Trapped Alive (1988) User Reviews

Snacking down.

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 29 December 2018]

Three convicts escape from a maximum security prison on Christmas eve, and hijack a vehicle on a snowbound backwoods road holding the two women hostage. In trying to avoid a roadblock, they go off road and crash through a rotting cover over an old mine shaft. The survivors now find themselves trapped in a maze of old tunnels, but soon realise they might not be alone. Meanwhile a local deputy sheriff is on their trail.

I don't know what to say... this is an odd genre film trying to balance a whole range of genre elements. I kind of like it, yet still felt somewhat disappointed. There's something there, but I don't think it fully taps into it and the lack of a budget adds to it. It's schlock material, but it doesn't entirely act like it. Well, not exuberantly so... with the exception of one character sub-plot. Story starts off straightforward with quite a long-winded setup, where the acting, and dialogues are ham-fisted in their serious delivery. For the first hour you got deal with a lot of it. Plenty of predictable character arches, and restless friction between unwanted company in the caves to move the story forward, but when the underground cannibal hermit (a wrinkly old man with scraggy white hair and a beard) makes himself known to the group. It sort picks up the pace, the dark is no longer playing tricks and what develops is downright nonsensical and unhinged, especially the events surrounding the mysterious women that lives nearby and the cartoonish nature of her inclusion. There are a couple eerie, and unpleasant jolts with decent looking make-up FX... just not enough when it came to shove.

One thing though that had me bug-eyed, and probably the most effective horror moments are the scenes where a mechanical claw (like out of a plush toys machine?!), would come down and clamp down on his meals. Quite a pro too, as it only took him one go each time.

For star power Cameron Mitchell sleeps through his tiny part, where he spends a good part of his role literally doing just that, and when not rolling around in bed, there's a Christmas party to host at the beginning, or talking on the telephone in his best attempt to look worried about his missing daughter. Oh, he wasn't even trying. Go back to sleep Cameron.

Snowy haired Alexander Pearce wannabe ol geezer shows up from above, sometimes from under the water n his appetite is never satiating.

[Fella_shibby · 6/10 · 3 July 2020]

I first saw this in the late 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently aft reading Ba_harrison's hilarious review. This movie is indeed unintentionally funny. The old geezer's/monster's white hair, the girl's out dated undergarments, the end speech and Mongo's face n guts. On a snowy Christmas nite, three convicts break outta prison n they carjack taking two women as hostages but things turn ugly when the car plummets down a mine shaft, trapping all the five fellas down. Well, like they say outta the frying pan into the fire. Unknown to em, an ol Alexander Pearce with snowy hair has been inhabiting the mine. The film lacks tension n the twist is very predictable. The kills r very few n nothing gory, except for the offscreen one. I thot that Mongo the Rubeus Hagrid lookalike will put up some fight man. Cameron Mitchell is totally wasted.

Pretty generic subterranean horror story...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 3 October 2022]

I had never heard about this 1988 horror movie titled "Trapped Alive" prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2022. I stumbled upon "Trapped Alive" by random chance, and of course I had to watch it, as it was a horror movie that I had never seen before.

The storyline in "Trapped Alive", as written by Leszek Burzynski and Julian Weaver. Is pretty straight forward actually, and easy to follow. However, on the same note, it should also be said that "Trapped Alive" is also a very generic and predictable movie. But at the same time it is a late 1980s horror movie that essentially has every corny ingredient to it; a generic horror plot, an implausible storyline that makes little sense if you look at it objectively, amazingly well-lit subterranean mine shafts, characters dumber than wood, a subterranean cannibalistic crazed person, toe-curling bad acting performances. So what's not to like here?

The acting performances in the movie were for the majority fairly okay for a movie of this caliber. But the acting performance put on towards the end of the movie by actress Elizabeth Kent (playing Rachel) was just so cringeworthy to behold that it has to be seen to be believed.

