BakuryuuTyranno Much like "Unrest", "Crazy Eights" is the same thing currently oversaturated in big-budget horror and something that shouldn't be showing at a horror festival. I would've thought the people hosting it would have the sense to instead show something with imagination and ambition behind it, not some concept produces every other month.Some old friends reunite after the death of one of their own. On request of the dead man they journey to somewhere they buried a time capsule, which they dig up.While trying to leave, they seemingly travel in circles, passing the same house again and again. It's similar to the spacial distortion trick commonly found in haunted house films except they haven't entered a haunted house yet. Additionally, the mandatory "no way out" scenario provides the only other haunted building tradition.And then, well, people stumble about, jump scares will substitute for attempts at atmosphere, and a ghostly woman goes around killing anyone who - sorry, there's no "anyone who", she kills people she's intending to murder, but takes longer to murder them than you'd expect. Seriously, they can't hurt her - lets not forget, she's a spirit! And they're locked in the building through her powers so therefore, nothing's really stopping her from slaughtering everyone very quickly.Of course the ghost's past becomes relevant. Of course the opening scene involves people studying a subject important to the plot. Apparently someone forgot to write one of the characters as a skeptic who doesn't believe a spirit could be killing, but don't worry, people will have other things to be skeptical about as the plot progresses.Jump scares cause most problems here because while normally a poor replacement for atmosphere, for "Crazy Eights" lacking atmosphere leaves viewers watching people sitting in a room while daylight pours through the windows talking about how there's no escape. The building refusing its captives an escape route is a commonly used idea, no atmosphere means the building comes across as nothing more than some building.If it was some big budget Hollywood film this would get four stars on account of its what I expect from them. However it's a horror festival selectee and whoever runs Afterdark should've known better. Higher expectations equals lower rating therefore.

TdSmth5 How long these people behind Horrorfest can go on pretending that they are releasing anything but below average horror movies by marketing them as extreme, one can only guess. Crazy Eights is an awful waste of time.Six adults end up investigating their past for no good reason. They end up in some hold house and keep digging further and further until they realize they can't get out and that they are unconsciously familiar with the old house. Thanks to a misplaced intro we know everything about these people and what happened to them as kids. They don't know it. So the audience has to put up with an hour and a half of these clowns making stupid decisions that will get them in trouble so they can find out a past that we already know. Usually in these kinds of movies, they hire teens to play the characters. The difference here is that they are adults, but they still act unbelievably dumb. No one makes a single rational decision at any point.Eventually, they end up getting hurt and dying- thankfully. The movie is well filmed, with a decent cast making the most of a script that should never ever have been approved for production. Technically the movie is also well done. But what can you do if you have nothing resembling a decent story? There is near zero character development. At times this movie wants to be a ghost story with a creepy girl, at other times it wants to be one of those lame psychothrillers where the characters are screaming at each other for hours. It doesn't succeed at either. This movie has no humor, very little in terms of violence, gore, thrills. Not worth even a rental.

slayrrr666 "Crazy Eights" is a potentially good movie undermined by a lot of flaws.**SPOILERS**Following a friend's death, friends Jennifer Jones, (Dina Mayer) Father Lyle Dey, (George Newbern) Gina Conte, (Traci Lords) Beth Patterson, (Gabrielle Anwar) Brent Sykes, (Franky Whaley) and Wayne Morrison, (Dan DeLuca) who have known each other since childhood, gather together to go through the belongings left to them. Despite being initially apprehensive, they go out to an isolated cabin where everything is located and set about looking through the valuables, eventually discovering a strange facility located within. Trying to understand how everything fits together, they realize that all of them were involved in a top-secret project that had experimented on children, including them, and that someone is still there trying to get revenge on them, forcing them to race to find it's secret and stop it.The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot to like with this one. The fact that it starts off with a potentially-promising premise that sounds pretty cool and should-be fun to occur. It's quite unique, about the experimentations going on and it does have a ring of plausibility about it, one of those areas that could've happened in the past and really could've been done, making it all that much better. The fact that the locations on display, when we can see them, are pretty creepy is a plus. The giant bunker underground looks really creepy when we get to see it, being large, spacious and, in one of the highlight moments where we follow one of them who goes in circles trying to get out only to arrive back at the same spot, is inspired and ingenious, full of great shots and really makes for one of the creepiest times in the film. Another minor one, where the professor has the flickering images pop-up on the video-screen after the classroom lecture is really nice, considering it's unknown what's happening then and it doesn't take an eternity to get through like the others shortly after. The last good plus here is the fact that there's some nice deaths in here, when it gets around to knocking them off. One is impaled through the neck with a spear-on-the-wall, another is stabbed with a glass shard, one has their leg broken in a fall down stairs, one has a windowsill closed on their neck and another rips their eyes out, so this one has some gore. Otherwise, it's all that's good here.The Bad News: This one here can only be called a major disappointment, as there isn't too much good stuff here. One of the many problems is that there's hardly any real interest going on at the beginning of the film concerning what's going on. Despite the fact that they meet together to discuss the funeral, yet it's just so dull and lifeless that it hardly gets anything going. From an abundance of failed scares, such as whatever was happening to the sculptor as that scene lasted an eternity while she kept smoothing out a piece muttering to herself yet not once was there a clear revelation of what she was making or why that was a scary situation to be in, or the haunting of the priest in the rectory as he spent another eternity searching for something making noise off the distance, yet because of the way it's edited, it appears that he's looking for the source of the music playing over the scene. That the film then proceeds to spend close to ten minutes with them all talking to each other about the significance of it, with no resolution only to suddenly throw out an idea that no one made a trail to so that it seemed logical, and then even more wandering around in an area so dark it renders the hopeful-suspense moot before finally finding the underground bunker that leads to even more time wandering around. Half of the movie is literally devoted to wandering around the different locations spouting off the same thing about trying to find out why they're there and what it all means. This makes it incredibly difficult to get into the film and take anything about it in any way, shape or form seriously, meaning the whole thing is just deadly dull. Another big flaw here is the film's lack of explanation for what exactly happened at the bunker in the finale. The film just had a bunch of actions carried out, including some gruesome deaths, then just ended without really saying what happened. It makes no clues as to whether it was a ghost, one of them, or what, and the stopping suddenly without explanations tactic isn't comforting. The last flaw to this one is that, because of the amount of time spent elsewhere, most of the big revelations concerning the story occur at the very end. The reason for naming the group as such, what happened to them to get to know each other, what was happening to them, left unexplained until the last half-hour of the film, rendering them of their importance and making it seem as though the film had forgotten about them. It's not a good feeling to have, and these here are what's wrong with the film.The Final Verdict: This wasn't all-out bad, as there's a nice amount of potential on display, but fails mainly into the disappointment area. Really only seek this one out if you're a fan of the cast or feel the need to complete the series, otherwise those who know this isn't something for them are advised to ignore.Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence

Paul Andrews Crazy Eights starts as six childhood friends who called themselves the Crazy Eights attend the funeral of a seventh mutual friend Brax, afterwards the six friends learn that Brax left them a map to an old barn & a note saying to find an old wooden chest there. The six travel to the isolated barn & find the chest & along with various childhood trinkets find the rotten skeletal remains of a young girl inside. Shocked they all decide to just go but end up driving round in circles, then they see a large house & decide to ask for directions. One of the friends hurts his leg & the other's take him inside the house which suddenly turns into a hospital where the vengeful spirit of the dead girl stalks the corridors seeking revenge on those who killed her & left her body in the chest...One of the entries in that annual 8 Films to Die For After Dark Horrorfest festival thing Crazy Eights was co-edited, co-executive produced, co-produced, co-written & directed by James K. Jones & I have to say it's one of the most poorly written horror films I have seen in a while. For a start the title Crazy Eights is terrible from a marketing point of view, it doesn't tell you anything about the film & the words Crazy Eights will mean nothing to the majority of people. The film itself is no better, there are plot holes galore & a story which is just all over the place. The pace is pretty slow to begin with & the first forty odd minutes is sleep inducing stuff, then there's the almost total lack of exposition or explanation for anything that happens. There's no explanation as to why the six friends can remember each other but not the fact that they were orphans or the fact that they spent time in the hospital, we never really find out anything about the dead girl except that she was killed somehow & she blames the Crazy Eights, despite being trapped inside the hospital there are plenty of glass windows that the character's surely could have broke & climbed out of & there's no reason as to why the house suddenly turns into a hospital or why it's abandoned or where all the pictures & clues scattered throughout came from. The script is a mess, either that or the makers didn't shoot enough footage & merely had to use what they had whether it made sense or not which it most certainly doesn't. The ending is terrible too & doesn't make any sense, I was waiting for some sort of twist but it never comes & the whole film ends in a very blunt, abrupt & unsatisfying way. The set-up during the second half of the film feels very much like Saw II (2005) as a group of character's are trapped in a single location unaware of what's going on or why they are there & they begin to get killed off one by one, unfortunately Crazy Eights has nothing that made Saw II so good like the twist's & turns, the gore, the clever traps, the surprise ending & quick pacing. Throw in some nonsense about nightmares, some pointless flashbacks, the ghost of a young girl straight out of any Asain horror & you have a confusing mess that leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions as the end credits roll. Crazy Eights just doesn't feel like one coherent film, it's very bitty with a poor plot that is badly written & explained. Even the character's are standard stereotypes & the dialogue is forgettable, overall Crazy Eights is a bit of a mess from start to finish.I must admit that Crazy Eights looks quite nice with one or two nicely lit & shot scenes, unfortunately it's not worth sitting through the rest of the film to see them & in isolation on their own don't add up to much anyway. I don't know if it's just me but this looks cut, whenever there's an opportunity to show some gore the makers either shied away from it or it was cut. This sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is going on in certain scenes, the bit when Gina suddenly clutches her face with blood streaking down her cheeks is a good example as we never see what has happened to her. I assume something has happened to her eyes but we never find out for sure. The only reason this would get an adult rating is because of the profanity rather than the violence or gore of which there is virtually zero. The ghost of the dead girls pops up occasionally but seemingly at random & we never really get a good look at her or even find out who she is or indeed was. The special effects are alright but there's hardly any anyway.Probably shot on a pretty low budget somewhere in Maryland this actually has good production values & looks like a proper film. The experienced cast is pretty good here, to reinforce the Saw connections Dina Meyer who was in Saw (2003), Saw II, Saw III (2006) & Saw IV (2007) stars here while ex teenage porn star Traci Lords continues to try & make a career as a proper actress.Crazy Eights is a mess of a film that feels like a cross between Saw II & a Asain ghost film but without any of the merits of either of them. No gore, no twist's, a mess of a plot & a slow pace makes Crazy Eights yet another one of the 8 Films to Die For that is quite frankly pants.