Death Row (2006)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

About the worst aspect of Death Row is its cast; not because of the acting but because with half the characters being criminals, ones shown to be without qualms about killing, there's not much reason to invest in these guys.Sure, Steven Monroe made similar characters somewhat sympathetic in Sasquatch Mountain, but Monroe's movies usually put more effort into the characters than most horror movie crews do today...Anyways, we see these people's deaths coming from miles away. Fortunately, the writers managed to think of interesting methods of offing people, and there is occasional humor thrown in, keeping the inevitable entertaining.Most importantly, it is fun horror. While watching people get offed one by one, without any atmosphere or investment in the characters, keeping it entertaining is important.

A low budget horror flick from the Sci-Fi Channel. The special effects are much better than the story or acting. Dismembered bodies in pools of blood and ghosts that can only be seen when they want to be. An old rundown prison that once housed the most dangerous and ruthless criminals imagined grabs the interest of a film crew wanting to film a documentary. A group of jewelry thieves stumble upon the prison and decide to take refuge. So now there are two groups of people inside the prison and meet hellish ghosts of those who were tortured and died there.Kevin VanHook directs his own story and does well with what he has to work with. Cinematography provides the right atmosphere to set up some very graphic scenes. Starring are: Jake Busey, Kyle Schmidt, Claire Coffee, Denny Arroyo, Stacey Keach, Danny Trejo, and Abra Chouinard.

I see the IMDb rating is a 3, and I think it's about right. The best part of this movie are some decent gore scenes, but the rest is pretty poor. I do like the premise, an old haunted prison, but not much is done with it. Not scary or suspenseful, and the actors don't impress. I don't know what the previous reviewers who all gave it a good review saw in this but it wasn't a good horror movie, even for a B-movie. I will say the special effects on some of the gore were well done. Stacey Keach was the only star you would know, and he seemed to sleepwalk through his role. The rest of the cast are all unknowns. It's too bad because the story could have been a good one, if a big Hollywood budget was available I could see this storyline having some potential. As it is I wouldn't waste a rental on this like I did on Netflix.

I've watched almost every Sci-Fi Original for the past several years, and I have to say this is probably the best one yet. It doesn't do any of the things that usually makes these movies suck: It doesn't have MTV-style editing, it has likable, sympathetic characters speaking believable, witty dialogue, it has effective theme music, the special effects are actually cool looking, and because of all those factors, I actually found it quite interesting - usually I'm groaning and rolling my eyes after about 15 minutes of one of these things.We start with Stacy Keach, and old prison guard who is now in a convalescent home, being interviewed by some kids who want to do a documentary on the prison he used to work at. He relates the story of how some guards went nuts and caused a prison riot, resulting in a whole lot of bloodshed. It's quite interesting because as he tells the tale, he was just about the only innocent prison guard, but as we see the flashbacks, he was actually the ring leader. Not only does Stacy do a great job, but the flashback scenes are fairly brutal and the whole thing just has a nasty feel to it. As the opening credits start to roll, we get one hell of a spooky version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" as the theme music. It's interestingly effective.Now, on to the prison. A group of people have just robbed a jewelry store, and they're using the place as a hideout. These people are great, especially the ring leader. He starts out as somewhat of a normal guy, certainly not very nice but strangely charming in his total lack of empathy for his business partners. We've also got a hot babe (really, really hot), a wounded guy, and several other characters. All have believable, entertaining personalities. Shortly afterwards, our documentary kids show up, and then all the prison doors mysteriously close and lock. Hey, it's the "Haunted Prison". The kids are also pretty good characters, we don't get the annoyingly blatant clichés so common in these Sci-Fi Channel movies, nor do we get the cringe-inducing "what adults think kids act like" embarrassments; these folks could actually be real people. Okay, a couple of them are rather over-the-top in how horny they are, but it's kept short and fairly low-key.As the movie goes on, the jewel thieves start looking for a way to get out, coming tantalizingly close several times, while the kids eventually join up with them. This is all handled in a rather complex and credible manner as well. The characters are just so believable and entertaining, and the situation handled in such a plausible way (for a haunted prison movie), that I was kept interested throughout. There's some great and original gore in this thing, as one guy is run through a license plate stamping machine, and one of the girls gets chopped up by a ceiling fan. The ghosts inhabiting the prison are done quite well, appearing as if there's some extreme heat shimmer coming off of them. And then there's the scene where the hot babe gets drenched in some sort of icky fluid from some broken pipes, and strips down to her undies to take a shower. I don't know about you, but that was one of the sexiest scenes I've seen in a long, long time.The ending, well, it was a bit cheesy, but I'm happy to accept that considering how fun the rest of the movie was.Overall, it's just astonishing what a gigantic difference a little bit of TALENT can make when it comes to film making. Congratulations to the film makers - you did what most of us though impossible - you made a good Sci-Fi Channel original movie! Unfortunately it's almost a certainty that next week it will be back to the usual loads of bargain basement CGI, characters you're wishing would die in the most horrible ways, and enough MTV-style fast-editing to make you feel like you're watching a strobe light instead of a movie. Oh well, at least now we know there IS hope.