The pacing of the movie is slow, and nothing much of anything worthwhile happens before 51 minutes into the ordeal. And with a movie that runs at 92 minutes, then it was just too little too late.

Visually then director Leszek Burzynski's 1988 movie wasn't outstanding. The creature design wasn't scary or anything, and it made for a very sloppy on-screen-creature.

While I managed to sit through "Trapped Alive", I was only mildly entertained. And I can in all honesty say that this is not a movie that I will ever be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of "Trapped Alive" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

Cheesy, low budget nonsense

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 3 July 2016]

It's fair to say that a lot of dross was made in the 1980s and TRAPPED ALIVE (aka TRAPPED) is a good example of this. It's a cheesy, low budget piece of nonsense that attempts to combine the thriller and horror genres but does neither successfully. The plot is the most interesting thing in it but even that's mishandled, leaving this a near unwatchable viewing experience.

The film sat on the shelf for five years before release which gives you some idea of the quality. The story sees some violent criminals bust out of prison and take some young people hostage. The local police department are in hot pursuit, but all of the characters end up being trapped in an abandoned mine where they're pursued by a cannibalistic killer.

It's predictable stuff indeed and feels so slapdash that it's impossible to enjoy. The early scene-staging stuff is quite dull but when the action shifts to the mine things get really dark (visually) so you can't figure out what's happening. There's some gloopy gore here and a lot of bad acting from the cast, including Cameron Mitchell in one of his '80s-era anything-goes B-movies. The killer is a visual disappointment looking just like an old man and there's no bang here, just fizz.

Unfreakinglybelievably bad!

[Maciste_Brother · 1/10 · 13 October 2004]

TRAPPED ALIVE is one bad movie. It's hilariously bad, but only in spots. Most of the movie just drags but if you fast forward through the dull spots and watch the really unintentionally funny moments, then this film delivers in the "it's so bad it's good" way.

The plot (what plot?) is this: two bimbos drive on a deserted road on some winter's night. At the same time, three prisoners escape from prison nearby. The prisoners actually end up hijacking the bimbos' vehicle and as they drive along, the vehicle gets stuck in a snow bank at the the end of the road. Everyone gets out of the vehicle but then they fall through some hole, into some abandoned mine shaft. Now this whole moment has to be seen to be believed. Really badly conceived.

In the meantime, a deputy is roaming around the road, looking for the escaped prisoners. He arrives at a house near the mine shaft. The woman in the house seduces the deputy and they have sex (arf!!!!). Remarkably, the woman is nuts and she's the guardian of sorts of the mine, and its secret psychotic inhabitant: an old crazed cannibal (who looks like a cross between Yeti and an old man). The cannibal starts killing the bimbos and prisoners one by one in the most unconvincing ways. Eventually, the deputy finds the vehicle and goes down the mine and finds the remaining survivors, only to be attacked by the cannibal.

The big shock ending, which is really not big or shocking, is that the old man in the mine is the crazy woman's father and at the end she tries to kill the remaining survivors after her father was killed by one of them.

The whole thing is so clunky and funny, Ed Wood would have loved it. But like I said, there are several dead spots throughout the movie (including the scenes with Cameron Mitchell. Did he ever refuse a script in his entire career?). But the funny bits are so amateurish and stupid that they're actually worth watching if you're into bad movies.

MIDWEST HORROR

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 5/10 · 25 June 2019]

I'd be lying if I told you this movie was fantastic and worth repeated viewing for every viewer out there. It will indeed be a movie that some fans will want to watch over and over again and no doubt has its own particular following out there. I found it to be another of those movies that at one time would have gone straight to video and it probably did though on the tail end of that period in time. Suffice to say it is amusing at times but on the whole takes too long and does too little.

