Paul Andrews The Choke starts as a rock band known as The Choke prepare for a gig at a nightclub called 'Club 905' owned & run by Guy Johnson (Andrew Parker). Lead singer Dylan (Sean Cook) & guitar player Mike (Jason McKee) plan to tell the other band members, bass player London (Brooke Bailey) & drummer Nancy (Tom Olson), that they are both going solo & their services won't be needed any longer. Once at the club Dylan prepares but Mike doesn't show up & the gig turns into a disaster. Then just as the band think things couldn't get any worse they find a dead body in the cellar, that all the doors have been locked so they can't get out & that they can't trust anyone as a mysterious killer begins picking them off one-by-one...Produced & directed by Juan A. Mas The Choke is a standard by-the-numbers teen slasher that really doesn't have anything going for it. The script by Jessica Dolan & Susannah Lowber (not too many horror films out there penned by ladies...) has some surprisingly good character's in it & some nifty dialogue but while it's much better than a lot of modern shot on a camcorder type horror in that respect it's so slow & boring that even a few interesting character's can't come anywhere close to saving it. As one would expect all the usual teen slasher clichés are used, from the isolated location the victims can't escape from, the cast of good looking teenagers who keep splitting up, a few murders & a really poor twist ending that tries to mimic something like Scream (1996) & be surprising but doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about it logically (they couldn't have done some of the things they were supposed to) & to make matters even worse I guessed who the killer was fairly early on & even though I don't want to boast I was spot on. Then there's the fact that the makers of The Choke felt that it's audience would be entertained by showing endless (well it feels endless while watching it) scenes of teenagers walking around dark corridors doing nothing in particular, I am sorry but there is only so many scenes like this that I can take before it starts to become tedious. The kill count is low, at first they all decide to stick together (good idea) but then they all just randomly decide to split up & go their separate ways (bad idea when there's a killer on the loose), the pace is lethargic, the kill scenes are unimaginative & to top it all off the twist ending is poor.Director Mas does alright, the film looks OK for the most part although there are the odd occasions where he uses some annoying post production editing technique like slow motion or frame skipping. The gore levels aren't really up to scratch, there's some blood splatter, a guy with a hole in his chest, a few dead bodies & someone impaled on some metal poles. Most of the kills happen off screen with the axe kill at the end a good example of the film not actually showing anything. Since the film is about a rock band there's quite a rock orientated soundtrack with some truly horrible, horrible rock songs used on it. I am sorry rock fans but to my ears this crap is just noise pollution. It's not scary, there's no real atmosphere & the lack of blood & gore is just inexcusable when the rest of the film is so bad.With a supposed budget of about $1,000,000 The Choke is well made with reasonable production values, it looks cheap to be sure but not as cheap as many low budget horror films look. Shot in a place called Spokane in Washington apparently. The acting is one of the films strongest points as it's generally pretty good all round, I mean no-one is going to win an Oscar but it ain't half bad.The Choke is a throughly routine Scream style teen slasher that has one of the weakest twist endings ever & a criminal lack of blood, gore, violence, nudity & dead bodies. I mean if a slasher hasn't got any sex or gore then what's the point? Those are the only things that the average slasher is worth watching for, right?

allie_cat_404 Yeah, basically I liked the movie a lot, and thought it was rather entertaining. It is a you either love it or you hate it type of film. I would give it a nine out of ten. This movie keeps you guessing throughout the entire thing. You are not sure who the killer is until the very end. The acting is not the best in my opinion, but I think that adds something to the movie. It makes it kind of funny. The Choke is a "slice 'em dice 'em" movie, but you are not going to be grossed out by a lot of gore. I also thought the background music was amazing! I would like to hear those bands, but I can not find anything about them. I would definitely recommend people watch this movie. So, that is about it.

shaun fogerty After seeing this I can happily say thats there is a direct to video horror flick that 80's slasher fans can enjoy. Everything that a person hoping to find a gem in the rough is present in this movie. Over the top characters, Well done gore effects, Teens locked in some type of building, and a surprisingly not so obvious killer. This movie is really cheesy but in a good way, I'm glad I gave it a try. Far far better than most direct to video horror flicks. However like Iv'e said about some other movies, this one should be watched solely by people who are fans of campy slasher films and not someone looking for a movie that will actually scare them. Everything about " The choke" pleased me. And the special feature is pretty fun to watch too.

video_game_lover_122 i can understand why people hated this film but it really isn't that bad. sure the acting is a little over the top but the suspense and that twist is pretty good in the movie. i liked how they used the wonder bread factory for some of it cause it gave it more mystery. the gore isn't that over the top either, it's mainly left to the imagination and some after sides of the deaths but nothing all that bad. if your looking for a movie to watch on a Saturday when your bored out of your mind, give this movie a try, you'll either love it or hate it.. i personally thought it was a decent direct to DVD hit. 7/10, give it a try.