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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : Wolfgang Büld
Fiona Horsey (Twisted Sisters)
Paul Conway (Angst)
William Rowsey
Jessica Barnes
Supplied By : MTI Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : June. 27, 2006
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| PLOT Michael runs a hotel…and his mother runs his life! She is an overbearing,domineering woman who sees nothing but failure in her son. He employs Julia a beautiful young housemaid and thus the problems begin. She is on probation and trying to make ends meet while paying for her boyfriend Istvan’s nasty habits. Soon Michael falls for Julia, but she loves Istvan. Then she falls for Michael. And then Hates him. Michael and Istvan hate each other. Oh, and Michael also hates his mother. His mother on the other hand hates everyone! And thus starts the blackmailing, double-crossing manipulation. Plans backfire. Skeletons come out of the closet and people start to die. It all makes you wonder, who can you turn to when you can’t even trust yourself? |
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| THE REVIEW Julia, a young British woman is working two jobs to pay rent, and to also support her deadbeat Boyfriends drug debts. By day she works at a hotel as a Chambermaid, and by night she works the local pub as a Bartender. Frustrated by the lack of income she is making and the continuous harassment by her Boyfriend for money, just about anything to make money is plausible to her. So when a hotel room occupant asks her for various sexual acts she obliges, which eventually leads to the two being caught by his wife. To get out of the hassle, the man in his wife, report to Julia's boss, O'Ryan, that she had stolen the money out of the room instead - which results in Julia's firing. Frustrated, and not knowing how she will make-do, when she spots a drunken O'Ryan stumbling his way out of a bar heavily intoxicated - it is then she comes up with a scheme. She takes the non-aware O'Ryan back to the hotel and when he awakes, she plays a charade that the two had slept together, citing, it was "the best sex ever" Thinking that the young woman he has eyed for years has suddenly fallen for him, he rehires her, and after a few nights out on the town, the shy O'Ryan is in love.... but remember this was just a game perpetrated by Julia. One day when O'Ryan spots the girl in which he loves, making love with her true Boyfriend, well, he snaps. Soon we see the once shy and timid son of the hotel;'s owner, turn into a person with no remorse eventually killing his own mother. He then begins to sedate Julia, having his way with her at night, and by day she knows nothing of it. Of course when she finds out of the rape committed by O'Ryan, she proceeds to tell the gullible man, she is pregnant, of course another lie that puts her in even more danger than before, resulting in her being chained up in a basement as O'Ryan's sex-slave, who will stop at nothing to get Julia legitimately pregnant. In the third film(that I have seen) in this, in someway, a "cult-trilogy" by Writer/Director Wolfgang Buld, Buld directs this sleazy twisted love triangle known here in the states as THE CHAMBERMAID. (it's original title being LOVE SICK: SICK LOVE). The first film released here in the states in this group, was TWISTED SISTERS, a rather straight forward and traditional Horror story, in which an innocent twin was stalked by her of course, evil one. Second, came the more comical ANGST(aka PENETRATION ANGST) in which a woman, that upon arousal, as a vagina that would literally swallow the sex partner... and than later beg the woman to feed. So what is released in America as a follow up to that zany story? It's THE CHAMBERMAID, which just so happens to be Buld's grittiest and realest film that I have seen. The plot starts out as a film that seems to be you average sexual related comedy of sorts, slowly evolving into a story dark and twisted, and even a little bizarre at times. The film does a great job at displaying how a once mild-mannered man, can snap in the matter of a few events once he realizes that he has been lead on by the woman he loves, and how far he would lose himself after, Especially after seeing ANGST, while viewing THE CHAMBERMAID, it had me waiting out on the limb for Buld to throw one of those comedic curve balls we saw in that film. But as much as I was truly expecting to see some, I never got, any, this film keeps it disturbing and raw, and that was surprising to me. I'll admit that neither one of the previous two films kept me interested the entire time it played, only certain parts of them did, but once THE CHAMBERMAID got to the meat of it's story, I was very interested in seeing how it all would end, thus I stayed tuned into it. The overall look of the film, just like the others is low budget, shot on digital stuff, but Wolfgang Buld manages to use things as lowered and long angles, to keep things moving nicely. And also another thing in common with Buld's other pictures is that the acting is just barely above average at best. The star, Fiona Horsey, like seemingly always is the only one above average, as here she delivers probably the best performance, I have seen her give in a film, as she was very likeable and sympathetic.So as far as the acting here goes, Fiona Horse is again great, but yet again surrounded by mediocre support. O'Ryan, was meant to(I think) go from a geeky loner, to a dark and twisted madman over the film's runtime course, but I thought, Paul Conway's(whom also starred alongside Horsey in ANGST and TWISTED SISTERS), was just not as serious and on-point as it should've been. At some points I couldn't help but almost laugh at, when I should have been disturbed by Conway's character. Overall, THE CHAMBERMAID accomplishes what it sets out to do, and that is be a creepy and realistic film depicting one man's eventual psychotic breakdown. I was overly very pleased with what I saw, but I can't help but wonder how potentially greater it could've been with a better supporting cast. The director seems to use a lot of the same key actors over and over again, which seems to be a safety net for him. I would like to however see him expand outside the box, if you will, especially with the use of Fiona Horsey Seeing her talents alongside the same actors, gives off the impression she may not be successful outside the comfortable realm, but to me it seems that she could be! |
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| GORE
METER 2.5/10 A bashed in head, and a post-strangulation death, is all that is seen, most of the film's creepiness is psychological. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 Like Buld's other films, this film has a mix of rock and death metal, along with some classical music. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I have now seen, the three initial film's directed by Wolfgang Buld, to be released by MTI Home Video, and I have to say that this has been the most enjoyable overall. The plot is solid, and straight forward, with very little if any deliberate comedy, it's still by no means perfect, but it is both interesting and entertaining. This DVD will be released on July 24, 2007 |
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