Ed's Review Dot Com

Serendipity Point Films, XYZ Films, Citizen Jones,

Minnie Driver, Meat Loaf, Allie MacDonald, Douglas Smith, Kent Nolan

Kylie Swanson (Minnie Driver) was a huge stage star, but she was murdered during her big production. Her daughter, Camilla (Allie MacDonald) is working as a cook in a rather snooty acting camp and Kylie’s manager, Roger McCall (Meat Loaf) is running the camp and wants to perform the same musical that Camilla’s mother was killed performing. Camilla has a desire to be an actress like her mother and tries out for the lead role. But history is repeating itself as bodies begin to pile up.

This film did not really impress me. I can see a sort of Rocky Horror Show kind of feel, which I have also never been really fond of. Some of the songs from Rocky are classics, but…this one doesn’t have the hits that Rocky has. This is a genuine mix of musical and horror, but the problem I think is that this “fusion” business just doesn’t work. It’s not a good musical, and it’s not a good horror film. Either one could have been good if they had focused their efforts on one or the other. Meat Loaf’s performance was actually riveting most of the way. He played a character that was so different from himself that you could quickly forget that it was him. He did a great job playing the “The show must go on” director of this camp. There is some humor, and of course, every couple minutes the cast breaks into song to stop progression of the story. With lyrics like: “All of us have heard these names of hate, but let me get one thing straight: I’m gay, I’m gay, but not in that way / Musicals move me and touch me in ways I can’t say. / He’s gay, but not in that way. / I sleep with women but musicals make me feel gay! / I’m gay, I’m actually gay. I don’t get hard when I see T and A / Could be my DNA or how I was raised. / We don’t distinguish here at Center Stage. / We’re all gay, we’re gay in all …” it gives you an idea why the musical portion doesn’t work. I felt it actually hurt the horror portion making it much less intense as well. Basically it was a brave move to try to make a horror musical, but for the general public, I don’t think it’s going to work. There is a group of people who will love this, and to them I say, go for it, but for the rest of us, it’s just not good enough on either side. I would say to skip this one.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog