loomis78-815-989034 Five young filmmakers go to the deserted Goldfield Hotel in Nevada in hopes of filming Elizabeth (Ashly Margaret Rae) the wife of the owner of the hotel whose spirit roams the halls looking for her lost baby. Her affair with a bartender (Roddy Piper) leads to a baby that her husband George Winfield (Chuck Zito) had killed along with Elizabeth. The crew searches the halls acting like school kids rather than a documentary crew with the ghost sliding past and all around them. Two members of the crew Mike (Richard Chance) and Keri (Amano) seem to think the reason they are there is to party, flirt and hang out being completely unaware that they are in a haunted hotel and what their mission is. Group leader Julia (Patterson) quickly realizes her Grandmother may have had something to do with the death of Elizabeth and the group can't escape outside the hotel. Decent Direction by Edwin Winfield and excellent cinematography by Adrian M. Pruett and Roland "Ozzie" Smith cannot disguise the terrible screenplay by Dominic Biondi and story by Brian McMahon. This is a shame because the filmmakers are quite talented and make the most of the location. The story is by the numbers and when you add two of the most annoying characters (Mike & Keri) a horror film has seen in a long time, the film can't overcome it. The dialog is absurd and downright laughable at times. The filmmakers create a good atmosphere only to have it ruined by stupid actions of the characters. There still manages to be a few scares and some gore thrown in but the relentlessly bad script keeps sinking any momentum the film gets going. A lot of talent behind the camera is wasted. It seems pretty clear this team could have made a good low budget horror film with real pay offs if they had any kind of script to work with.

Wizard-8 I decided to rent this movie mainly because Roddy Piper was in it. In the past, he has appeared in some very enjoyable movies, and I thought this effort might be another one. Sadly, Roddy is not one of the main characters, and not only is he unrecognizable, he doesn't get to do that much here.The rest of the movie is even worse. It appears that the movie only spent money on the digital camera and a few other technical pieces of equipment, because hardly anything resembling "production values" appears on screen. It just seems that the movie had access to a bar and an abandoned building, and wrote a screenplay that could use those locations without bringing in anything else. As a result, the movie looks extremely cheap, not helped by poor lighting and goofs like the shadow of the boom mike appearing on a wall in the background.But what's worse is the extremely slow pace. It takes forever for the characters to realize they are in jeopardy, and once they realize this, they don't do the logical thing like get out of there. In short, there is absolutely nothing here to justify giving the movie a look.

Peppered_Productions So, this was one of those movies that I just couldn't get into. Usually I can have a horror movie in the background while doing other things, and still follow along. This one couldn't keep my attention & I had to keep rewinding parts (sometimes more than once) to catch up to the plot.Basic premise: 5 university students descend upon an alleged haunted hotel to get footage of phenomena for a thesis project. A woman, Elizabeth, and her baby were murdered at the hands of the hotel owner, George, after he finds out she was not faithful, and the baby was not his. Of course the students have car problems; of course they have to go through a graveyard; of course they encounter punchy locals (with a where-in-the-hell-do-I know-this-guy cameo by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper); of course the writing is plagued with trite stereotypes - the obnoxious alcoholic sex-on-the-brain a-hole & the slutty kleptomaniac girlfriend; of course I found this on fearnet.So we have our start and back story (sort of). But, here's where things go from standard to confusingly off-track. We have a shot of the old, deaf townie presumably in the hotel after the group begins to settle in the hotel. This is never explained or followed up on. Seriously, were there scenes cut? Was it meant as misdirection that this was all a setup?The ghost - can she not decide whether she just wants her murdered baby? revenge against the lineage who wronged her? to kill everyone? to get laid? Because although most of her lines have to do with the first choice, she dabbles in all of the above.Of course the gang splits up, and amid possession and solid ghost 'hauntings' the kids are picked off one by one. Our heroine, Julie, feels responsible because it was her grandmother who snitched & started all the trouble. Julie gets most of the story through a weird mind- meld flashback. Her heirloom, a locket, actually belongs to the ghost. Will giving it back free her spirit & appease her?Nope - a trinket doesn't give her baby back, excuse her being tortured and murdered, or get rid of her bloodlust.The film gives a clear delineation of the 'good' characters versus the 'bad' ones. You pretty much figure out early who will be killed first. The good ones get it, too, because this is one angry spirit.The ending is kind of craptastic. Julie sees the fate of Elizabeth and succumbs somehow to the same torture. She is left alone in the hotel, staring out of the window, while the tetchy bartender (a lookalike descendant of Elizabeth's lover) looks on, satisfied.The movie is plagued with a nonsensical plot, bad writing, and some not-so-stellar acting. Honestly, I thought George was a Soprano's reject. The pouty princess 'friend' was kind of annoying, and even our ghost was a bit over-the-top with her expressions.But the kicker? Over the credits is this random history-lesson back story about the town that really added NOTHING to the plot or characters. The narrator isn't even credited. It was a bizarre choice that really made no sense. Maybe if it was tied in at the beginning as exposition, it may have transitioned properly. Or even if it was in Julie's voice, it may have tied in. But, this was a random, unheard-from omniscient voice-over that made it feel even more like a film school project that had to fit in required elements.Overall, not a great flick - I have seen worse, but this one definitely could've been made much better.Side notes - after reading a few of the other reviews:I had totally missed that this hotel was set in Nevada - or that I-95 reference would have clicked as well. Just goes to show how not interested I was in this film.Re: Twilight Zone feel. Actually, the summary (and voice) reminded me much more of the Outer Limits. But, I also didn't get that vibe until the ending credits.It's a semi-watchable movie, with a lot of plot holes and characterization issues to contend with. Fairly forewarned.

Woodyanders Five college students - sensitive Julie (Marnette Patterson, the sole decent actress in the film), nice guy Chad (Kellan Lutz), jerky Mike (Richie Chance), nerdy Dean (Scott Whyte), and bitchy Kerri (Mandy Amano) -- go to Goldfield, Nevada to make a documentary on ghosts. The quintet check out an old rundown hotel that's haunted by the angry and unrestful spirit of Elizabeth (ravishing Ashley Rae), who was murdered by her cuckolded husband George Winfield (Chuck Zito) a long time ago. Director Ed Winfield, working from an extremely talky, hackneyed and uneventful script by Dominic Biondi, lets the pace crawl along at an excruciatingly sluggish rate and fails to develop any much-needed tension or momentum. Moreover, the bulk of the characters are highly irritating and obnoxious chowderheads who elicit zero sympathy from the viewer. One quite simply doesn't give a fig whether these hateful tools live or die. The largely poor acting rates as another significant flaw, with Chance copping the grand booby prize for his profoundly grating portrayal of the grossly unappealing Mike. The lousy dialogue, consisting mostly of the usual profanities, is downright painful to hear at times. The grindingly predictable story doesn't help matters any. Ditto the generic shuddery score, chintzy (less than) special effects, tacky gore (the spurting blood looks like fruit punch), and lackluster cinematography. Roddy Piper is wasted as a gruff and unfriendly local bartender. The key problem with this film is that it's awfully slow and long-winded; the plot takes forever to get going and by the time the narrative finally peps up in the last third you're too numb with boredom to care. Worse yet, there isn't even any gratuitous female nudity to be seen during the token soft-core sex scene. Not even the downbeat ending can redeem this dud. A total wash-out.