Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 1990. That movie is "Shakma".
I'm gonna be honest with you, guys, that title's been bugging me ever since I first discovered this movie. And it's not so much that I hate it or anything, it's more so of how the hell you even pronounce it. Do you pronounce it as 'Shackma" or "Shockma"? I originally was just gonna go for the former here, however, I do know that the a's pronunciation can be interpreted as 'ah', hence why it could also be possible that it's pronounced as "Shockma". Now I know this is probably just a trivial thing to be bitching about, and the movie's more than likely gonna answer that question for me, but it is something that I wanted to share with you guys, since I thought it was worth mentioning at least.
Now setting aside on how the title's supposed to be pronounced, the only thing I can really tell you that I know about this movie is that it's about a killer baboon monkey that has escaped from a lab...I think. I'm not totally sure if it's from a lab or if it's from some secret military base like Area 51. Either way, I do know that it's about a killer baboon that has escaped and is killing people there. That's it. I don't know anything else beyond what I just told you.
That said, I am still interested in checking it out because it could be one of those B movie horror flicks that could wind up being cheesy as hell, but still has some kind of charm to it. A similar movie I can think of right off the bat is "Chopping Mall". I loved "Chopping Mall" because it had a lot of the elements of what I adore out of B movies. This movie could be one of those, too. I don't know if it will end up being any good, but I am about to find out momentarily. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Shakma".
7 minutes later
Well...even though it was just a minor scratch, Shakma has already made his first mark. I'm hoping that this is gonna be a good sign of things to come if what I just saw was any indication.
14 minutes later
OK, I have a question that I've been sorta curious about for a while now. So they're playing this game where the only way to win is to save a princess at the top floor and defeat a demon. And they've locked all the doors to the building until the game is finished. I'm happy that they explained why they're locking themselves in just so we can later have our killer baboon do his thing, but what I want to know is *what* exactly is the purpose of this game? Is it like, an experiment of some sorts? Are they game testers? Or are they just playing this game simply because fuck you, that is why? I'm really curious about this, guys, and I don't know if they're gonna explain that at all at some point. I'm hoping that they do, but I'm not totally sure if they will or not.
14 minutes later
Well, guys, I have a bit of good news to share. I believe Richard is now dead, thanks to Shakma, and I couldn't be happier, because he was kind of an annoying piece of shit. I'm hoping Shakma will continue his rampage, because, so far, he's been the only likable character in this entire movie.
3 minutes later
O...K...well, I clearly underestimated how much damage Shakma actually did to Richard. Apparently, it was so bad that half of his face has been torn off, along with an eyeball missing, and the lower half of his face clearly soaked in his own blood! That looked pretty nasty, guys, I'm not gonna lie.
16 minutes later
You know, guys, I find it kinda funny how earlier, when Sam discovered Sorenson's dead body, his reaction was kind of a mixture between confused and scared. Now when he discovers Richard's body, he looks fucking terrified and looks like he's about to throw up. I don't know why I find that funny, I just sorta noticed it and felt like sharing it with you guys.
16 minutes later
So, let me see if I understand this. Kimberly is using kitchen utensils to throw out the window from the top floor so that they can hit Laura's car and get her attention. And her aiming *really* sucks, too, especially considering how she's throwing them from a locked window. And she's *still* doing this!...OK, never mind, she *finally* gets the idea to stop because it's clearly not fucking working. I was gonna question her intelligence there for a minute, considering she hasn't really done much of anything in this movie so far other than be a waiting princess for a game that's already gone way off the rails for obvious reasons.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Shakma". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. By the way, just to clarify, the baboon's name is pronounced as "Shockma". So, at *least* that much was answered, and I was right on the pronunciation bit from earlier. As for the movie itself, well...um, it was kind of disappointing, to say the least.
Let's just start this review off proper by talking about the writing. Now, at the start of this thing, I was predicting this movie to be something along the lines of cheesy B movie horror flicks. And for the most part, it actually meets those standards. We have a simple yet ridiculous plot, we have tons of blood and gore, and we have characters that have little to no depth as they try to survive against the murderous baboon. All of that is there and would normally make for an interesting horror flick. And while this movie certainly does have a couple of interesting moments, there's one thing here that is missing from most of the other B movie horror films that I enjoy watching, which is the fun factor. This movie lacks that almost entirely, and it's really disappointing, because you had a premise that sounded interesting on paper, but when it comes to execution, it falters a bit. And there's a few things that's stops this movie from being great.
To begin with, let's start off with the setting. Now, as I stated earlier, the movie takes place in a laboratory in which our main characters are basically playing a weird version of DnD that they play overnight. Why are they doing this? Well, simply because, fuck you that is why. That is *literally* the only reason why they're doing this. Now I honestly don't have a problem with the setup of it. The problem is the setting of this premise. And in order for me to talk about this, I want to compare it to a film I mentioned earlier that has a very similar premise, that film being of course "Chopping Mall". With that movie, our characters were trapped overnight in a mall with robotic security guards that go haywire as they hunt down and try to kill our characters. And the reason why it worked there was because the setting took place at an actual mall. And because it took place at a mall, the characters had more creative freedom on how and where to deal with the robots by having access to guns and other weapons at their disposal.
