Laid to Rest (2009) User Reviews

Mind numbingly bad plot, with gore to spare.

[CDiablo · 5/10 · 23 August 2009]

Let me get this out of the way. If you like gore please see (possibly buy) this movie. This movie has some of the best (practical?, if it was all CGI I couldn't tell except for a few scenes) gore effects in recent years. A kill in this movie is easily a front runner for kill of the year. The acting was okay, and fans of people under the stairs will be happy to see Roach getting some work in a horror flick. I think its pretty well shot. This leads me to the plot............oh the horror.

The writing in this movie is possibly the dumbest I have ever seen in my 15+ years of watching horror movies. The characters do so many stupid things that it actually hurts the movie...........I can't believe I am saying this. I can usually appreciate horror movies just for the gore but this plot was just too much. Stupid decisions topped by even more stupid decisions. There is a plot twist in the movie that is less of a twist than it is a fun fact. This was just awful, it was like one of those internet stories where dozens of users write it one individual page/paragraph at a time.

So in short, great gore, worst story ever. Myself and my buddies have watched the gore parts on this movie several times, but none of us can stomach the real horror, the plot.

Maybe worth a look for hardcore slasher fans

[KineticSeoul · 4/10 · 14 February 2010]

This is a okay slasher with a few gruesome deaths that are actually sort of creative. The movie doesn't even really have a plot, just tries to make a excuse for some blood and gore. I am usually forgiving when it comes to movies like this but the plot holes were just way too noticeable. And it never tells or shows why the killer does what he does, he just goes around filming everyone of his kills while wearing a chrome skull mask. It had a strong start though, it was actually pretty creepy but after the first scene it quickly ran out of it's flair. A young woman waking up inside of locked casket with no memory of who she is or how she got there is a unoriginal but cool concept, but after that first scene the suspense dies. I thought it would have a cool build up and a decent twist, but the twist was actually pretty stupid as well. You just end up wanting the chrome skull killer to kill everyone, cause like I said I am forgiving but the characters or victims are just too damn stupid. I guess it's worth a look though for major slasher fans or if your in a appetite for slaughter.

4.2/10

Good Kills + Bad Suspense = Mixed Bag

[Bill357 · 6/10 · 4 May 2009]

A good horror film is a bit like obscenity in that it is impossible to describe what makes the horror picture good but you know it when you see it.

Laid To Rest looks and acts extremely well with lots of amusing moments. It has great FX and really nasty kills. It has competent acting, photography, and direction but something doesn't quite work. I think the fault probably lies in the script.

The main things I didn't understand were that the characters always seemed to want to backtrack to places where the killer already terrorized them. The girl wants to go back to the mortuary and the bearded guy wants to go back home to cover a previous victims body! Another is the fact that they have constant access to vehicles (including at one point the killer's!) but nobody suggests they pick a direction and drive!

These things would be of little concern if there was better suspense generated by their encounters with the killer.

I chalk this up as an okay near miss.

Indulgent nonsense

[nicodefretin · 1/10 · 22 April 2009]

This movie is awful from the beginning to the end. It has no plot whatsoever: the writer and "director" (a make-up artist who'd apparently like to become the new Wes Craven) does a terrible job with this movie. It just looks like an excuse to a succession of deaths. I like slashers but this is more like a poor try to join the clan. Honey, you're not gonna go anywhere by creating such pathetic characters ("I'm so dumb I didn't realize the phone cable was cut", "We are all badly injured but still walk faster than the evil killer... Why would the killer want to run? He's better off following you...) Cut the crap, go back to make up. Bottom line, a total waste of time

WOW this was bad

[todd-740 · 3/10 · 15 May 2009]

I would give this a "0" or a "1", but I give minimal props to the visceral killings and the overall concept of the antagonist. The acting is horrible (what in the world is Lena Headey doing in this thing). The writing is pathetic. There is no continuity to any of the conversations, and trying to just follow what they say to each other from one sentence to the next is completely impossible. Even the setup from scene to scene is bad. None of it makes any sense. She's outside hobbling down the road at about half-mile per hour and your telling me the guy doesn't know where she came from? And the killer couldn't catch up to her? And don't even start worrying about Computer Boy and his idea to "email" the authorities then looking up the serial killer.

That being said, Chrome Skull was pretty cool. He was intimidating, unemotional, quiet, and vicious: everything you need in a mass murderer

Bad.