Promoted as starring Cameron Mitchell who many will remember from some classic film roles as well as the old TV series HIGH CHAPARRAL, he actually has a small part here and none of it involving the horror the film clearly shows in the cover. Mitchell plays John Adams, a widower who is hosting a Christmas party when his daughter Robin (Sullivan Hester) tells him she's going to another party with her girlfriend Monica (Laura Kallison). The pair head out down the road to the party waving goodbye.

At the same time three inmates have escaped from a local prison. Cellmates Louis 'Face' Napoleon (Alex Kibik) and Mongo (Michael Nash) have taken fellow prisoner Randy (Mark Witsken) to drive since they can't do so. Tracking through the woods they come to a road, the same road Robin and Monica are traveling down. Rather than drive by (especially since signs are placed along the road that read "Don't stop for hitchhikers. This is a prison area") the girls stop and are taken captive.

Driving down the road and being harassed by the duo (I mean come on we know Randy is a good kid gone bad) they eventually end up at an old mining facility. While arguing in the car the car plunges into an abandoned mine and the groups gets out only to find themselves too deep to climb out.

Not long after sheriff Billy Williams (Randy Powell) arrives and stops by the house of the mine owners. Unable to use his car radio due to the weather, he imposes on Rachel (Elizabeth Kent) to use her phone. Ordered to wait for help once the roads clear he and Rachel find the time to grab a quickie, in spite of her apparent husband sleeping upstairs.

Meanwhile the group in the mine discover that they are not alone. The first disturbing fact is found by Randy when he goes back to find a lighter in Mongo's pocket, Mongo having died in the crash into the tunnels. He discovers that Mongo's face has been eaten off and returns to inform the others. That's when all hell breaks loose and they find some sort of cannibal dweller living in the mine. Firing off a shot sheriff Billy heads out down into the mine to find the cause.

I'll leave it there for those interested in finding out what happens but you can pretty much predict what they'll find or some variation of it. Suffice to say it's not completely original but it does present some tense moments. The film also offers enough bare skin to qualify it as a drive-in movie if those movies were still being shown as such back when it was released. It's not a terrible film by any means but it's not among the best of the genre.

And yet Arrow treats it as such. But that's the nice thing about Arrow Video, they resurrect movies that might have been forgotten that are sought out by collectors and fans and provide not just the movie itself but an extreme amount of extras as well. Those extras can sometimes make owning a copy of the film worthwhile. To start with they're offering the film in a 2k restoration from the original camera negative for a perfect picture. From there we have not one, not two but THREE new audio commentary tracks. The first features commentary by director Leszek Burzynski, the second by special effects contributor Hank Carlson and horror writer Josh Hadley and the third with The Hysteria Continues. Next up is "There's Evil Underground" a brand new making of documentary with interviews from Burzynski, cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, production manager Alexandra Reed and actors Kubik and Hester, "Upper Michigan Tonight" the 1988 television documentary on Windsor Lake Studios with footage from behind the scenes and contemporary interviews, "Leszek Burzynski: The Early Years" where the director discusses his early work in genre film making, a reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork by Justin Osbourn and a collector's booklet featuring writing by Zach Carlson.

If you're a fan of low budget regionalized horror films then by all means run and buy a copy of this film. If you like horror films then it's one worth watching. And if you love all things Arrow then by all means pick this one up. For me it was worth one viewing but not something I will revisit often.

So much wasted potential...

[lewissaddington · 3/10 · 5 June 2021]

The most frustrating thing about this film is that it had all the right pieces to be so much better. A creepy abandoned mine setting, a deformed cannibal hunting unsuspecting victims... but we end up with maybe five minutes of that promised premise at the most, with the film wasting 95% of its run time on multiple storylines of unrelated, unentertaining drama. It could have been up there as a classic, memorable slasher, had it done away with all the unnecessary filler in favour of bloody kills and more cannibal action, but unfortunately we're just left with a brief taste of what could have been in the end. The acting and production value are decent enough at least, but those things are wasted on a film as boring as this.

