In the intro, some guy beats up a girl, we see a woman in a bathroom with her throat slashed, the girl screams about her baby, he kills her and grabs the baby. Now he's doing all this while filming it. When the cops arrive, they shoot him--the camera right next to the baby. Years later some high school kids work on a film project for class recreating the killings. There's the main kid Julian, his gorgeous girlfriend, another couple that are friends, and some other girl. Lending them some equipment is a creepy kid Quinn with a creepy van who works at a TV station. He has some deal with a corrupt cop and provides him with peeping tom videos of high school girls. One day Julian asks Quinn to find him some of the real life footage of the murders from the intro. Quinn with the help of the cop finds some and looks at them. Something happens to him while he watches. He develops some power to affect others by touching the TV screen that is focused on them. In that fashion, he manages to turn two girls into killers, as well as killing them afterward. His face also starts to rot.Another issue is relevant. The first guy to have taken a picture and movie footage was thought to be demonic. Both Julian and Quinn see the footage. We also discover that the killer from the intro is a descendant of the early filmmaker. Julian's mom is a cop and starts snooping into what Julian is doing, when he discovers a secret. Of course Quinn will flip out and attack Julian and his girl.Playback goes beyond most movies of its kind. It could easily have focused on the serial killer and family issue or on the evil film pioneer, instead it combined both, but doesn't make these relevant enough. There is also an interesting twist in terms of the identities of some of our main characters, but it too could have been filmed in a way that the revelation is more powerful. Acting is alright for a B movie. Slater gets a short and not very relevant role. Ambyr Childers is gorgeous. The problem is though that the writer/director is a better writer than he is a director. Playback is enjoyable but clearly there was more potential in the story.

The film's first segment is time coded at 1994. There's a few minutes of a bloody encounter where Harlan Diehl films a baby. The filming seems to form some sort of connection. The cops show up. Harlan attempts to flee with the baby, but the cops prevent that. The baby's mother Susie Diehl plunges a long knife in Harlan's back. He throws her down, pulls out the knife, jumps toward her and plunges the knife into her chest. The cops gift him with some bullets on the way down during the jump.The film flashes forward to circa 2012. A young pre-indie film director, Julian, is looking at replays of his current shooting with his co-stars.The next segment shows some of the teens in journalism class, playing soccer, planning parties, and doing it all with a slacker attitude. Julian meets Quinn, a man in his twenties who works at a television station (WPZM, Channel 13), to return recording equipment to Quinn. Julian takes the opportunity to ask whether Quinn's station has any records about Harlan Diehl's bloody death in 1994.What could possibly go wrong here?Quinn soon finds the Diehl footage from 1994, and has some interaction with it. That is, some supernatural (well, we'll see) exchange. Quinn delivers some illegal recordings of a girls' locker room to Officer Frank Lyons in exchange for cash. Later the same night he delivers footage about the Diehls to Julian at a teen party. He uses the chance to plant a camera in a girl's bedroom.When Quinn's boss reads him the riot act about the mess in the archives at the station, Quinn kills him. The distinctive piece about the film is that whatever possessed Quinn does so via watching recorded footage.What is this spirit after? Is there some way to stop it? Will there be a sequel after the next viewing of the strange tapes?------Scores------Cinematography: 6/10 Often dark to the point where much of the screen has no content. Full daylight scenes are OK.Sound: 6/10 Mostly OK, but sometimes the volcanic bursts of loud noise have to be dealt with if one lives anywhere near other people.Acting: 3/10 Not so good. Many of the actors look like tired people 25 to 30 years old, not teenagers. Example: Pacar was 31 in 2012. This is not Christian Slater's best work by any means. Daryl Mitchell gives the only performance I liked, and the few moments of clarity about the supernatural underpinnings of the film. The +3 is for Mr Mitchell, alone.Screenplay: 4/10 Has a beginning, middle and an end. However, there is not much in terms of resolution, and the exposition of plot is weak.

Playback (2012)This was not as thought it would be but it not all the great either. I really liked the opening scenes in this movie, it kinds grabs you really fast but it shame next 20 minutes which I thought the movies was moving a little slow at times. I liked the plot the movies, It bit like ring in so-what different way and I did enjoy some of death scenes in this movie. What did annoy me the most about this movie, there are far to many of the flashing scenes in this movie, which may give some people HeadacheI did not find the movie boring at all, it get intruded throughout the whole movie. The acting was not all great from most cast then were some decent well know actors in this movie.I going to give this movie 4 out of 10 Worth watching!

I took a step back after watching this movie to really appreciate the cinematography and dialogue that this film contains. It almost hearkens back to a classic film noir detective film with non stop action, horror and suspense built in.I enjoyed Mel Gibson's moody character and dynamic acting. This could really bring his entire career into the spotlight again and back to the top of the A list. There was this one actor who kinda looked like a cross between a young Jack Nicholson and that guy who played Dylan on 90210 who played a moody and secretive detective. He was amazing too.There are not enough creative adjectives to properly describe this film. I could only give 9 stars because my only real disappointment was that it ended.