[SweetOOgaBOOga · 1/10 · 13 May 2009]

Bad.Bad.Bad. I spent most of the movie laughing, sadly. Did Bobbi Sue have breast implants or just Porn star sized implants? I hoped she didn't think that looked natural. She is one of the worst actresses I've ever seen. I'm serious. I feel bad for her. And her husband directed and she produced this movie? I wonder why she got the lead role? The script writers are just as much to blame. The characters were "over acting" to the point of being pathetic. A monkey at a typewriter could have done better. Steer clear for the love of horror.

......Bad.

I need to watch something good.

Competent Slasher With Amazing Gore Effects

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 12 May 2009]

A woman wakes up in a "dead box" (what most of us would call a coffin) and has no memory of how she got there or who she is. But she quickly discovers a man with a metal face is seriously interested in killing her, which isn't something she's particularly looking forward to. Will she be able to escape and find the answers she's looking for, or is her running just a delay?

The soundtrack music was provided by Deadbox and Suicidal Tendencies. I'm familiar with the latter, but not the former, and I have to give them a fair amount of credit for this film's mood. The opening scene and music really sucked me in, and I can't say I recall any opening having such a strong effect since the Nine Inch Nails' beginning of "Seven". Well played, maestro.

The director of this piece is Robert Hall, probably best known as a special effects artist. Not surprisingly, this film has pretty much the best gore effects ever. Okay, a slight exaggeration -- but not much. One scene where a man's face gets sliced clean off? Gloriously sadistic! The only film in recent memory I can compare this to is Ryan Nicholson's "Gutterballs", though there is a marked difference -- Nicholson goes for grit, Hall goes for shock and awe.

The killer, ChromeSkull, is both cool and cheesy -- he writes his own name on his car? I find it hard to believe a guy who does that remains uncaught. Especially a guy who films himself killing -- in the open sometimes -- and dresses like Destro. But he's a menacing figure, and far more threatening than Jason or Michael simply for his pure intensity. This is the kind of killer "Hatchet" promised us, but couldn't deliver.

Many of the classic horror clichés are here -- no phone, no gas, the killer tracks victims for miles. I almost wonder if this was done intentionally to be a bit over the top, because if not I think the writer (also Robert Hall) tried to hard to be clear about the peril. This many obstacles in one film takes the "isolation" factor and makes it more of a hilarity factor. I had trouble taking this film completely seriously.

"Laid to Rest" is likely to be overlooked by many, which is a shame. I freely admit I was not overly excited upon seeing the unoriginal skull and crossbones cover. My expectations were somewhat low, and I fear others will walk past this one in the video store, as well. Don't. Unlike other mask covers (this means you, "Bryan Loves You") this one is the real deal. I don't know if it's worth a purchase, but neglecting to rent it would be a mistake for any slasher fan -- a fatal mistake.

Horrific acting

[Michaelrsear · 2/10 · 4 August 2009]

Gee, where to begin? Horrific acting - no plot - bad sets - cheapish atmosphere - you name it, it was awful in every way - and that's coming from a guy who loves B-grade horror films. It was touted as the gore film to end all gore films - well, there was gore, but not to the extent it was billed. Sure, there were some good effects and some killings were disgusting - but, the quality of the acting and characters can't compare to even most of the other low-budget B films. Which begs the question - what in the HELL is someone like Lena Headey doing in this film? Her acting - while also sub par, was good enough to stick out like a sore thumb. The only other bright side was the acting of lead man Kevin Gage who must have also been drunk when he signed on. I choose to ponder that perhaps the actors agreed to do the film as a "mercy act" for the benefit of the producers rather than approaching it as a serious gig. Speaking of the producers - it just so happens that the lead female role, kind-of acted by Bobbi Sue Luther, who, just happens, from what I gather, is the director's main squeeze in real life. This makes perfect sense since I doubt she could have gotten the part any other way. Horrible doesn't even begin to describe her acting skills. Her acting can't even compare to your run-of-the-mill first-term garden-variety politician. Besides looking as if she can hardly control grinning while being pursued by a deranged psycho killer, she always appears joyfully pleased to be on camera. Sure, she has the lead - but is the worst actor (a term I use as loosely as can be used) of the bunch - no small boast. I read several reviews which marveled at her beauty and thus gave her kudos for providing some eye candy. But, NOTHING can cover for her pathetic performance. I will go so far as to speculate that no amount of coaching can make her better. Some people just don't have the ability to act - Bobbi is one of them. No matter how long she hangs around the set - no matter what the role - I doubt she'll ever improve. As for her nude scene - she showed nothing - no money shot - and judging by how her chest appeared behind her blouse she is yet another fake-breasted bimbo with implants so large her nipples are probably stretched by the silicone like rubber bands. By the way - who decided over-stretched volleyball-sized breasts were attractive? I won't even get into the dialog. Anyway, I'd say don't waste your time or money - but it's the kind of film you need to see for yourself. I will admit it's well packaged and promoted - and some people seemed to like it. But, if the kills are what you're mainly focused on, I would suspect you're at the least a bit sick. I give it 2 out of 10, and that's because I'm feeling generous.

Laid to Rest... The best laid plans of serial killers and men.

[juliankennedy23 · 7/10 · 24 May 2009]

Laid to Rest: 7 out of 10: Laid to Rest is a real slasher film. A movie truly for hardcore horror and gore fans only and will make viewers, such as myself, who often enjoy a less serious outing really wonder if I want to see a true horror film. (Turns out I do) This film scared me in places and made me look away in joyful disgust in others. It is a film that raises the bar for horror.

On a lighter note let’s pretend you are married to a B movie actress whose claim to fame is a brief appearance as an Orion Slave Woman on an episode of The Star Trek spin off series Enterprise (Season 4 Episode 4 Borderland to be exact). She has large breasts but refuses to do a topless scene and she is seemingly challenged in the acting ability department. Oh and if she doesn’t star in your next project the audience will not be the only people to be denied a nude scene.

Solution? One brain damaged protagonist coming up.... Some people have trouble getting past the um acting of our star (and directors wife) Bobbi Sue Luther but I think poor acting is as much a part of the slasher genre as the false scare or lame back-story reveal and it good to see it represented here. (Strangely I don’t recall a false scare in Laid to Rest and what back-story reveal there actually is turns out to be fairly well done.) As if to make up for the main lead, the rest of the cast is much better than any slasher film deserves. For one thing they act like a real people would if confronted with such horror. (This is a credit to the script as well; but the cast really does sell this.) Kevin Gage in particular gives a performance that carries the film and what Lena Headey (The queen in 300 and Sarah Conner in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles ) is doing in a slasher film like this is a true mystery.

The direction by Robert Hall is also top notch with the ability to create tension and true scares. The real star of this show however is the make-up effects that are simply out of this world and make this worth a look just for that reason. (No cheesy digital blood here) The only real negatives to the film, outside of Bobbi Sue Luther performance (which isn’t really that bad and fits a brain damaged character), is the opening credits and the ending. If you hate quick cuts, shaky cam and techno music all combined together the opening credits will put the fear of God into you. Don’t worry it stops as soon as the film proper starts. The ending is simply disappointing on a few levels. Characters act... well out of character, and the whole thing is anti-climatic and gimmicky.

Overall Laid to Rest is an excellent slasher film for those people who like that sort of thing. But be forewarned this is for fans only; if you don’t like real horror stay far away.

pretty in gore, lacks in story

[trashgang · 4/10 · 22 October 2009]

It's a shame that a gory movie like this surely delivers in gore but fails to deliver me the creeps. You aren't even into the characters, and that's a shame. First of all, it's a bloody flick and the killings are gory and explicit but gore alone doesn't make a movie. The story line is easy to follow but I was never into the characters. When a guy picks up a girl and his wife got killed he never weeps and goes with the unknown girl into a wicked story. But somehow things doesn't fit to me, the first 20 minutes are okay but then it's just the slasher after the unknown girl. Oh yeah, you gore geeks will love some scene's but as said, somehow it fails to attract you whole the time. The last 20 minutes are good to make it a bit easier to watch but still...if you are looking for a gory flick then this is for you, if you want the creeps lay it to rest...

Excellent Slasher, deserves a wide release

[Viva_Chiba · 10/10 · 12 September 2010]

While the main audience was busy for get their pants wet for another "Saw" sequel or another Platinum Dunes remake, Robert Hall gave us a original and gory Slasher movie called Laid To Rest.

Laid to Rest is not another slasher about a bunch of teens getting slaughtered while having sex or smoking a joint, it's about a woman who lost her memory and she wakes in a coffin, after she goes out of the coffin she discovers that a serial (masked) killer wants to kill her.....

When i watch a slasher movie, i mostly care about the gore and nudity, but in Laid To Rest the story was thrilling and i was interested in the story also. A good amount of (well done) gore is present, making it enjoyable for my taste. I don't have nothing to complain about this slasher, see it for yourself.

Money well spent

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 11 November 2012]

Keep in mind this is a low budget horror movie. It's easy to forget for a few reasons of course. One of them being the really good special effects (the director was as I understand responsible for that) and one of the other things, the locations. Normally when you have a movie like that, you'll one, maybe two locations tops. This right here has at least 5 different locations, excluding the exterior shots! That is quite a lot and could only be accomplished by chance.

