Furnace (2007)

Please don't spend money on this.

Just what I expected

Absolutely Brilliant!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Furnace starts as Blackgate Prison guard Joey Robbins (Paul Wall) kills himself at home, his wife tells detective Michael Turner (Michael Paré) that there was no reason for her husband to commit suicide. Then later that night a prisoner named Jamison (Taylor Kinney) seemingly also commits suicide at Blackgate, detective Turner feels the two cases are linked somehow & when a third inmate is also found dead Turner is convinced something is going on. Turner befriends & enlists the help of Blackgate psychiatrist Dr. Ashley Carter (Jenny McShane) who is sure that illegal drugs are to blame but as Turner investigates the three apparent suicides the one connecting factor is a recently reopened cell block that has been bricked up for fifty years after the previous warden was murdered there, Turner discovers the dark past of the cell block has a very real present day effect as vengeful spirits seek revenge...Co-written, co-produced & directed by William Butler this feels like a fairly standard rip-off of The Ring (2002) as the vengeful spirit of a young girl is awakened & seeks some sort of revenge or some wrong that needs righting, as such I suppose it's OK but nothing memorable & there are better examples out there. The plot is fairly standard stuff but the prison setting is quite cool & one underused in the horror genre, the actual revelations at the end are forgettable & don't seem to have much thought put into them. There are also various plot ideas that go nowhere, Tom Sizemore's character in particular is just totally forgotten about, the prison riot is never resolved & there's no real reason given as to why the ghost makes people commit suicide rather than just kill them. The character's are alright & they are fleshed out a little (although it's never made clear why Turner & Miller dislike each other so much), at 80 odd minutes in length it's not too long & while it's not the most incident packed film ever there's just about enough going on to sustain ones attention.Text at the beginning of Furnace claims it was 'Inspired by Actual Eevnts' which I found hard to believe. There seems to be comic book references aplenty here, the two main characters called Frank Miller & Michael Turner are both real life comic book artist's & Blackgate Prison is the name of the prison used in the DC comic books including Batman. Although quite well made it's not that scary & the ghost scenes are a bit dull, the usual slightly pale looking girl who moves in strange ways as well as a burned man who are typical ghost fair. There's very little gore, there's a bit of blood, a couple of severed fingers & nothing else.The IMDb reckons Furnace had a budget of about $3,000,000 which sounds like a lot of money to me, the production values are good but bland. Filmed in the old Tennesse State Prison apparently which explains why there's only about ten inmates. The acting is alright, rapper Ja Rule has a cameo while Tom Sizemore probably filmed his footage in a couple of days.Furnace is an OK time waster, it's the sort of Asian ghost story that has been done to death & the sort of story you can't do much with & Furnace doesn't even try. I've seen worse but I've seen better too.

Inmates at the local prison are dying horribly. The local police detective is drawn in to the case after one of the security guards dies (shoots himself) upon going home. Can he, with the help of the prison psychologist, find out what is causing these nasty deaths? And what is in the furnace? I was a bit excited to receive this film. Tom Sizemore? Disposable but fun. Danny Trejo? I'll take him (even though his role here is small and forgettable). I was even more interested because of the involvement of director William Butler, whom I had previously interviewed. To put it lightly, we didn't get along as well as I would have liked. And I really wanted to like his film... but it's not good. I can sum it up in one word: bland. It's the visual equivalent of munching on cardboard. It's slow, the characters are uninteresting and Michael Pare is such a boring lead that I couldn't care about him (and cared even less when he gave his clichéd speech about his lost family).The film also suffers from a serious woman problem. Let's be frank: when you set a film up with some gorgeous women, throw in a sex scene and label the movie "unrated", people expect to see some skin. Don't get your hopes up. The sex scene has a strategically-placed candle, so you get nothing. And then, one is left to wonder if the main character is blind: he keeps blowing off the smoking hot redhead CSI woman who is interested in him and instead pursues the mediocre psychologist. I speak for every red-blooded male: more screen time for hot women, less screen time for average women. Thank you.There's a "bad twist" later on. Actually, I don't know if it's a twist or not, but we're given information we should already have known. So, it's either a bad twist or they are insulting our memories and intelligence. As well as our patience, since I suspect many people didn't make it to the end.The best part of this movie was the special effect used to show the "ghosts". Now, I don't really understand what the deal is with the ghosts... they seem to be unlimited in their travel ability rather than attached to the prison. But nevermind that. The visuals were really cool. They could have been the same old CGI that every other movie uses and frustrates me, but it was something new: a black and white "television static" effect. It was legitimately creepy. So, effects department, my hat's off to you.This film is avoidable. It's slow, not well-acted (aside from Ja Rule, surprisingly) and adds nothing new to the history of horror. Perhaps with a second viewing I could appreciate it better, but it seems that they took a weak story and stretched it out into a weaker film. You're better off renting just about anything else.

