Amusement (2008) Review:

When it comes to horror films, villains usually take center stage. It is their grotesque and bizarre behavior that gets people's attention. Why do they do such horrible things? Is it their passion? Was it because of their upbringing of some sort? These kinds of questions can always pop into the viewer's mind because it's not normal and unhealthy. The real sad part of it, is when these incidents are treated as a joke. Those kinds of mentalities are cruel and baffling. When it's only done for laughs, there's a true sense the person behind the act is highly disturbed. For this movie that's exactly what is dealt with to some degree, although it's not done well.

Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick)

The story focuses on three friends, Tabitha (Katheryn Winnick), Lisa (Jessica Lucas) and Shelby (Laura Breckenridge). Opening separately in different places, the plot brings them together under the circumstances of a mysterious person only known as the laugh (Keir O'Donnell). As it turns out, all three share a history with this individual back in elementary school. The laugh had a fondness for making sick art displays for his own amusement (ergo the title), but the other three did not find it funny at all. Thus the psycho finds them later in life and begins having his fun. Written by Jake Wade Wall, this horror film has areas that work but end up leading to its downfall for a number of reasons. Unfortunately this is not a true shock since Wall had also written for the despised horror film, When a Stranger Calls (2006). For direction, John Simpson headed the project. Simpson was only known for directing Freeze Frame (2004) prior to this.

The problems that lie in this movie are all in the script. Overall the execution just has mediocre story building. Nothing about it is very consistent and doesn't really connect easily until roughly half way through. The first sequence to take place in the film focuses entirely on another character that comes across as the antagonist. Later though it turns out that individual was never of focus at all, yet this leaves a subplot completely unchecked. At least close it out or something, because it never got resolved as to whether or not it was important. This also leads to random continuity being that not everything clicks into place like it should. There are locations that are shot, where later on they lead to other places, but it never geographically or logically made sense. All this does is create further confusion among the audience.

However what can't be ignored about the production is the concepts used in the movie. The laugh character himself has a strange sense of humor that only he would understand. But of this, there are hints that the production crew were fans of Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1987) and maybe some inspiration from Dr. Giggles (1992). That's it for that though. As for the cast, the lead actresses perform okay. Of the three however Shelby receives the least the focus, then comes Lisa and lastly Tabitha. All of which show some kind of strength at one point or another. Jessica Lucas was the only one of those three to actually come out into an even bigger horror film was Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead (2013) remake. As for Keir O'Donnell, not so much. His role is given no explanation for his motive at all and having him just laugh the whole time doesn't give him much to work with. He barely says anything.

"Here's looking at you kid....."

It's weird because O'Donnell can play a creepy antagonist but little is revealed about him. Why does he make these sickening displays for fun? Why does he find it hilarious? Aside from this though the cinematography is well shot. Captured by Mark Garrett, the set pieces that are used and how they're filmed look authentic. There are two places that legitimately look unsettling and that goes to a specific room in a family's house that is stuffed to the gills with clown dolls. Why on earth anyone would collect that many is beyond comprehension. The other was an abandoned asylum that is pretty grungy looking for all the right reasons. The music to this feature was composed by horror score enthusiast Marco Beltrami. Being that Beltrami has scored for other horror films like Scream (1996) and Blade II (2002), the tracks to this feature are well constructed. There are plenty of creepy themes and hardly any horror stings.

While the music, actresses and camerawork are the highlights to the feature, the overall experience is messy and not well put together well. The script has too much random continuity, the villain has no background for his motives and there are subplots left unchecked even after the story finishes.

Points Earned --> 5:10