenagers as the victims de jour. The advertising for this name drops "Halloween" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but it bears as much resemblance to those movies as Arnold Schwarzenegger does to Laurence Olivier. Having watched it, I fully understand why they felt it necessary to try and deceive people as to the nature of this motion picture. I would have preferred if they had just taken the footage and chucked it in the trash.The plot her is kind of insulting, so I'll leave that for last. What's best about The Violent Kind is the greasy nakedness of Tiffany Shepis and that Taylor Cole and Christian Prousalis, while remaining clothed, are both hot as hell and talented actresses. Granted, it's hard to judge given the material they have to work with, but they give the best performances in this thing by far. What's good here is Bret Roberts, who would have been great in an actual biker flick full of boobs, bullets and blood. Stuck in this exercise in genre cross-dressing, he really only highlights how little everything else works. What's okay in this mess is Cory Knauf as the hero and Joe Egender as the main villain. Every so often they give you a hint they might excel at these sort of roles, but Knauf can't rise above the sullen moroseness of his character and Egender is trapped within the forced and phony extremes of his.As for the bad? The Violent Kind looks cheap. Competent, but cheap. The most elaborate special effect in the whole shebang is a girl clinging to the ceiling, which is something most ambitious high school filmmakers could pull off nowadays. The make up effects barely pass muster and the camera work largely defines "no frills" in both execution and imagination. The dialog starts out banal and never gets any better. And as for the plot…oh, mercy me.Here's what you need to know about the plot. There's a long party scene at the beginning and a long torture scene at the end that are entirely superfluous and in between there's a fistfight that, hand on the Bible, is one of the dumbest scenes I've ever witnessed. Horror movie characters are renowned for doing idiotic stuff, but decapitated turkeys aren't as stupid as the two people here who decide to beat the snot out of each other in the middle of a supernatural crisis. The villains' plan to destroy the world is completely bizarre, but not in a "blow your mind" way. This kind of bizarre is more in the "the people who made this don't know what the hell they're doing" way. And to the extent there's any sort of subplot of personal conflict that plays out against the backdrop of the end of the world, it's manifested solely through the characters spouting expository sentences at each other.And if you want to know, The Violent Kind is about 3 bikers and 3 girls at a house in the woods who are set upon by aliens that are inhabiting the bodies of people who went missing in the 1950s. Why? Because the aliens have some time to waste before destroying humanity and decided that pretending to be a rockabilly tribute band at the end of a month long meth bender sounded like a great idea.So, to recap, The Violent Kind is being falsely marketed and it stinks. Even if Taylor Cole and Christina Prousalis had gotten naked, it still wouldn't have been worth watching. If they got naked and made out for 5 minutes? Eh, maybe.

I have to say after more and more mainstream crap Horror like Scream 4(Sorry Wes Craven, but Scream 3 and 4 were just monotonous and overbudgeted) and the flood of remakes, its very refreshing to see something new and semi-original come from the independent film industry. I know that the mainstream crowd will probably rate this horribly or say it has plot holes(What everyone says when they don't understand something), but don't buy what they're selling unless your in their category. Premise: The movie starts off telling the violent story of a notorious biker gang that is into drugs, violence, and crime getting together for a party. Headlines of the gangs exploits are splashed across the screen in the form of newspaper articles of recent arrests. The party quickly comes and goes then some real weird things start to happen after everyone leaves the party house.This movie definitely is a send up in the spirit of Evil Dead and the Exorcist thrown in with a few other genre Slasher flicks. The movie definitely stands out as a smashmouth, grindhouse Independent, supernatural slasher with a very decent twist at the end that is like the icing on the cake. I can already hear the argument that the film tries to be too much, but trust me, the movie handles everything, including the twist right down to the last minute. It kept me glued to the screen. Then again I love supernatural elements which this movie has a lot of. I gave it a 9 because its already off to a bad start. It deserves a "solid" 7 rating. Acting is top notch, gore is above par, tense moments are everywhere, and an "I really didn't see it coming", twist. What can I say? I loved this movie and I highly recommend it to the REAL die-hard genre fans who can appreciate good REAL independent horror in the tradition of Evil Dead and The Exorcist.Bravo!

I got to see a cut of The Violent Kind at the San Francisco International Film Festival and it was amazing. Not at all what I expected. It is billed as a horror film, but dives into science fiction and so much more. I have to say, I had a hard time figuring the film out which is pretty unusual for me. It takes about 5 left turns and where you end up is pretty far away from where you started. The entire movie was shot in Sonoma County California, and features some great local talent and locations. In fact, they basically get the entire town of Penngrove in one camera move! Not a difficult task really, no offense Penngrove! If you like X-Files, or Outer Limits, you should really dig this. If you just like blood and gore, it is there, but not in copious amounts. Overall, I highly recommend itCheck out my full review here: http://drivein77.typepad.com/drivein77/2010/04/the-violent-kind.html