This movie, on the other hand, is, as I just stated, taking place in a laboratory. And most of the time, you'll see our characters trying to run away and hide from Shakma, as the murderous baboon starts to bang on the doors as wildly as possible. And that is sort of interesting...the first couple of times, because it feels really tense and you have no idea if they're gonna be able to fend off Shakma. But by the fourth or fifth time that they do this shtick, it starts to get old and it gets old really quickly because they don't have anything else to do *other* than hold onto the door so that Shakma won't be able to get in. OK yes, it's really cool to see that the movie was able to work with a real baboon rather than puppetry or CG, but unfortunately, because of the setting, it leaves little room for our characters to do anything interesting or creative other than hide from Shakma behind closed doors.
Another reason why this movie's premise falters a bit is another thing I stated earlier, in which it doesn't feel fun to watch. Again, there are certain moments here where it shines, and that mostly ties into the special effects. However, I'm gonna get into all of that later when I cover that subject. But anyway, this movie doesn't really feel all that fun, and one of the big reasons why that is, is because of it's runtime. This movie clocks in at an hour and 40 minutes long, and by the last half hour or so, you can start to see that for yourself. And again, when I compare this to "Chopping Mall" that movie had a runtime of 77 minutes. And it was perfect for that movie because it didn't feel like it overstayed it's welcome, especially when you consider the premise for it I described earlier. This movie, however, doesn't have that luxury. And because it goes on for way too long, it starts to lose steam by around the last half hour of the film. It probably would've been paced better, had the film been about less than 90 minutes or so. Because you really can only do so much with this sort of premise before you start to run out of ideas, and this movie unfortunately didn't really have many ideas to begin with.
Our characters here are all flat and lifeless. Now again, I kinda expected this to happen, considering the nature of a lot of B movie horror flicks. However, again, you still want to find a reason to care about them. As with "Chopping Mall", while the characters there lacked depth, you still could find a reason to care about them and the situation that they were in. With this movie, though, I honestly could not find a reason to care about them at all. And none of them really do much, outside of what I just stated earlier by hiding behind the doors every time Shakma bangs on them really hard. And one other thing that stops this movie from being fun is the fact that it kinda takes itself a little too seriously at times, especially towards the latter half of the movie. Again, with "Chopping Mall", it knew it's premise was silly and stupid, and yet, it was still able to have fun with itself. I was kinda hoping for this movie to follow those sort of roots, however, because it decided to take itself seriously, it ends up sorta killing itself in the process. And that's really disappointing to see a movie end up like this because it had so much potential for something sorta cool and interesting, but thanks to it's somewhat bleak tone, that potential gets squandered pretty quickly.
Overall, guys, the writing here is really disappointing. Again, it had a lot of potential to be really fun and interesting, but it just ends up being rather boring and disappointing really quickly. And as for the acting...the acting here was OK. It isn't great by any stretch, but I can at least say that it's passable, and the actors tried to work with what they could, given the shallow script and all. So, if anything else, I can at least say the acting here was serviceable from all of the actors.
One positive I can definitely give this movie, though, is the special effects. These are some great special effects for a low budget movie. And what I was more surprised by was the fact that the movie's only made for about 1.5 million dollars. I was expecting something a little bit higher, but for a movie with that kind of budget, it definitely took advantage of it's special effects. The blood and gore effects are really good, and are quite possibly the biggest highlights of the entire movie. And again, the fact that they were able to work in a real baboon for this movie is also really cool to see. Now I imagine if someone were to remake this, the baboon itself would most definitely be rendered in CG. Not that I'm saying CG is entirely a bad thing, however, given how over-bloated it's been used in recent big budget Hollywood movies, I'm kinda glad to see something different here from a time that CG was still in it's infancy phase. So yeah, to make a long story short, the special effects here are really good, especially for low budget standards.
Camerawork here is also really good, especially considering it was shot with a 35 mm camera. And I'm sort of a sucker for those, as long as it's shot well, which again, this movie was shot very well. The lighting is also really good. The sound-mix is also mixed well. The score here is OK, though at times, feels a little bit over-dramatic. But then again, considering the movie decided to take itself slightly seriously, I guess the music works here for that tone, as unnecessary as it was.
So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Shakma"? Um...probably not. Given how the film decided to take itself a little too seriously with it's premise, it's sort of difficult for me to recommend this to anyone, unless if the premise itself really intrigues them. And I admit, the premise did intrigue me a bit. However, given that the characters feel flat and lifeless, and the fact that the film runs a little bit too long for my tastes, I'm probably not gonna end up watching this movie again. Which is really disappointing, because I did want this movie to sort of live up to those cheesy B movie horror flicks that I really enjoy. And while this movie has almost all of those traits, the one big factor it's missing is it's fun. This movie doesn't really feel that fun to me, and because of that missing factor, I'm unfortunately never gonna watch this thing again or even add it to my DVD collection. Mind you, I watched the movie on YouTube, and I'm kinda thankful I watched it on there. Because if I had a physical copy of this thing, I would probably feel slightly ripped off, no matter how much I would potentially pay for it. But anyway, yeah, if you seriously want to watch this movie, it's on YouTube, and if you really want to blow away an hour and 40 minutes of your time, go ahead and knock yourself out. But as for myself, I'm not gonna do that again. Instead, I'm gonna go and rewatch "Chopping Mall" again, because that is a B movie I enjoy watching a lot. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done typing this review up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment