The Club (1994)

A group of teenagers find themselves trapped in an enormous castle on prom night. The teens discover that there is no way out and try to figure out exactly why they are stuck in the place. Director Brenton Spencer relates the fascinatingly quirky premise at a hypnotically gradual pace, does a masterful job of creating a supremely creepy and surreal anything-can-happen nightmarish atmosphere, makes excellent use of the opulent location, and maintains an intriguing aura of mystery throughout. Robert C. Cooper's offbeat and inventive script keeps the viewer guessing for the most part about what's really going on and comes complete with a strong central moral message. Joel Wyner brings an inspired and energetic element of lip-smacking warped lunacy as sarcastic smartaleck demonic minion John Rutman. Kim Coates likewise hits it out of the ballpark with his extremely intense and scary portrayal of mean and menacing high school guidance counselor Mr. Carver. Moreover, there are solid contributions from Andrea Roth as the sweet and vulnerable Amy, Rino Romano as nice guy Evan, Zack Ward as impotent brute Kyle, Kelli Taylor as Kyle's fed-up girlfriend Laura, and Paul Popwich as the nerdy Greg. The brooding score by Paul Zaza and Peter Breiner further enhances the ominous and enigmatic mood. Curtis Petersen's slick cinematography makes nifty occasional use of stylized slow motion and offers a wealth of startling grotesque images. Recommended viewing for fans of bizarre fright fare.

I remember watching this film 10 years ago. It stuck in my memory as the most arduous task of my life. Along with 6 friends we watched a trio of movies rented for the evening.Not one ounce of pop corn or chips were eaten in this whole time as we all stared pointlessly at the film in its whole entirety.Some of us tried to sleep but they were slapped and whipped so they could not escape from the torture we all were to endure! Everything bad written about any movie should be applied here, I'm sure at some point it would be justified.Shame on you... shame

This is a surprisingly underrated unknown gem, that's somewhat creepy and very unique, with a good story, and good performances!. All the characters are wicked, and the special effects are surprisingly solid as well, plus it has a few decent gory scenes. For a very low budget Direct to video Horror film, this is as good as it gets, and I was lucky enough to find this at a pawn shop for just over 1$! on VHS, plus I especially liked the ending, as it made me grin a little bit. J.H. Wyman is absolutely wonderful in his role he was so funny, and Hammed it up incredibly, and I absolutely loved it, plus I especially loved the setting as it was quite creepy. I loved the torture sequences, and the finale is very exciting, plus with an unknown cast they performed pretty damn good in my opinion. Some if it is a bit cheesy but in a good way, and as I said the special effects really surprised me, plus I especially loved the bathroom scene where Kim Coates(Mr. carver) beats the holy hell out of J.H. Wyman(Rotman in the bathroom s that was quite a harsh and memorable scene. This is a surprisingly underrated unknown gem, that's somewhat creepy and very unique, with a good story, and good performances, I highly recommend this one!. The Direction is great!. Brenton Spencer does a great! job here with awesome camera work, wicked angles, using a great creepy setting and keeping the film at a very fast pace. The Acting is surprisingly quite good. J.H. Wyman is brilliant here he hammed it up big time and I absolutely loved it, he was so entertaining and unpredictable, I loved his performance, he was one of the main reasons I enjoyed this film so much. Kim Coates is great as the other villain Mr. Carver he was just so vicious and mean, and was really quite menacing, this guy didn't mess around, I really dug him. Andrea Roth is very cute and does fine as the female lead I really liked her, she also had very good chemistry with Rino Romano(Evan). Rino Roman is also very good as the male lead he was very likable and made a solid hero. Zack Ward is very effective as the cocky asshole with a temper, and did his job well. Kelli Taylor is OK in her role and did what she had to do adequately. Rest of the cast are fine. Overall I highly recommend this one!. ***1/2 out of 5

Excellent interior setting ("Casa Loma" in Toronto- just like X-Men..), funny characters, acceptable acting and a typical campfire plot make this an enjoyable horror/comedy movie. As someone who usually does not like horror movies I very much liked this film- especially since the amount of gore is limited. Even though the plot is mostly predictable there still are some surprising twists and turns. Add to this some black humor (thankfully only very little slapstick acting..) and you get an entertaining not-too-much-horror horror movie.