A gaggle of attractive, familiar actors & actresses get together for this would-be psychological horror flick. They play the title characters, who act upon the final wishes of a dearly departed childhood friend of theirs. This involves going to a ghost town and digging out personal artifacts. However, the characters get stuck in the area, specifically in the now VERY run down clinic where they were taken as children, and subjected to what we can easily assume were extremely dubious experiments. Then, it's open season on these unlucky chumps.
At the very least, this viewer liked the location that the filmmakers found. It looked appropriately sinister and forlorn. But most everything about "Crazy Eights" is no more than adequate, from the widescreen photography to the score to the editing. It's all pretty familiar body count type stuff, despite the filmmakers' attempts to touch upon larger issues that are largely not explored enough (such as guilt and redemption). The story & characters are not exactly fleshed out a lot, and the usually capable cast (Dina Meyer, Frank Whaley, Gabrielle Anwar, George Newbern, Traci Lords) have definitely been better utilized in other things. (Co-star Dan De Luca, who plays Wayne, presumably got his role because he also co-wrote the story & screenplay.) Some viewers might wish to watch just to see these performers meet various gory ends. But it's all very familiar material that just doesn't work all that well, and leads to a "What? That's it?" type of ending.
"Crazy Eights" is not the kind of thing that comes highly recommended, unless the prospective viewer is easy to please and not too judgmental.
Five out of 10.
At the very least, this viewer liked the location that the filmmakers found. It looked appropriately sinister and forlorn. But most everything about "Crazy Eights" is no more than adequate, from the widescreen photography to the score to the editing. It's all pretty familiar body count type stuff, despite the filmmakers' attempts to touch upon larger issues that are largely not explored enough (such as guilt and redemption). The story & characters are not exactly fleshed out a lot, and the usually capable cast (Dina Meyer, Frank Whaley, Gabrielle Anwar, George Newbern, Traci Lords) have definitely been better utilized in other things. (Co-star Dan De Luca, who plays Wayne, presumably got his role because he also co-wrote the story & screenplay.) Some viewers might wish to watch just to see these performers meet various gory ends. But it's all very familiar material that just doesn't work all that well, and leads to a "What? That's it?" type of ending.
"Crazy Eights" is not the kind of thing that comes highly recommended, unless the prospective viewer is easy to please and not too judgmental.
Five out of 10.