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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : James Tucker
Joshua Nelson
Elizabeth Cooke
Velocity Chyaldd
Kevin T. Collins
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Sept. 14, 2006
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| PLOT When three vicious killers take refuge in a calm suburban home, they are prepared to wreak havoc on anyone who gets in their way. But what they don’t know is that this is no ordinary home – and no ordinary family. Way up on the third floor, behind a locked door, there is one relative who will not hesitate to unleash her wrath on anyone who dares cross her path. |
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| THE REVIEW In AUNT ROSE, a group of 3 small time crooks whom have robbed liquor stores and murdered a few people, have just killed one of them's Uncle who owns a local pet store, after he refuses to loan them money. In efforts to find a place to hide out, the female accomplice to the 2 males calls up a young lady of whom she once borrowed money from. The crook, whose name is Robin tells Debbie that she has the money she owes and will be on her way over to pay it back. But what Debbie does not know is, Robin, Stewy and the leader of the treacherous trio, Johnny plan to hold whomever is in the house hostage. Once they arrive they apprehend, Debbie, her Mother, Father and Debbie's female partner/girlfriend Toni, all of whom they think are the only ones in the home. But what these "bad guys" don't know is that, up on the 3rd floor of the home, behind a locked door lies in her bed Aunt Rose. Now, Aunt Rose at first glance seems old, feeble and disabled.... She has been someone that has needed special care ever since she mysteriously saved Debbie's life through some sort of supernatural magic that was never explained to the family. The crooks seeing the old lady's physical state do not have much worry about Aunt Rose, but we soon watch, Rose rise up by some miracle. to take revenge once violence and killing begins in her home. From the first day I had heard about AUNT ROSE, I had always held and interest in seeing it, and after seeing such high marks given to it, I was even more excited about it. Let me first start out by saying that the premise here is fantastic and has great, great potential to be a classic but in my opinion.... I liked it, but I didn't really care too much of how it was presented. I'm not disagreeing with the other viewers opinions at all, quite frankly it's great to see a B-movie being received like this one has been, but to me, the approach is a little too amateurish in nature. AUNT ROSE is a film that tends to borrow from other well known films and tries to conceal it but is a little too obvious. For instance the plot and character's are a lot like Krug and company in Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, except the story is sort of done in reverse order. And in my plot insight up at the top I didn't mention this, but Aunt Rose has a son that no one knows about that lives in the attic. Throughout the movie there are numerous hints dropped about something lurking in the attic but one never really knows what until the end - well shots of a shaking camera follow this being in the attic.....now after seeing the film and knowing what these movements meant, I see that they are reminiscent of a gem of a Horror film called BLACK CHRISTMAS. The pace in the film moves quite nicely making the film a lot of fun to sit through but one of the major let downs i'd say in the uninspired acting. I was not a big fan of the acting here(most of the actors here are first-timers), to me at times for most of the actors, the dialogue seemed generic in delivery and coached. But the main exceptions would have to be the film's writer Joshua Nelson, as the gang's leader Johnny, and the beautiful and seemingly talented Raine Brown, as the lesbian girlfriend of the main character Debbie.....Nelson does what I felt was a great job delivering a tough guy image and taking charge, while Brown, makes her presence felt as the one hostage who has any fight in them. Some of the good things about AUNT ROSE are, that I loved the way the filmmakers, for the first quarter of the film, silhouette Aunt Rose, so that really, we only see her outline. This made the character of Aunt Rose more mysterious and was truly working for awhile....but I feel that they reveal her appearance too quickly in the film...thus losing the power of fright they had. Another thing I like is that the filmmakers here decide to go the "old-fashion" route in the vein of the original HALLOWEEN and films of the like and not rely on gratuitous gore(albeit there is quit a bit of female nudity here). The lack of gore meant abundance of story and more times than not, that's what makes a great film. |
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| GORE
METER 4.5/10 As I said there is some gore but not a whole lot...gouged eyes slit throats and yes a drill to the head, but all done sparingly(probably due to budget) |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 Honestly I do not remember much of a score other than the main titles, the film does not have a uses of background tracks, or so I can remember.... |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I did like this film and while some of it is quite original, a lot of it seems to be elements borrowed from other films and then modified a bit. Had I not seen many films that AUNT ROSE, closely resembles there is no doubt that this film would have had a far greater effect on me. The look and feel of this film, as well as the acting are both campy and over the top and this is bound to get a mixed reaction from old school Horror fans - some will like it, while others won't, or at least remain unsure about it. |
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