Crazy Eights (2006)

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.

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.

This movie isn't good enough to be fun or bad enough to be funny. Luckily, I saw it on the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, and was able to accomplish some things (like folding laundry) while it was on. I kept waiting for something to happen (ho hum) and then I kept looking for the control (dang those new-fangled TVs), and finally just left the room. I love grade B horror flicks, but this hasn't anything to recommend itself - oh, and the score, there's some syn-instrument that keeps plinking out the same chords - the tune reminds me of that Intel commercial - THAT was the best thing about this movie, and when the best thing about a movie is that it reminds you of a TV commercial, then 'nuf said.

This movie is the most stupid movie I have ever seen. Why would 6 white collar workers break into an abandoned house looking for a girl that ran past their car? Then add that they break into the basement looking for this girl? Then the door to the basement slams shut and they are stuck. Why did they throw the chest out the barn window? They intentionally smashed the chest why? Nothing makes sense in this movie.I am warning you that this movie is a waste of time. Why do they feel guilt? I think they feel guilt for making this movie and they now feel compassion for the people that paid money to rent it or worse those who bought this movie.