Kolobos might have been a pretty good little horror flick if it had even a half-decent ending. It's got a talented cast, a script with a nice beginning and middle, above average gore effects and a distinctly 1970s vibe to the look and rhythm of the production that sets it apart from most of its low-budget kin. It does have too much annoyingly stereotypical "scary" music on its soundtrack, but I was able to put that out of mind after a while. Unfortunately, all of the quality work here is just build up for a big conclusion that falls flatter than western Nebraska. This movie has one of those finishes that leaves you saying out loud to the screen "Wait…that's it? Seriously?" It's the sort that leaves you so let down and disappointed, you almost forget everything you liked up to that point while being reminded of all the loose ends and holes in the plot. I don't know what these filmmakers thought they were doing with this ending. All they accomplish is betraying their otherwise admirable efforts.The story is about 5 people who agree to live in a house for some kind of ill-defined experimental film. No one ever references or even alludes to MTV's Real World or similar such reality television when talking about the project, which is part of the 1970s feel to Kolobos. There's little about this film, either culturally or in technique, that brands it as being from its particular era. If you'd told me it was made in 1978 instead of 1998, I would have absolutely believed it.In the house are Kyra (Amy Weber), a young artist with psychological problems; Tina (Promise LaMarco), a sassy kid with a zest for life; Erica (Nichole Pelerine), an ambitious and somewhat full of herself actress; Tom (Donny Terranova), an assertive but unfunny standup comic; and Gary (John Fairle), a pretentious college student. The tale is told in flashbacks as members of the group are killed off one by one while Kyra has hallucinations about disembodied voices and faceless figures. The flashbacks end with Kyra leaving the hospital after recovering from her ordeal, and that's when the wet fart of a conclusion kicks in.Now, maybe I'm missing something so I'll lay it out for you. Kyra is specifically and repeatedly described and portrayed as having serious mental health issues. She's tried to commit suicide, is generally skittish and emotionally shaky and constantly sees and hears things that aren't there. So, the mindblowing twist at the end of Kolobos is…wait for it…Kyra is crazy. No, I'm not leaving anything out. The crazy chick turns out to be crazy. That's it.I'm at a loss because the rest of the screenplay is rather well written, at least for this kind of thing. It's not high art but the characters are clearly established and their interactions are relatively believable. The scenes are solidly constructed and the direction, while clearly bound by financial limitations, is intelligent and sharp. The five main members of the cast all come off like folks who should be acting for a living, which is not something you can say about a lot of low-budget cinema. Promise LaMarco appears to be someone who could have a good career as "cute horror chick".Yet all that leads to closing scenes so awesomely lame that I almost lost the use of my legs through osmosis. Something else…hell, literally any other type of finale would have been better than we get. I went into Kolobos thinking it was going to suck. I'd never heard of it or any of the people in it before. The DVD had a lot of the signs indicating cheaply made gunk. When I popped it into my DVD player, it doesn't even have a menu with set up options or scene selections. It's just an image of Kyra and Tom, the title and the word "play". As I watched it, however, I grew more and more pleasantly surprised and interested. It seemed to be a hidden gem. Then the last 5 minutes left me thinking it should have never been unearthed.I can't call Kolobos bad but I also can't recommend something that falls down so severely at the end. Decide for yourself and don't come complaining to me afterwards.

I first caught KOLOBOS several years ago on Cinemax and remember enjoying the film quite a bit. Hadn't seen it in years though, and decided to give it another go after someone mentioned it on one of the message boards. Glad I did. Though KOLOBOS is not a perfect film by any means, it has most of the elements I need to keep my interest.A group of 20-somethings respond to an ad in a newspaper looking for participants in a reality-style TV show where they will live with each other in a house for some period of time. Once inside, the group gets to know each other, and consists of a female semi-headcase that resides in a halfway house, an un-funny male comedian, an aspiring actress, a male college student, and a free-spirited female fast-food worker. Things go wrong when the house is "locked-down", and someone, or something, begins picking off the occupants in gory fashion...Many will rightly compare this film and MY LITTLE EYE to each other, as they do share similar premises. Though MY LITTLE EYE tends to be more of a straight-forward film, and KOLOBOS ends up as more of a psychological thriller/horror film that is much more vague in it's resolution. Personally, I'm not sure I really understood where the director was trying to go with the ending, but the film as a whole was enjoyable enough not to worry too much about it. There are several gory and well-depicted kill-scenes - much stronger than your typical "mainstream" horror films. This was definitely a plus too. Those that compare some of the deaths to ones found in Argento and Fulci films would be dead-on as well. It is obvious that the film-makers are horror fans and pay some reverence to the Italian "masters". Overall, a solid if somewhat confusing film that delivers on most levels - though the lack of nudity from any of the female leads is noticeable and hard to ignore or forgive. KOLOBOS would have gotten another 1/2 point from me had their been some tits-n-ass thrown in...8/10

