I've always been amazed with bad guy roles in movies such as this one. The film is called " Brutal " and that's what is inflicted on most of the eviscerated victims in the story. The role of the heavy is often a formula. He is efficient, methodical and clearly a danger to be feared. For nearly 3/4 of the film, the heavy is quite capable, fast, agile, dangerously adroit and highly proficient. Yet when he get's around to the leading lady, he suddenly can't seem to find his head with both hands. He's slow, sloppy and such a bungling artist, one wonders how he managed to become such a dark, lethal entity. There is much interest in this film as the star is none other than noted thespian of stage and screen, Jeffery Combs. His presence alone should have taken this B-Picture and made it into a classic. But as he draws second banana to Sarah Thompson, a sexy and slinky deputy sheriff, in tight fit clothes, his role is relegated to that of a corrupt, woman chasing, political candidate, bent on re-election. Combs plays Sheriff Jimmy Fleck, a married and mostly ambivalent lawman who's more interested in his image, than finding the maniacal killer in his town. That job falls to his deputy who's own emotions lead her to pursue her boss like a love-struck teen. So the task is left to Eric Lange, the town reporter and Leroy Calhoun (Michael Berryman) an autistic man with a team of lack-luster tracking dogs. If we try not to criticize this film too much, then the blood, the gore, the nudity and the mangled bodies, should keep one interested.**

Why is it that every released low budget film is labeled the worst film of all time or utter garbage? Every single one gets trashed, and it's a shame, because the better efforts get lumped together with the lesser ones. Speaking of lesser efforts, this film is more or less a sequel to the BLACKWATER VALLEY EXORSISM. As far as I'm concerned, it was just another straight to video genre movie. Brutal however, every aspect, from writing to directing, to visual look, has greatly improved.It's an intriguing murder mystery with a "brutal" edge. I found the characters interesting. Rather than a cliché, foaming of the mouth serial killer as the central villain, the film presents a much more human and compelling antagonist. Performance wise, I felt that Combs and the villain were very solid, and the film moved along at just the right pace to keep me with it.Technically, the film movie was very cinematic looking, despite being shot on what I believe to be High Def. The musical score was very effective. And I enjoyed the twists in the screenplay along the way. However, some of the gore and nudity felt a little excessive to me. It felt a bit obligatory. And one or two of the supporting players weren't up to the level of the lead actors. But all in all, I found it to be one of the very best straight to DVD movies I've ever seen, and worthwhile rental. Ghostwatcher 2 this is not.

This movie is poorly made. Hate the scene when two people makes love on (with the red fabric). The girl makes a good attempt at it but the guy just lie there with open eyes and a silly smile, like he never done it before.Following that scene the girl dump the guy into a SUV and when closing the door killer stand being with some tool looking silly. I have never been so NOT scared in my life.Another thing I noticed is the camera shaking in many scenes. It is clear that the camera is hand-held. The photo besides that is not entirely bad, just very low budget.It annoys me more that the lightning is very poor or non-existent which takes down the quality of the camera mans work. Lightning seems to limit itself to silly light from below to create "scary" effects.The killer and the male sheriff manage to do some really bad acting. It really sucks, because the people that appear in the most of the scenes should be the best. Even with a poor script a good director could have saved the picture by helping the actors through the scene. Actors cannot watch their own acting and need the support of the talented director. Some of the actors did have potential.The guy to blame for the end result is the writer and director which happens to be the same man. What a coincidence! As a producer I would never give him another work again.

This is a real stinker.For some reason I thought this was actually going to be a real movie. It was within the top 30 pre-leases on Amazon for the week it came out AND it starred one of my all time favorite actors- Jeffrey Coombs.I had hopes. Hopes that were dashed against a stone within the first five minutes. Jeffrey and the villain had marginally believable characters, but just about everyone else made Denise Richards look like Laurence Oliver. They were just horrible. And not very pretty either. It wasn't like they sacrificed acting ability for looks. I've seen a LOT of bad acting- community theater, Troma movies, high school productions. This ranks below just about all of it.Like the other reviewer stated, this is definitely an F movie.The story is a joke as well, although you're so busy being amazed by how bad the acting is, it's hard to scrutinize the plot that closely.On a happier note, this movie helped me to realize how good most of the stuff I watch is. After this, I'm much more appreciative of actors and their craft. Most actors, that is. Definitely not these.As far as my fondness for Jeffrey Coombs goes... it's still pretty far up there, but not quite as high as it was.