"We're gonna have fun, right??" - er, not really!

[Stevieboy666 · 5/10 · 2 May 2020]

Three convicts escape from prison at Xmas time. They hijack a car containing two young women who are off to a party, and they all find themselves trapped in an abandoned mine. Not much horror so far but eventually, one by one, they are attacked by a hideous cannibalistic mine dweller. A cop also joins the group, but not until after he has broken off his search and had sex with a frustrated housewife who lives next to the mine! There are two ways of looking at movies like these. Firstly there is the honest review, based on merit. In this instance I would score it 3/10. This is a BAD movie, be it the terrible, over the top acting, the laughable scenarios within the film or the whole cheesiness of it. The other way of looking at it is entertainment value, and this one did make me chuckle numerous times, on the grounds that it was so laughably bad. For that I would score it 6/10, so I'm going with 5/10 overall. Cameron Mitchell is in the cast, a good actor who just looks completely out of place. The rest of the cast can't act but they seemed to be having fun. There is a little sex & nudity but it doesn't have a great deal of gore.It is also a little slow to go going horror-wise, and even then it does not come to much. The sets used for the mine were pretty good.

More fun than I expected.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 11 June 2020]

I seem to have enjoyed Trapped Alive a tad more than most. Is it a work of art? Definitely not. Is it a groundbreaking horror that trucks convention? That'll be a big 'no'. But is it fun? Well, I thought so. It's cheesy, sleazy, and occasionally gory, with that unmistakable '80s vibe that makes even a bad movie entertaining.

Pretty teen Robin Adams (Sullivan Hester, in her one and only movie) leaves her father's Xmas get-together to drive to a more lively party with her pal Monica (Laura Kallison). On the way, the girls are stopped and taken hostage by three criminals on the run from a local penitentiary: Louis 'Face' Napoleon (Alex Kubik), Mongo (Michael Nash) and Randy 'Hotrod' Carter (Mark Witsken), who was forced to take part in the escape by his ruthless cellmates.

In order to avoid a roadblock, Randy steers the car down a country lane that leads to an old deserted mine. Driving over a disused shaft, the car plummets into the ground, where the survivors come face-to-face with a deranged cannibal. Investigating the area, Sheriff Billy Williams (Randy Powell) follows the criminals and their hostages into the mine but isn't prepared for the horrors that await.

This one was apparently shelved for five years before finally seeing the light of day (in 1993), but it isn't any worse than many similar films from that era, and definitely better than quite a few. The plot is routine and the dialogue predictable, but the cast put in decent performances given what they have to work with. Alex Kubik is particularly great as slimy child-killer Face, the actor hamming it up a treat at every opportunity. Kudos also to Elizabeth Kent as Rachel, the strange woman who lives in the old pay office above the mine: her show-stopping speech at the end of the film is an audacious exercise in over-acting that is a marvel to behold. At the other end of the scale, Cameron 'never one to turn down a gig' Mitchell sleepwalks through his role as Robin's father, the movie sporadically cutting to the concerned old man to justify the actor's star billing.

Mitchell's scenes aside, director Leszek Burzynski keeps the brace brisk, and whenever things threaten to drag, he throws in something trashy to keep the viewer entertained, whether it be a some gratuitous nudity (during a hilarious impromptu sex scene, and when Face forces Monica to strip for him), some gore (the discovery of the half-eaten remains of Mongo being the most grisly moment, made all the more revolting when Randy has to fish his torch out of the dead man's innards), or having his lead actress strip to her underwear to take an underwater swim (granny pants alert!).

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for crazy Rachel's mine-related sexy talk: "You go down.... down... until you find a shaft."

It's alright...

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 1 November 2021]

Tell me if you've heard this one before: Three prison escapees, two women on the way to a party and a deputy sheriff all get trapped in a mine with a cannibal.

Yes, but Cameron Mitchell is in it.

Director and writer Leszek Burzynski gets my watch only because he wrote the absolutely berserk Tiny Tim vehicle Blood Harvest. Man, Wisconsin is a weird place, huh?

The bad guys - Louis "Face" Napoleon, Mongo and Randolph "Hot Rod" Carter - kidnap Monica and Robin early - she's Mitchell's daughter - and proceed to drive their car right into a mineshaft. Deputy Billy Williams is on the case, right after he makes some sweet love for the foreign buyers, and then drives off to Forever Mine, which was the name of this movie while it sat on the shelf gathering dust.

But what if that woman he's arrdvarking had a connection to whatever is in that mine? What then, huh?

Also: a Christmas movie.

A creepily claustrophobic, rot-faced cannibal redneck mutant rampaging shocker!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 8 January 2021]

A good few years before X-Factor, many years after Max Factor, neophyte horror director, Leszek Burzynski was,perhaps, percolating ideas for 'Trapped Alive'', and, I, for one, am jolly glad that he did! Quite frankly, if he didn't, this devilishly diverting, dirty minded horror film would have remained a mere figment, and with all the good will I can muster, any figment, no matter how well intentioned will ever play on my Sony region 2 Blu-ray player! (That said, should you be an avid fan of figments, I certainly meant no offence!) By the end of the 80s, the slasher cycle neared extinction, and, sadly, Leszek Burzynski's likeable, modestly satisfying subterranean, skin-flaying backwoods blood spiller 'Trapped Alive' was prematurely entombed as a Slasher relic.

It is a joyful experience to finally experience, Leszek Burzynski's previously buried underground shocker in this new, glisteringly gussied up Blu-ray presentation. Is it worth the wait? Well, that entirely depends on how receptive one's 80s horror gland is, fortunately mine remains an uncommonly virile organ, thrustingly appreciative of any lovingly reclaimed, long-forgotten historically hysterical horror opus from the gory days when film meant just that, film. Like any form of art, good, bad or indifferently made, its perceived beauty lies wholly in the perversely inclined peepers of said B-Movie beholder! If you still relish the likes of the majestically mutilating 'The Mutilator', or eccentric Mephistophelean murder-fest 'Satan's Blade' then you should embrace the Cameron Mitchell-starring, creepily claustrophobic, mine shaft-trapping, rot-faced cannibal redneck mutant rampaging shocker 'Trapped' with all the brutal tenacity of a Prison Yard coupling!

'Trapped Alive' aka 'Trapped', like Mapplethorpe's intimate photography, or that second over-generous serving of Blow fish Sushi, certainly isn't going to be everybody's fulsome chalice of frothing grume! For those with lead-lined stomachs and a more refined appreciation of the cinematic absurd may well 'unearth' much schlocky spectacle to amuse themselves in 'Trapped Alive' This is a roughly hewn, frequently fun, rumbustious slasher obscurity you can laugh 'with' or 'at', making it an ambidextrously amusing underground shocker! Burzynski's Trapped Alive maintains it's own unique charm which raises it far above the mirthless mire of routinely plagiarized horror grot clogging cinema's sinless slasher sewer of today.

Wow! This Movie Has Everything!

[droopyherby · 7/10 · 11 December 2011]

I give this film a 7 only as an enjoyably bad movie - so it gets that score for being cheesy and fun. To its credit, you never know what is going to happen next - it seems like five screenplays were thrown into a blender and they filmed that. Escaped prisoners, two innocent girls driving home late at night, abandoned mines, sleazy cops, cannibal miners, a little gore, ta-da! We laughed and enjoyed how bad it was. Everything you would want in a 80's horror/action movie. Veteran actor Cameron Mitchell (who was on Broadway in the original cast of Death Of A Salesman and then became an International B-movie actor) plays a worried father of one of the kidnapped girls but he's hardly in it. He must of had a mortgage payment due. Check out this bizarre cheesefest. You Will Be Trapped & Entertained!