After watching Slices of Life, SOL, I am reminded of what was once told to me. I know you can, but you shouldn't. In my case it was trying to steal road signs while drunk, in SOLs case, it's being made. I take offense to the numerous reviews of this film which are clearly friends of people who worked on the film or those workers themselves. Simply put, don't review if you are related to the project, it's tacky and looks desperate. I feel like direction may have been seriously lacking for the multitude of actors in this film. Not knowing where to look, not knowing what to do with their body, not knowing motivation for emotion or for lines... you name it, they don't have it. Another potential case of a Director/Editor/ADR/writer/Props/Producer/Makeup Artist doing a bit too much of everything else and not enough on any one job to do it well. This all could also stem from the 4 stories. I'm not going to go into each in depth since each could have a whole review and it would take far too long to write. So as an overall... You can't just say, hey, we've got 3 maybe OK ideas so lets just add a meaningless frame story and make 3 shorts. They don't stand alone and together they look even worse. Work life features meaningless dialogue with characters who have no impact on the story (stretching a thin plot for length). Not caring much about or for the protagonist means the climax (if not the whole story) is meaningless...which a girl who likes a guy who feels lonely being shot in the head is a pretty poor climax regardless. Then the denouement is cheesy and completely ridiculous. Home Life (book 2) starts out promising but quickly falls flat as the set up is trumped by an over eager jump into the horror. Then the "twist" is basically given to you after the husband first walks in the door at the beginning. There is no rising action as things simply just happen. One minute it's a a baby shower, then a demon child. Then a loving talk with a husband, then another haunting. Then supermarket, where visions occur. then home, where more visions and another haunting... No build up makes for scenes feeling lazily put together as well as just a prelude to some gory death. As for book 3, Sex Life... it's better than the rest as a story, but somethings are simply bothersome. The girl being molested by her uncle then getting vengeance with her crotch monster is unnecessary as well as the characters reaction (or non reaction) to her being raped in the first place. Not saying this story is good, merely put together better...as unbelievable as it is. The 4th frame story is just weak and pointless with zero pay off as of course the girl named Mira is in fact Irma...must have taken a page from Troll 2. Also, the fact that she has amnesia seems to be lost as she knows the protocol of the motel at the end while all she did was read her books at the front desk. I understand there are 3 separate stories wrapped up in the framing 4th story but the visuals within each sequence are confused. constant breaking of 180 line, unmotivated (frankly uninspired) camera movements, poor focus at times, completely unnecessary insert shots, inconsistent coverage, etc. Bottom line, not shot well. Continuity suffers through this film, as a script supervisor it bothers me to see these things. However I do recognize editing has a big effect on this and given the massive editing problems through this film that may be where the continuity errors stemmed from. Bad cuts, bad ADR, horrible SFX, using every cheap filter and general effect trick FCP or perhaps even Premiere has, I got a headache from the constant flashes, dutch angles, and digital shakes/zooms. Audio dies in this film. At times it's normal quality, then dips to on camera quality, then disappears, then reappears in ADR version... This isn't surprising as it took 4 years to film this so it's not realistic to believe they kept the same mixers or mics over that time frame. Look, bottom line is this should have been just the stories as shorts, this way the proper funds and time could be allocated to make the stories more interesting and the final screen product more valuable and entertaining. But as is, it's a cheap attempt at Creepshow or even a slightly more adult version of Are You Afraid of the Dark? My recommendation... avoid if you can. Not even much fun to try to mock as after a while even to riff becomes tedious.
... View MoreAs a fan of low budget and indie films I was so disappointed in this movie. I liked the concept of the three part anthology, however it was so poorly written it just fell apart. The first part "Work Life" was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I could tell from the very beginning I made a mistake when I choose this movie, but I kept an open mind assuming it has to get better, disappointingly it was just one big mess. I have seen better acting in grade school plays, seriously it amazes me that these "actors" are not embarrassed by this disaster of a film. It was not scary, suspenseful or even humorous! Just sad, so sad that this ever made it to my Video Store and I was lured into renting by the interesting cover. Perhaps the only interesting thing about this film, was it's DVD cover.Take heed and don't waste your hard earned money on this.
... View MoreThis movie was forced upon me at a friends house and I should be clear that I did not enjoy it at all.Firstly I'd like to mention the acting. There is little to no acting in this film at all. Each one of the "actors" puts up a truly terrible performance and I don't believe that it's a matter of them trying to do it on purpose, these are just purely untalented people.The production value of the film is also laughable. I see no real reason why this movie should have played anywhere other than YouTube. It looks like some kid filmed it and used any number of computer programs to add his own gore and silly effects after he was done.The stories themselves were pretty predictable as you could easily tell how they were going to come twisting around since the poorly written script and even more awfully acted portion instantly gave away any surprises that would be coming later in that particular story.This has to be one of the most awful "films" I've ever seen, if not the absolute worst. I would not suggest to anyone to spend a cent on seeing this atrocity to film. Though there was ONE bright spot in the whole film: it came at the end when the movie was over.
... View MoreMr. Anthony G. Sumner has hit a bulls-eye with this chilling omnibus involving zombies, sexual parasites, serial killers, demon children, etc. SLICES OF LIFE really does have something for every horror fan. There's gore-galore for the bloodthirsty, but there's also some truly great storytelling to be found here. The first segment, "Work Life," focuses on an unpopular clerk at a Nano Technology firm who unleashes a bizarre virus that transforms the workers into an assortment of zombies. "Home Life" tells of a young pregnant woman who is tormented by visions of demonic children while a series of local girls mysteriously disappear. In the final segment, "Sex Life," a young brother and sister flee a sexually abusive home life and seek refuge in a countryside Victorian manor, where further horrors await them. The acting, writing and direction all achieve consistently high standards...and the special effects will truly blow you away. This indie film truly is better than any big-budget studio horror produced today.
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