Still this movie has also a stellar cast (even if not all are in it for the long "run", no pun intended) and the story moves along nicely. Of course you could be excused if you feel alienated by the lead actress a couple of times, but overall she does a solid job. While not without flaws (and bumps along the ride), I liked the ambition this project has!

There is no tension, no fear, only a catalog of ways to die

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 14 April 2009]

I saw the trailer and promotional material at New York Comicon this year and I thought it had possibilities. Now I've seen the film and I'm less impressed. The nominal plot has a young woman waking up in a coffin unaware of who she is or how she got there. Almost immediately she finds herself stalked by a guy wearing a silver skull mask and two huge knives. There is no set up the film just goes from there as random people die around her and she hooks up with people who later die. The deaths are horrible and bloody. Technically the film is a gore lovers delight. There are so many "great new ways to die" that odd are those looking for great special effects will be pleased. Those looking for plot or tension, beyond the what is the next nasty thing thats going to happen sort, will be disappointed since there is none (and I do mean none this is not tense its gross). Its girl gets chased and people die, thats the whole plot. We eventually find out who she is and how this all started (sort of kind of) but really this is just a catalog of bloody ways to mangle the human body. If you like that sort of thing (and go to movies only for that) this is your movie. If you don't this is something to avoid like the plague.

Interesting and gory slasher with no meaning whatsoever

[dschmeding · 4/10 · 5 April 2009]

For a slasher movie "Laid to rest" has some things going for it... first of all the kills are pretty gory, so the crowd should be pleased in this department. Secondly it manages to grab your attention with a strange atmosphere of uncertainty. It follows a girl who wakes up in a coffin with amnesia, soon being stalked by a killer with a chrome skull mask on who slashes everyone in his way with some pretty artistic knife cutting.

Girl teams up with a rough old guy and some internet freak whose mom died and the dynamic three are trying to survive and unfold the mystery around the killer. Actually I thought I was in for a huuuuuge twist because the movie soon starts to get incredibly ridiculous so I stuck to the amnesia thing and the obscure killer with a camera and mask. The guy can kill someone in one house then have the dynamic three flee miles in a car and yet Mr. Killer (who just was stabbed in the leg BTW) re-appears in front of another house right after the fleeing three stopped there. Also the back plot with the funeral home and several girls in coffins and many other hints are thrown in there with no real explanation. The movie manages to keep your attention but believe me... you are let down in the end when you expect more than some gory kills. The plot is a joke and there is so much abysmal dialog in there or plenty of scenes that make no sense. First of all... no one has a phone, the next police station is 100 miles away, the only guy who can help has internet but no phone. Then the killer turns out to be some kind of James Bond guy with high-tech equipment, a remote controlled super car and a "state of the art Chinese fancy handy". Its really unbelievable to have the dynamic three find the killers handy which is password protected and then guessing it like this (I am not joking!): "Try DIE! No, try COFFIN. Ah, I know... try CHROMESKULL. Yeah, thats a smart one". Where the movie manages to build some dark atmosphere it immediately puts it to waste with such ridiculous scenes and dialog. There is no real motivation given for the killer being so obsessed with the lead actress that he wipes out an entire small town and his mask glued to his face with industrial super-glue is just a fancy shiny but meaningless gimmick like his secret agent high-tech equipment. "Laid to rest" could have been something but ends up being just another movie with a laughable script and some nice visuals and gore FX.

Boo!

[aqos-1 · 1/10 · 12 April 2009]

Not Boo as in "I scared you" but Boo as in this movie was a huge disappointment. I have two good words about this movie...Kevin Gage. Thankfully, he was in most of the movie. The movie begins with a girl in a coffin. She doesn't know who she is or how she got there. She has a basic understanding of the human language, so we guess she sustained a head injury. As the mortuary attendant starts to free her, he's killed and we get our first glimpse of the killer. Kevin Gage becomes her hero, trying to keep her safe and stop the bad guy, even to his own detriment. The lead actress was a poor actress and her character was very one dimensional. She remains dumb throughout the movie, not acting in ways that a normal person in her situation would act. It was more like she was in cahoots with the killer setting up victims for him. We never find out who the killer is or why he does what he does. His knife is awesome and very effective. The special effects were very well done. If I didn't love Kevin Gage and his acting abilities, I would have turned this movie off after the first 30 minutes.

