The plot: a man receives a heart transplant, only to find himself forced by the donor's spirit to avenge the donor's brutal murder.
Let's be honest here. Once you find out that a person in a horror movie has had a transplant, there's only two possible ways it can go: 1) He turns into a serial killer or 2) He's forced to solve the mystery / avenge the death of the donor. That's it. Those are the only two possible plots allowed by hack screen writing convention. Sometimes, if you're Asian, you're allowed to see ghosts, but that's an Asian-only power.
Now, I could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone going on a rampage of vengeance in The Tell-Tale Heart. In fact, as I recall, it's purely a tale of psychological horror. Tell Tale, on the other hand, is pretty much a Death Wish ripoff, with a few cheesy elements of Body Parts grafted on. There's also some filler side-stories involving a romance, a disabled daughter, and a dogged cop.
Tell-Tale isn't all bad. It's actually fairly enjoyable, if you're willing to overlook the more clichéd, derivative elements and focus on what does work. In the end, it's basically just violent exploitation. If you're looking for something more than that, then I don't think you'll like Tell Tale very much. It has moments where it rises above that, but then it abandons them and sinks right back down again. As other reviewers have noted, it can be frustrating seeing the movie that could have been.
Let's be honest here. Once you find out that a person in a horror movie has had a transplant, there's only two possible ways it can go: 1) He turns into a serial killer or 2) He's forced to solve the mystery / avenge the death of the donor. That's it. Those are the only two possible plots allowed by hack screen writing convention. Sometimes, if you're Asian, you're allowed to see ghosts, but that's an Asian-only power.
Now, I could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone going on a rampage of vengeance in The Tell-Tale Heart. In fact, as I recall, it's purely a tale of psychological horror. Tell Tale, on the other hand, is pretty much a Death Wish ripoff, with a few cheesy elements of Body Parts grafted on. There's also some filler side-stories involving a romance, a disabled daughter, and a dogged cop.
Tell-Tale isn't all bad. It's actually fairly enjoyable, if you're willing to overlook the more clichéd, derivative elements and focus on what does work. In the end, it's basically just violent exploitation. If you're looking for something more than that, then I don't think you'll like Tell Tale very much. It has moments where it rises above that, but then it abandons them and sinks right back down again. As other reviewers have noted, it can be frustrating seeing the movie that could have been.