McCamyTaylor Sometimes, getting stuck into the wrong genre can kill a film. If you watch this one expecting to see a horror flick, you will be so disappointed by the end that you will want your 90 minutes back.First, the bad. In the early parts of the movie, everyone (including the director who should know better) say their lines as if they are on a stage rather than inside your television. Everyone, that is, except for the delightful girl playing the violin. I just love her. I suspect that the "we are taking part in a stage play" acting/cinematography was deliberate, since you could make an intellectual argument that it feeds into the theme of empty people trying to fill their lives with art. However, intellectual concepts about art do not always make good art. I recommend that anyone making a movie pay careful attention in the editing room. If it does not look good there, it won't look good in the finished project, no matter how brilliant the director/star's mental footnotes.Now, onto the fun parts. If you do not get to see Angel from Buffy dressed in women's underwear, wrapped in Christmas lights, strapped to a chair being tormented by Alan Cummings, you have missed one of life's joys---much like Honey Badger as in "Honey Badger don't give a s**t." Sometimes, poor taste is what we need to slap us awake and make us pay attention. This scene is character John Vandermark's masterpiece. It is low brow, silly, horrifying, ohmygodIcantbelievehedidthat art, but it is art. And John is rewarded with fame, riches and the undivided attention of the object of his love returned from the grave as a ghost. Too bad he is now a hollow shell of a man (literally) by movie's end.Best lines in the movie. Girl playing violin asks what that smell is. John replies that it is "passion". She counters that it's not, it smells like her dead hamster.John Waters understands that sometimes art smells like a dead hamster.

myprivatequarters Someone, please call me a psychiatrist! I loved this movie, and haven't laughed this much in a long time! It's like a car accident on the highway; you don't want to look, but you just can't help yourself!Think Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Misery.Alan Cummings is SO over the top, it's hysterical. You kind of WANT to feel sorry for him at the beginning, but there is just nothing truly redeeming about his character. I loved the way he got his comeuppance in the end.David Boreanaz is good throughout, but particularly in the latter part of the movie, which he seems to embrace with unabashed glee.If you like camp and bizarre humor, this is a movie you should definitely check out!

Liz Taylor Before watching this film I thought it could go one of two ways, either be genius or be awful. It did neither and both. The plot was thin and not particularly rewarding, the character David Boreanaz played was weak and his acting was, as to be expected, fairly mediocre. So why have I given it 8 out of 10? Alan Cummings' performance was pure magic. In the previous review this was a criticism which surprises me. The reviewer is correct, it is dramatic, overblown and extremely theatrical, and as previously said, he isn't and is not meant to be a likable character but that doesn't make him any less of an interesting character to watch. You're given the sense that as the character becomes more and more dramatic and over-the-top, he couldn't stop himself if he tried or wanted to. The entire performance is an interesting portrayal of passion, rejection and obsession that in my opinion makes up for the weakness of the plot and surrounding characters. More theatrical than big screen but a fantastic performance by Alan Cummings regardless.

memfree This film needed some combination of the following : a separate director that was NOT starring in the film, sympathetic characters, multi-dimensional characters, less overacting, a bigger budget, more people involved in the creation, and/or FILM source with good image quality. Any of the listed items could be overcome in different circumstances, but here they are all piled on.I appreciate that the main character was meant to be someone who acts out his own life in overblown, dramatic excess. I appreciate that this character is intentionally not a likable person. Such things are valid and interesting choices to try, but they are challenges that require a LOT of feedback and careful planning to make a film that works. That seemed absent.Instead, what we have here is a piece which leaves the impression that the actor (and director), Alan Cumming, does not know how to tone it down.We only see one side of each character, and none seem to progress or change in any meaningful way. And no, changing address or circumstance does not count -- the characters never seem to learn anything.All the audience gets is nasty people who never get better as they do things we can not care much about, and doing them in a somewhat absurdist way. Yes, there are some amusing scenarios, but all the negatives overwhelm occasional positives.