This movie is pathetic. I THINK its supposed to be a cheap Horror-Comedy type of nonsense film that, assuming that is the case, completely misses on the humor, lacks originality, and lacks effort. The dialogue from the get-go is terrible and cliché beyond words. Characters saying the ol' "what persons of this age/socioeconomic status would say in this situation who are best friends but so terrible to each other!" Again, If the supposed objective is spoofing movies in a campy horror movie style, it doesn't work at all. If the objective is to make the audience laugh on its merits, I can't imagine who's laughing. What was with the limo driver addressing each character exiting the limo? That early scene was Unforgivably unoriginal/unfunny to the point there's no redemption possible for me (I did continue watching however). The acting for the first 30 minutes of the movie is noticeably uninspired as if they did it on one take at the end of the shoot. Oddly it becomes better as the movie progresses, as if only the second half of the movie was actually the movie and the first 30 minutes was written in 30 minutes, filmed in 30 more and never revisited, revised or edited.Last items -The use of the F curse is, again, over-exposed, unoriginal, and ruins a lot of scenes for me. Its overuse doesn't come off as adding comedic value, rather, annoying and unoriginal. -Having one character tripping balls on mushrooms; sooooooo overplayed come on this is he best you could do? *One funny moment is the playing of the privately incognito sex tape. The bad part about this; proving this movie is capable of entertaining the audience if it wants to.If Danielle Harris wasn't attached to this picture you wouldn't be seeing anything above a 3. Keywords; unoriginal, not funny, lack of effort toward script/acting. Why would you want to watch a movie with these attributes. The 4.5 aggregate rating is for Danielle Harris' name.

I haven't read the rest of the reviews but how does this rate 4.5?As one reviewer said, it's The Breakfast Club in the House of 1000 Corpses...and I'd add Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean. Bernadette, a lovely psychotic psychologist, plans a party murder mystery party for her friends...and then drugs them so they can't move. From there, she exposes their lies and hypocrisies. Sure, the fact that she's engaged in deception to know all that she knows and has her own hypocrisies doesn't make sense...that's why she's psychotic. In the course of the night, she shows the hidden videos of the "friends" cheating on each other, raping each other and spying on each other, while keeping their secrets. Throw in some mushrooms and general trippiness and what's not to like? The rock solid script takes you through the various sins with some excellent group dynamics and ensemble acting. Towards the end, Jules (the blond bombshell who's tripping) goes into a full blown hallucination which throws out an even more unsettling vibe with a gasp-inducing consequence. Everyone is spot on in their roles. Bernadette plays her insanity with a subtleness and restraint that could have thrown the movie off the rails. This provides the perfect contrast in the rare moments when she does flip out. Jules, too, shines in her role and brings depth to her party-girl persona. When I first saw her, I thought she was too pretty bring off the role but she fearlessly takes on the drug trip aspect and sells it brilliantly. All in all, it starts up quick and maintains its pace providing an amazing ride!

"Among Friends" is the directorial debut of scream queen Danielle Harris and if that isn't enough to spark your interest take a look at some of the other super talented people involved. Alyssa Lobit penned this little gem and is slowly proving that she's a rock star screen writer headed for the top. Lobit also stars in the film and carries herself well amongst a troop of indie horror veterans. The film also stars horror genre icon Kane Hodder, Christopher Backus, Jennifer Blanc, Dana Daurey, Brianne Davis, Chris Meyer, and of course the great A.J. Bowen. A.J. Bowen is swiftly becoming a horror genre icon himself. I can't believe how many truly awesome films Bowen has starred in over the last five years or so. "Among Friends" is probably best described as "Misery" meets "The Breakfast Club." The film kicks off with what appears to be a tight knit group of friends attending a retro eighties party. The group is taken hostage by an insane and apparently jilted Bernadette that wants to show them the error of their ways. It doesn't take long before the secrets and lies binding the group together begin to tear it apart (literally). I really liked this film for a lot of different reasons but the truth is there's not much here that we haven't seen before. Harris does a very solid job in her first time behind the camera. There are several instances in the film where one of the characters has drug induced delusions. Harris is especially impressive in these moments as she is able to set those scenes apart from the story we're watching and then pull us back at just the right moment. Although the film is decent in all aspects it never really seems to decide where it wants to go or even how far. This is very evident in the films last twenty minutes which make little sense and almost completely stomp out any fire we had burning here. The production value here is unfavorable and I say that having just had a similar retro eighties party for my daughters sweet sixteen. Honestly the party cost us a couple thousand dollars and would have made twice the set produced in this film. I have to nitpick a little bit that's just my nature but let me counter that by saying my two girl's ages 16 and 11 absolutely loved this film, so what do I know. Through it all the film tries hard to stay interesting, bloody, and pure fun. It's not a great film but it's a great start and hopefully we'll get more of Harris behind and in front of the camera. I give this film 6/10 and recommend it to all off-beat horror fans. Let me know what you thought about this group of friends and there dirty little secrets.

I saw this film at the Imagine film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. The synopsis on the festival website sounded very interesting. And it started alright, when the characters were introduced one by one, as a natural side effect of loading them all in a limo, hired to collect and bring them to the house where the party was. Cocktails were served, and everyone was prepared to have an enjoyable evening, with a possible extension of sleeping with one of the old friends.When the host announces an "evening of integrity", no one suspects anything yet, not seeming to feel even a bit of uneasiness. It starts normally too, like a whodunit game. Couples are sent out to the various rooms to find clues for the mystery that has to be solved. Nothing out of the ordinary yet. While visiting the respective bedrooms, old memories and old bonds are refreshed. Everyone is prepared for an enjoyable evening with a diner among old friends, an additional game to pass the evening, and a conclusion in some of the bedrooms.The atmosphere changes dramatically after the cocktails. The hostess is a psychiatrist, obviously having access to drugs. Only she is still standing, while all others awake one by one and find themselves tied to their chairs. Plus there is Lily, who we see on the video screen lying in a bathtub, seemingly dead but without further details about her fate. The hostess has a remote control unit and shows pictures and video's about past and present events, and makes very clear that there are several axes to grind. From that moment on, it turns into an uninteresting blood&gore (or torture porn) movie, where several people are wounded without a real purpose other than causing pain, only to settle an ancient account. This takes 2/3 of the running time, and I cannot find any merits in it.We have to wait until the last 15 minutes to witness something interesting again. It has to do with Lily, who was forced to have sex with some of those present, while several others saw or heard it happening but did nothing to stop it. Of course, those involved all say they are "sorry", but that makes it even worse. I will not reveal more, if only to prevent spoilers.All in all, this film was not enjoyable to watch, for me that is, since I always try to evade torture porn movies. The plot is original and could have been exploited much better. The beginning and ending are perfect, but the hour in between is hardly bearable to watch, because of the fact that there is no reason (that we know of at that time) for all the pain caused. In hindsight we get the message that there was indeed a real purpose, but that is too late. In other words, the scenario is unbalanced and should spread the information flow more evenly over the running time. The festival visitors gave this film the last-but-one place (40th out of 41) with average score 5.3.