Reeker (DVD)

● Synopsis

When five students, heading for a huge party, find themselves stranded at a recently deserted motel they try not to let it dampen their mood. But when they start to discover mutilated bodies and a foul stench in the air, they begin to fear for their lives.


● Opinion

Maybe with the name "Reeker" the films creative team was trying to give us a subtle warning that ...
...wrong with "Reeker" that it is hard to see why a few reviews and critics have actually praised it, but strangely they have.

When it comes to the plot "Reeker" is less than original, a group of students stuck in the middle of nowhere face a gruesome death, come on, been there, watched that and got the proverbial t-shirt. But then I suppose I can still see an audience for a film with this unoriginal plot line, that ... more

● Synopsis

When five students, heading for a huge party, find themselves stranded at a recently deserted motel they try not to let it dampen their mood. But when they start to discover mutilated bodies and a foul stench in the air, they begin to fear for their lives.

● Opinion

Maybe with the name "Reeker" the films creative team was trying to give us a subtle warning that is that this film stinks. There are so many things wrong with "Reeker" that it is hard to see why a few reviews and critics have actually praised it, but strangely they have.

When it comes to the plot "Reeker" is less than original, a group of students stuck in the middle of nowhere face a gruesome death, come on, been there, watched that and got the proverbial t-shirt. But then I suppose I can still see an audience for a film with this unoriginal plot line, that being teenagers themselves who may not have seen this sort of story line before done much more effectively in numerous other films. Whist the lack of originality detracted for me, what really made the film suffer was the countless plot holes which really do not make sense and makes it quite a difficult film to follow, well for me anyway. Throughout the entire film you are left wondering as to why the heck have they done that and sadly no matter how long you wait you will be none the wiser, especially by the time the rushed climax comes along. Even this ending, which attempts to piece everything together to explain what you have seen leaves you even more confused and you end up challenging everything it wants you to think has happened. But it is not all bad, and whilst the majority of the film is quite bad there are a few subtle moments of inspired ingenuity. One of these such moments was creating a character who was blind, thus making there other senses more alert than his friends and so he was able to smell the stench of impending doom a lot quicker than the others. But sadly these few moments are never used to their full effect and only leave you wondering what could have been with greater creative talent behind the film. It really does get so bad that you and others watching "Reeker" find yourselves taking the mick out of the scenes.

What also seriously lets "Reeker" down is the lack of any real tension. There are no moments where you jump or reach for a cushion in fright, as everything and I do mean everything is so telegraphed that you can see any attempts to scare you coming a mile off. This leaves the film attempting to making you cringe with some seriously dodgy special effects and make up. Not since the early eighties have I seen mutilated corpses look as unconvincing as these. Right from the opening scene, which did show early promise, it delivers some of the least convincing make up I have seen and you start to wonder whether this is going to be more a horror parody than an all out fright fest. Now if they had made this into a horror-comedy maybe it would have worked ten times better than it does.

Thankfully for me the cast was pretty much a band of unknowns, except for Derek Richardson who I recognized from the equally poor "Hostel", so I wasn't left wondering why their performances were so mediocre, and I am being generous with calling them mediocre. Everything about their performances reeked of inexperience and I am sure on more than one occasion they were reading their lines from an auto-cue. It didn't help that none of the characters was that well written and just added to the confusion of the plot, but when accents and general stiffness leaves you laughing, you know you are in for a bumpy ride. As for the dialogue, well I am sure even the least knowledgeable film watcher will be able to recognise some of the dialogue from other films.

● Film Summary

As you can guess I am seriously unimpressed with "Reeker", which is a shame as the underlying plot, although unoriginal, did have a slight cleverness about it, it was just a shame that it was so poorly executed. When it comes to horror films this really lacked everything I need to not only scare me but also to keep me watching. For me this felt like a mediocre attempt to modernise a run of the mill 90s horror which although was not in the same style as "Hostel" was about as effective. Surprisingly, despite the poor plot, acting and dodgy visual effects there was a feeling that a bit of money had been spent on this film. This is mainly down to some reasonable camera work and editing which for me kept the film moving and is the only reason that I don't give this film a single star. My advice is to stay away from "Reeker" as it leaves behind a foul stench.

● Price & Availability

www.amazon.co.uk : £4.98

● Technical Details

Certificate: 15
Duration: 87 mins
Year of Release: 2005
Genre: Horror

Director(s): Dave Payne
Writer(s): Dave Payne

Cast: Devon Gummersall, Derek Richardson, Tina Illman, Scott Whyte, Arielle Kebbel, Michael Ironside, Eric Mabius, Marcia Strassman, David Hadinger, Les Jankey

© Christianfilmcritic January 2007 

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