Bad to the Bone

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 28 July 2021]

Like the George Thorogood and the Destroyers song this movie was bad to the bone, and not in a good way. This was bad as in poor quality or a low standard. I hate the decision making in most scary movies because they're usually beyond dumb. In "Laid to Rest" the victims were making especially stupid decisions. But before the dumb decisions we had to be in a fantastically fictitious situation to begin with. The movie takes place in a rural area (naturally), the damsel in distress has some sort of memory loss where she can talk but can't remember the simplest words like "police station," "casket," or "killer," no one has a phone, and the city police are over 100 miles away.

What's important to know? A serial killer called Chrome Skull is abducting and butchering women. He's your typical Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers copycat; large, strong, silent, invincible, and kills with a large knife.

He's techier than the other two because he speaks through the use of text-to-talk on a phone and he knows how to use modern devices. But never mind all of that, this movie is abysmal from the rooter to the tooter. The plot is bad, the main actress is atrocious, and there wasn't a single action or statement that was of any value.

Top notch gore but a not a bore..

[guitargurunmu · 7/10 · 27 April 2009]

What can I say? This movie delivered everything I wanted it to. Strong brutal killings/unique killings, cheesy acting, not half bad music, and decent atmosphere. I love watching horror movies that don't require any thinking, its as if you can almost take a nap through it and still know what happened. I feel that some of these movies that are released right to DVD actually deliver more than the ones that make it to the theatre. A lot of the time those movies are really watered down and get the pg-13, but with a straight to DVD you know they are not gong to cut back AT ALL. So all in all the movie was a fun watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to have a really bloody fun watch on a Friday night.

Great gore but not much else.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 8 April 2012]

Laid to Rest starts as a young woman (Bobbi Sue Luther) suddenly wakes up inside a locked coffin, she struggles & finally manages to open the coffin & finds herself inside a funeral home. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there but instinctively know's to try & call for help but she soon discovers that a brutal killer who calls himself Chromeskull (NIck Principle) likes nothing more than stalking & killing people while he films it with his shoulder mounted camera, Chromeskull wants to kill this woman & will seemingly stop at nothing to do so. As the terrified woman flees from Chromeskull & tries to stay alive she meets up with various other people who try to help her but usually end up dead as Chromeskull isn't picky about who he kills...

Written & directed by Robert Hall this is your typical slasher horror film in the vein of Wrong Turn (2003), Friday the 13th (2009) & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) although one does have to say at this point that while Laid to Rest is nothing particularly original or thought-provoking it certainly delivers on the gore. I suppose the basic idea behind Laid to Rest is quite good, the script revolves around this central mystery of a woman with no memory of who she is or what has happened to her being stalked by some maniac killer & as the mystery unfolds the pieces all come together in a satisfying twist ending. Right? Well, no actually because nothing is ever really explained to any great degree & even though we rather randomly discover that the woman was a prostitute there's no reason behind why Chromeskull picked her or why he just didn't kill her straight away or why this whole stalking thing is going on. Chromeskull himself is an OK killer, he never speaks & we never see his real face & he has absolutely zero background or motivation for anything he does except he's just a sick killer. At least he know's how to kill people in spectacularly gory ways & for that I salute the guy. At just under 90 odd minutes the pace is decent enough & the action & story kicks in straight away but it can get a bit repetitive & with an almost total lack of explanation behind anything that is happening Laid to Rest feels empty & must be considered a bit of a wasted opportunity. The annoying aspect that none of the character's in danger of bing horribly murdered by Chromeskull take any of the opportunities they have to just escape to safety, I mean there are plenty of occasions when they could just drive or run away somewhere totally random as far from Chromesjull as possible but they always hesitate or find something to stay behind for or come up with some strange reason why they can't just leave. Laid to rest is a decent enough & pleasantly gory slasher horror thriller but a bit more work on the central story to make it actually end up meaning something & this could have been so much better, as it stands laid to Rest is perfectly acceptable thanks to a quick pace & some impressive gore but it's not going to go down as any sort of classic.

As I have already mentioned the real highlight of Laid to Rest is the gore which is impressive, there are gory slit throats, severed heads, cut open torso's, dead mutilated bodies, someone's stomach is sliced open & their guts slide out, a man's face is literally sliced off, people are stabbed, a guy's head is blown off with a shotgun, eye's pop open & a guy rips his own face off exposing his skull underneath all shown in loving detail with plenty of blood splatter. There's a little bit of nudity as well. While Laid to Rest has the look of a modern low budget horror film there's not much machine gun editing or shaky hand-held camcorder crap going on which is appreciated, two modern techniques that are overused these days that I personally can't stand.

