What sort of film are you expecting with a title like RED KINGDOM RISING ? For me it conjures up some sort of American cold war propaganda film " Now here's what life is like in the real life Hell of communist dominated tyranny . And now a word from that wonderful humanitarian Jerry Falwell" . Wondering what sort of film I was going to watch I did catch the trailer on youtube and I was instantly reminded of HELLRAISER of a young woman terrified by the dark secrets of the house she has moved to . This works in its favour for me because I consider Clive Barker's movie as a high point of horror when the genre was insanely popular . And if nothing else RKR is only 73 minutes long which means if it's an absolute dud I've got an extra half hour that wasn't wasted in vain
Right away I noticed that the film goes further than merely referencing HELLRAISER but stealing aspects wholesale . The central protagonist Mary Ann has a conversation with a therapist who speaks in an American accent . Oh dear I thought . We're going to get a bizarre haphazard location where some characters speak in American accents and some characters in English ones . Any fears of plagiarism were compounded in another early scene where Mary Ann walks in to a dilapidated , maggot ridden kitchen . At this point I was expecting a Chinese puzzle box to appear along with some creepy albino dudes dressed in leather
To be fair after this RKR goes its own way though it travels on a painfully unoriginal path . Have you heard of ALICE IN WONDERLAND ? Well this is more or less a remake with much darker overtones . It doesn't disguise the clichés but does use grotesque imagery in a very strong way and might have been a very effective horror film if it wasn't for the constant distraction of very wooden acting from an obviously inexperienced cast
Right away I noticed that the film goes further than merely referencing HELLRAISER but stealing aspects wholesale . The central protagonist Mary Ann has a conversation with a therapist who speaks in an American accent . Oh dear I thought . We're going to get a bizarre haphazard location where some characters speak in American accents and some characters in English ones . Any fears of plagiarism were compounded in another early scene where Mary Ann walks in to a dilapidated , maggot ridden kitchen . At this point I was expecting a Chinese puzzle box to appear along with some creepy albino dudes dressed in leather
To be fair after this RKR goes its own way though it travels on a painfully unoriginal path . Have you heard of ALICE IN WONDERLAND ? Well this is more or less a remake with much darker overtones . It doesn't disguise the clichés but does use grotesque imagery in a very strong way and might have been a very effective horror film if it wasn't for the constant distraction of very wooden acting from an obviously inexperienced cast