A maximum security prison can be looked at as the ultimate house of evil, as it occupies some of the most sadistic criminals. Its walls are terrifying, its gates ensure that no evil can get out. In the case of FURNACE however, a force within the confines of the eerie Black Gate Prison reveal a darker evil than the most extremely violent offenders incarcerated.FURNACE, the latest film by William Butler (MADHOUSE), opens with a prison guard who commits suicide after coming home from a shift at the Black Gate Prison. Homicide detective Michael Turner (Michael Pare) is assigned the case and quickly discovers something odd. The guard had two fingers severed and bandaged. When an inmate is found dead (the last one who saw the guard alive), he decides to go to the prison to investigate where he runs into his old partner Frank Miller (Tom Sizemore), now a drug addicted, corrupt prison guard. Miller is leading an excursion into the darkest reaches of the prison, where a few inmates (Danny Trejo and rapper Ja Rule) are taking part in. As Miller learns more about the prison, he teams up with the prison psychiatrist (Jenny McShane) to find that spirit from within the prison has returned to extract vengeance on the guards and inmates inside the prison.FURNACE is the second film directed by William Butler and he does a very good job at setting the film's atmosphere, slowly building tension to the story. The film makes excellent use of its primary location, a Tennessee State Prison (and it does look great on screen). At a scant 85 minutes, the film runs at a brisk pace. Butler, a veteran of horror, definitely knows the genre well and he provides some solid chills here. The film's final act reveals the mystery of the furnace and while it provides the film's more extreme moments, it does fall into territory we've seen before. I also didn't feel the need for things to be explained because the visuals alone were enough to tell the story (Butler is very good with visuals). The dialogue is a little cringe worthy at times in moments of drama and in back story, but what separates this from others is that Butler did assemble a really fine cast for this film.The ageless Michael Pare, who I've always liked, is fine as Turner, the dedicated detective with a tragic past. It's fit for him and it's good to see him still able to carry a film. He's always been reliable to give a decent performance. I've said before that I've admired Tom Sizemore as an actor and he delivers another good performance as Miller, the film's antagonist. Mirroring his harrowing off screen life, to see Miller as a man fallen on hard times dealing drugs did make it feel uncomfortable to watch at times, but Sizemore delivers it all with a fiery demeanor. Danny Trejo, an ex-convict, mainly has an extended cameo as Fury, and does his scenes well. Ja Rule is surprisingly good as a convict who warns Turner of the evil within the furnace of the prison. Kelly Stables of THE RING is fun as a coroner who has a friendship with Turner (though the mention of a cup of coffee after every exchange did get a little tedious). Jenny McShane is OK in her role as the prison psychiatrist, but the character does seem a little out of place with the rest of the film.The special effects are interesting in this film, with lots of digital effects (a surprise considering Butler's career as a special effects artist) which are good and effective in showing the ghosts inside the prison but the practical effects are very good here. I wouldn't say the film is extremely bloody or gory, but there are some nasty effects which combined with some good use of lighting make for some very scary moments.The DVD contains some alternate scenes which doesn't offer anything new to the story and were wisely cut out, but there are some entertaining interviews with Ja Rule, Danny Trejo, and Tom Sizemore. Sizemore in particular shows his unpredictable behavior with some very funny moments.In all, FURNACE is an enjoyable movie, a throwback in a sense with some fine performances. With this film and MADHOUSE, William Butler is proving to be a modern day Roger Corman in delivering on a small budget with some familiar yet enjoyable fare. If there's one thing, Butler does respect and love horror, and it shows in his work.

After just viewing the DVD of THE FURNACE...UNRATED, I suppose I got what I expected - not a whole lot to shout about, but not a complete waste of an hour and a half.It's got a fairly well known cast, mainly made up of C Listers, Danny Trejo, Tom Sizemore, Michael Pare...and Ja 'Jeffrey Atkins' Rule, where the hell did they drag him up from! (he even has his mug slapped smack bang on the centre of the cover - errr!) - To be fair the acting was OK, could have been a total disaster.The film has a fairly good atmosphere, just don't expect THE EXORCIST type atmosphere - aim more at the more recent Ghost movies like THE RING. And yet again, what is with this UNRATED tag they keep putting on the covers, there's nothing here that would'nt have been in an 'R' rated version.I must just finish by saying the make-up effects guys, have done a great job - the burns and gore are actually pretty realistic, just hoped for a bit more on that front.My advice...whatever you do DO NOT buy this film, unless it's really cheap, give it a rent or wait for Cable/Satellite.