Filmed in Annapolis in Maryland this probably had a low budget but looks alright with decent production values, I am pleased to say that the use of CGI computer effects is kept to a minimum & the majority of the gore scenes are good old fashioned on-set prosthetics & fake blood. Leading lady Bobbi Sue Luther is alright if forgettable while none of the other cast members feature that much before they are gorily killed.

Laid to Rest isn't a terrible film but neither is it a great film, it just sort of sit between the two camps as it has good gore & a good pace but nothing else & does get a bit dull after a while. I thought it was OK, worth watching if you get the opportunity & like slasher films.

Back to basics of a whole new kind...

[Anonymous_Maxine · 6/10 · 9 April 2009]

My first reaction to the first few minutes of Laid to Rest was that it was a cheap, no-budget horror film typical of the direct-to-video nonsense that you so often see populating the new release wall at the video store. Well, that I remember seeing on the new release wall at the video store, anyway. It's been a couple yeas since I've lived in the states and even longer since Netflix left me with any reason to ever visit a video store, but back in 2004 or so I used to have that monthly no-limit rental service at both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video and for a brief period I tried to keep up with ALL of the new movies, which included this horizonless stream of train wrecks that seemed to come out of nowhere.

And in many ways, that's what Laid to Rest is, but in some interesting other ways, it's not. Yeah it's true that the story is a prime example of mind-numbing pointlessness, but it would be a mistake to relegate the thing to the dark world of bottom shelf obscurity. Sort of. You see, there's not a scrap of originality or significance to the movie, but it is a perfect example of something bigger that is happening around us in the movie world at large.

80 years ago, movie-going audiences would have been shocked out of their chairs to see a man and a woman kiss on screen. Hell, 50 years ago they were still pretty uncomfortable with it. 10 years ago, even the most brutally violent horror movies more often than not showed the KILLER during the kill scenes, as movie blood sprayed all over them. Then Scream came along (by the way, true story – just this second I mis-typed "Scream" and it accidentally came out "Scarem." Interesting.) and we saw the hugely famous Drew Barrymore get stabbed in the chest in the opening scene. No cutaway or anything, remember that? The movie briefly goes into slow motion and audiences the world over were shocked that we were actually looking at this knife going into this girl's chest. I'd been watching scary movies for years by that point and even I was pretty amazed. Strangely, to this day it is still a scene that makes me a little uncomfortable.

Now, on the other hand, such a thing is as tame as those monster movies that had people jumping out of their chairs in the 1950s, so we get movies like Laid to Rest which, if you were to show it to some of those audiences, would probably flood the theaters with heart attack victims. There is no cutting away here, man. Not by a long shot and it's going to be a pretty good idea for you to be well aware of that before you start watching it.

Such a movie could never be released in wide theatrical release, you understand, but that's the huge shift that's taking place in the movie world right now. Making movies is getting easier, nearly to the point where any jerk with a camera and a computer can get a movie made as long as he can find someone to distribute it. Of course, it's to be expected that these movies are almost uniformly awful, and Laid to Rest is a prime example. It's pretty bad, but these things are getting better and they're only going to continue to get better as people learn to make better and better movies with simpler equipment, at which point the direct-to- video market will grow and improve, and the important thing is that all of this will happen beyond the grasp of the censorship-happy MPAA.

The result, of course, is that we get movies like Laid to Rest which feature nothing but the grotesque developments of pushing the violence envelope, which is really all that this movie does. Like literally. The movie has absolutely nothing to it except violence, which is why all this stuff about the MPAA came to my mind.

There is no backstory to the killer in the movie whatsoever, or really any backstory to the story itself. Some big-breasted brunette wakes up in a closed casket, no idea who she is or why she's there. She manages to knock the thing over and escape, but before she gets out of the funeral home she witnesses a man wearing a chrome skull mask brutally kill another man, and then the killer comes after her.

Why does he want to kill her? Who knows? Who cares? Any explanation would just waste time. We understand that this is a slasher movie, and this particular slasher movie has no interest in such time-wasting things as character depth or coherent story structure. The important thing is that for the rest of the movie he relentlessly pursues her, viciously killing anyone who gets in his way with a serrated, double-edged knife.

Gore hounds will be highly impressed, as the movie is astonishingly and graphically bloody. We get sustained shots of the killer sawing away at various body parts, and one scene where we the central cast pops the lids off of a succession of coffins, revealing some of the killer's past kills, which he has taken the time to save, for future reference, let's say. I won't go into any details about the state of the victims in the coffins, let's just say that they are one of many reasons that the movie is not for the faint of heart, or the squeamish, or really anyone who, for example, would feel some hesitation at taking up the opportunity to do a little dissecting work on a human cadaver. But the rest of you are going to love it

Over-stylized and extremely stupid, but has some good violence.

