Amateur Porn Star Killer (2006)

Best movie of this year hands down!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

'Amateur Porn Star Killer' leaves you with a bit of a "what did I just watch?" feeling. I'm pretty sure I understand what they were going for, trying to take the 'found footage' genre to another level with extreme amateurism, but sadly I don't think it worked. 'Found footage' can be incredibly effective at making the audience feel like they are watching actual footage, and thus bringing a whole other level of reality to proceedings. The problem with going a step further and making the picture grainy and the dialogue often inaudible and seemingly unscripted, is that it has the opposite of the intended effect and takes you out of the picture. It's distracting and just leaves you thinking "why am I watching this?"There was an idea here that I think could work if executed properly. Snuff films are indeed a scary prospect and can be used very effectively as a film topic. 'Found footage' would also be the way to go about it and I feel like a skillful filmmaker could really do something with this concept. Sadly 'Amateur Porn Star Killer' is a poor attempt at pulling it off and is one to miss.

This film has 3 major faults, the first two are filmed in 3D which is pointless and completely removes the viewer from getting into the film. Nothing happens in 3D to make you go, that was cool. 2nd, the random overlays of a couple having sex are again a poor choice the director chose to include in this film along with the small in screen box of the same. Again, as a story teller you need to make decisions that enhance your film. The 3rd and most important, we never learn anything about our characters. Who they are, where they been and where they want to go. The film is a moment in time captured without substance. In life, this happens, but in films, we need substance, we need to feel for our protagonist, we want her to survive and get out of this situation but she has no story. So in the end, we don't really care. The third I mentioned is what ultimately dooms this film because I loved the voyeur aspect, the sepia, the raw street type, gorilla film making that is used. The little glitch as if it is film is annoying because NO FILM does it that much. However, you grow used to it and after a bit you don't see it. The film is haunting, the score is beautiful. The performance of our young girl is wonderful and refreshingly innocent but playing a 13 year old is a stretch, should have kept it at 16 as that is more believable. The constant sounds of the camera hitting something and movement again are poor choices. This film could have been a classic film in the style of Lynch or Kubrick if a few choices that the film maker made were not made. I guess that is what separates the greats from the average. The choices we make as film makers. This film is still good, worth checking out as it touches a subject that is fresh and will always be fresh.

Amateur Porn Star Killer (2007) *** (out of 4) Each and every year horror fans start hyping up a film saying it's one of the best of the genre and so on. The skies usually falls down as these hyped movies turn out to be bad but that's not the case here. I had never even heard of this movie until I got bored and kept walking around the video store and noticed the naked woman on the DVD cover. I read the mini-reviews scattered across the front and back cover so I decided to give the film a shot and it was certainly worth it. The film is more psychological drama than horror but no matter which genre the film works.A man (Shane Ryan) lures a 13-year-old girl (Michiko Jimenez) to a hotel room for what she thinks is to make an amateur porn movie but soon, as she begins to feel uncomfortable, she knows something else is going on. The set up is simple but the style is what really pushes this film over the edge. This is another film that tries to be a snuff movie and it actually works here but I'm sure a lot will blow their brains out. The whole style of the film is that the movie looks like a real, low budget movie with splices on the print, the darkness goes up and down, tape rolls and other things. This will annoy most but it does work in making the film look and feel like a real snuff movie. It's ugly to look at and sometimes the audio is hard to hear but this just captures what a real snuff film would probably look like. The film is meant to be a warning to women about going places with men that they don't know and this simple idea works very well. The film runs 71-minutes and 68-minutes of that time is shot in "real time" as we see the two enter the room, start talking, slowly taking their clothes off and so on. There's a real oral sex scene and the film isn't shy about the nudity but all of it is done in a grungy way, just like what we'd expect the snuff film to be.The film runs very short but with the lack of any real editing it just adds to the movie. Apparently this was shot in a couple hours for $45 and it looks it. That's not a bad thing either. The film opens with a small scene in the car and then we hit the hotel room where we get a forty-minute scene done without any edits and then another thirty-minute scene without edits. The film plays very smoothly and you really get the feeling that you're watching a real video that's uncut. Star and director Ryan does a very good job in both departments and his acting was pretty damn good. He does a great job at playing this creep who starts off like a girl's dream but slowly turns to the psychopath that he is. Jimenez gives a terrific performance as the young virgin who gets in over her head. I was rather shocked at how great she was and considering there aren't any edits or double takes, the fact that she was able to stay in character and go with the story ranks this performance as one of the best I've seen in 2007. Shane, the director, does a terrific job with the visual style, although again, the bad quality will probably bug some. If we're going to call this a horror movie then it's one of the best I've seen in a very long time and like the films of the 70s, its point is to shock you and that it does very well.

Hey Shane, great job buddy! Can't say this film is an enjoyable experience but holly crap man it's intense like you wouldn't believe! It's surely an amazing film and one for the books! How the hell do you do it? It feels so real I feel I should be calling the cops. Even though it presents itself as a film with character names, music, etc., that doesn't matter, it's so realistic I don't believe it's just a movie no matter how much I know it's not real. I do like the added effects though, they make it a nice blend of art and realism. Can't wait for Part 2! Glad to be a part of this new wave of film-making, man! Wow, what an amazing film! If you don't get it, look closer.