I have to say this is most definitely a horror gem. When my friend and I were choosing movies to watch on our movie night she decided to rent this one solely based on the description on the back of the cover. Man was this a good decision. For those of you that have already seen My Little Eye and later on watch this film, you will find that MLE is almost like a carbon copy (minus the ending...somewhat). 5 strangers are picked to spend (God knows how many) weeks/months in a house while being video taped 24/7. In MLE it was for a snuff website, in Kolobos it was for a "film". BOTH end up taking a turn for the worse. I really really REALLY enjoyed Kolobos because 1. They offered some fanTASTIC gore effects without all that CGI crap that so many horror films are using now, 2. The storyline is one giant mind fu*k that leaves you sitting there thinking "What the hell just happened? Woah..." (in a good way of course), and 3. The dialog between actors was hilarious. I really enjoyed the one scene where they're watching a cheesy slasher/horror that one of the girls chosen starred in, and one guy is going "This film is crap! How can you watch this bullsh*t." while another guy is sitting there with his eyes glued to the TV going off on some deep, intellectual view of the "crap" movie. . It was truly a funny scene. While I can't say the actual acting was good in this, everything else about it was. Highly recommended! *two thumbs up* 7.5/10

Nearly everything about Kolobos is poor. The direction is mediocre and the acting, dialogue and script are so incredibly bad that the film becomes a real test to sit through. The filmmakers have literally lifted ideas and scenes directly from other great horror films and placed them in theirs merely to fill up time in the silly plot. I don't mind when a film pays homage to others but this one often enters into artistic plagiarism. Even the opening song is a near-copy of the witch theme in Suspiria. There are also many scenes in the film that have no relevance and/or make no sense once the "surprise" ending is revealed. If you actually look back at it after viewing the film, you'd see this. If I was Dario Argento or Claudio Simonetti and found out about this film I'd want to file a lawsuit. Even so, despite the filmmakers using the lighting of Suspiria and a key scene in Opera, they screw it all up by making it obvious where they've placed the lights (instead of mysterious and supernatural)and adding strobe lights and laser optic beams shooting through the air. It may as well be a 70's disco club. The main actress is the best of the bunch but since every actor/actress overacts (though some appear to not be acting at all), spits out bad lines, and manages to not even create a character, it could have been improved if it starred puppets. I don't mind some weak low-budget horror acting but this is well below that level. Nothing is quotable in the movie because the dialogue is typically generic though sometimes exaggerated, pointless and/or laughable. The plot and ending aren't as original or fascinating as people would have you believe either. In fact there is hardly anything original about this film that is good at all except that it's perhaps the first 'reality show' horror flick made…but is that really a good thing? Gore you say? Yes it has some low-budget gore but these scenes usually are not even shot or edited right to where it should shock you. Regardless, if you want to see Argento films (including the gums-to-shelf corner scene in Deep Red), Candyman, Cube, The Beyond and much more crammed into an incoherent amateurish mess then this is the film for you. I kept watching it just hoping they would stop stealing constantly from other horror films to enhance their own weak storyline about a teenage girl who sees strange faces (including a man who removed the skin on his face) while hanging out with some other teen idiots being filmed ala The Real World at a 'Cube-like' house. This isn't a 'fun' low-budget horror film – they actually tried to make a scary hour-and-a-half showcase. What they ended up with is a hardly seen flick doomed to collect dust at the video store on the bottom shelf…and that's exactly where it should stay.