[Shattered_Wake · 4/10 · 20 April 2009]

'Laid to Rest' focuses on a woman (Bobbie Sue Luther) who is actually thirty, but looks forty, and is trying to be twenty. Throughout the film she is known simply as The Girl. . . and then Princess (ugh). Why? Because, after being locked in a casket in a funeral home for an unknown amount of time, she lost her memory (from trauma or air deprivation, I don't know) and therefore doesn't know her own name. I was a bit lost here, though, and it was only about five minutes in. I just had to ask. . . this steel-faced killer (known as Chrome Skull. . . seriously) locks his victim in a casket, puts her in a funeral home, lets her escape. . . then kills the mortician? Why? Why bring your victim somewhere she can be easily found and risk getting caught? They try to explain it later, but it still makes almost no sense. Regardless. . . it was stupid and the dumb-ass Chrome Skull doesn't even take advantage of the could-be cool environment for any murder.

Anyway. . . The Girl gets to some small nearby town with the help of hick trucker Tucker (Kevin Gage from other mediocre modern horrors like 'Amusement' and 'Kill Theory) and finds out that, uh oh, Mr. Scary Chrome Skull is chasing her down with his not-too-conspicuous metal face and a whole load of MacGuyver-esquire tricks up his chrome sleeves. As Chromey McGee continues to slash his way through any random person he comes across for no real reason, The Girl selfishly allows this rather than giving herself up to this Shredder-wannabe and just ending the murder spree. Also, there's. . . wait, no. . . metal face, annoying old-looking girl, hicks. . . yep, that about covers it.

Technically speaking, the film isn't all that bad. The direction & cinematography are pretty good. However, the story is moronic and the characters are stupid. And I mean really stupid. The characters in this movie make dumb & dumber from 'The Strangers' look like damn rocket scientists. I didn't even understand what they were doing most of the time. For instance, if a girl with bleeding feet and a gaping wound in the back of her head is found on the side of the road ranting about being trapped somewhere and having a killer stalk her down. . . you don't take her home for a nice little heart-to-heart chat! You call 911 and make them come to you, regardless of them being 100 miles away! Or at least drive her to a hospital, doctor's house, or fire house so SOMEONE can help. Jesus! Plot holes were also a problem. . . and this is ignoring any typical slasher plot holes. One of the most annoying was the fact that Sir Chromington was perfectly able to slaughter an entire police department. . . but doesn't have the balls to challenge three mostly unarmed civilians? All he had to do was bump up in his pimped out Chrysler 300M (I'm not kidding, that's what the guy drove) and pull a drive-by on them.

One of the supposed draws of the flick involves the "most inventive death scenes in years" as said by royal suck-up Mr. Disgusting from Bloody-Disgusting.com. Really? A few people get stabbed in various ways but that's it. Man, for a horror-news reporter, I would've expected Mr. Disgusting to have seen more than just five horror flicks over the course of the past few years as that's the max amount you could see and still think this film has the most inventive deaths. Even the mediocre flicks 'Hatchet' and 'Storm Warning' had better kills than this one. I guess some of the super-special stabbings are done in cool ways. . . but, they're ruined by the horrendous effects. The blood is realistic enough, but the during-kill effects are just painful to watch. . . and not in a good way. One glaring example of this serious inadequacy involves the knife-through-the-head scene. It was like watching someone stab a Cabbage Patch Doll. That's how realistic the human prop looked. The effects were so bad that the director actually had to resort to tearing away parts of the image and blurring out parts with camera smudges. Sir, stay within the constraints of your budget and you won't have to resort to lame tricks like that to hide your low-quality effects.

The flick had a good bit of violence, but lacked in the other areas that dumb slashers should excel (including showing more of the fake-breasted heroine and maybe a token black guy?). Overall, it's just not worth the time and basically stands as yet another crappy slasher with just a bit more style and a higher budget than the others we're so accustomed to.

Final Verdict: A very low 4/10, simply for a couple of creepy scenes and the overall violent goodness.

-AP3-

"Craptacular" indeed.

[shoesncandles · 14 November 2011]

That second star is for Stephen, who was the one character that made this monstrosity slightly bearable. Not that he's much of a character, but at least his particular brand of idiocy is the sort that draws a grudging smile out of a horror fan. He certainly has the best lines of anyone in the movie. A car in a horror flick that can only go forty miles an hour is a new one on me, and kind of funny.

Also mildly hilarious is the fact that the convenience store is clerked by a Justin Bieber look-alike.

Apart from that, there is absolutely nothing to see here. The gore gets points for being the right color, texture and coming with a minimum of stupid slurpy noises... it LOOKS better than average, but the killer and the director screw it up by not really seeming to understand how a knife is actually used. (But then, I like for the execution in excessive gore to make SENSE if at all possible--helps justify it. What can I say, I'm picky.) People who only care about the blood'n'guts bit will like it well enough.

The plot is virtually non-existent; the heroine, while not unlikeable, has no personality and is impossible to give a crap about; the acting is god-awful even by horror's already-low standards; the characters' decisions are stupid even by horror's already-low standards... and possibly worst of all, the final confrontation with the killer sickeningly reminds one of the one in "The House By The Cemetery."

Nasty... just nasty.

Immensely enjoyable and entertaining slasher

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 8 September 2015]

Awaking in a strange casket, a young woman learns that she is being targeted by a psychotic killer in a deadly game where she must evade him and survive the night in order to escape, but unaware of the rules, everyone she runs to for help end up targeted by the madman.

This one was a rather fun and enjoyable slasher that manages to get a lot right with only a few small flaws. The best aspects here come from a great premise, as this comes off as entirely original due to the overall set-up of a woman waking up in a casket with no memory to find a serial killer is after her and everyone she comes into contact with, which is quite the impressive and unique effort. Besides being original, this set-up brings about a rather frantic slasher starting point so it's got plenty of action from lots of confrontations with the killer that are actually fun. The opening which sets up the rules of the game with some great stalking is fun enough, while the funeral home encounter that leads into the great escape into the foggy woods, the stalking of the couple in the car where he stalks them through the woods and the police station ambush with the fantastic stalking in the hallways make this one quite thrilling with plenty of enticing action-packed confrontations. As well, there's two absolutely fantastic sequences here that make this one quite fun as the stalking in the killer's lair comes off incredibly well as the walk-through of the dirty, grimy location armed with torture devices, preparations for more games and the numerous coffins gives this a great location, the brawling with the drills among the coffins is quite fun and a few memorable suspense scenes thrown in gives this a wholly appropriate showcase sequence. There's also a fantastic finale in the convenience store using the text messages as a great set-up, the continuous black-out stalking being incredibly chilling while making good use of the surroundings in the brawls with some fine ingenuity in the final resolution against the killer to escape which comes off really well. With some fantastic kills resulting in some great gore and a fantastic, intimidating mask for the killer, these are all wrapped together into a fun time. While there's a lot to like here, there are a few flaws in here. The biggest here was a kill-less middle section filled with way too much stupidity to stay in danger, either through continually trying to return to her car that the killer can control or going into the killer's laid alone, or by the fact that a lot of confrontations don't end with kills as it features him fiddling with his tapes instead of going after them which leaves a pretty long stretch with very few kills. The other problem here is the lack of motive mentioned throughout here, as her being targeted is a complete mystery. Still, these aren't really that detrimental to this one and it was a lot of fun.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and Brief Sex Scenes.

Satisfying Slasher

[AaronHickory · 6/10 · 6 April 2009]

If you are looking for some pretty graphic and realistic gore porn, this does the job. The fx are well done and really make you cringe with all the various cerated edge knife slayings. The killer is pretty cool with all his gadgets, he kinda reminds me of Deadpool from Marvel Comics (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Accept instead of two katana blades he has two shiny knives as his main killing devices. Yeah the plot is full of gaping holes but its a fun movie if you're into this type of thing. The acting is decent, and the main female role is actually pretty humorous with how stupid some of the lines are. I recommend it for the kills.

Frustrating movie to watch

[Nilbog02-151-466309 · 2/10 · 3 September 2011]

2 stars only because of the awesome kill scenes. I love horror movies but this one is a real dud. Watched it based on a favorable review on bloody disgusting but the acting in this movie makes The Room look great. Bobbie what's her name was especially painful to watch. If she had shown her tits maybe I would have given a 3. Dude from Con Air tried his best but to no avail. The 10 star reviews on here make me wonder about the human race in general. Maybe the actors are posting on here or these people are retards but I don't get a 7-10 star review on this one. They should be removed from IMDb for wasting real movie fan's time watching garbage like this based on their reviews. Trust me watch the kill clips on you tube or something and save yourself the frustration of watching this movie.

Watch if you like getting frustrated

[adeleysim · 3/10 · 23 April 2020]

The concept isn't bad but the plot is immensely frustrating, with the characters having no situational awareness or survival instinct at all. The main character is especially annoying.