Uneasy laid the dead as a killer in a chrome skull mask is after the victim that got away. This seemingly sentient serial killer makes waste of everyone in his path. It’s a throwback to the serial killer flicks of old, but lapses in logic. It is also weighed down by silly plot devices.
“I woke up in a dead box and a man tried to get me” quotes our amnesiac lead character and that’s the basic plot of the film. A girl (Bobbi Sue Luther) awakens in a coffin. She gets out when it falls off the altar in the funeral home and bursts open. She’s confused and doesn’t have a memory of how she got there.
She locks herself in the morgue when spooked and the mortician (genre vet Richard Lynch) shows up at the window. However, the killer is still around and makes the mortician assume the demeanor and temperature of one of his customers.
The killer is dubbed Chrome Skull (Nick Principe) because he wears a skull mask that’s done up in chrome. He also has a video camera awkwardly attached to his shoulder that he records his mayhem with. Not to mention that his fancy car has vanity plates stating Chrome Skull (rolls eyes).
The girl barely escapes the maniac but gets into the pickup of Tucker (Kevin Gage) and he takes her home to his missus Cindy (Lena Headey). The girl seems to have suffered some brain damage as she speaks oddly, dead box instead of coffin, and her loss of memory.
Our killer takes the vaguest of clues and tracks down the girl, makes a gooey mess of Cindy, and chases the girl and Tucker as they escape. They end up at the house of uber-nerd Steven (Sean Whalen), who has an Internet connection but no phone (huh?) so he has to email the cops for help.
Our trio is found out by Chrome Skull and the cat and mouse pursuit continues. Our amnesiac must avoid being laid to rest by the killer, keep her new friends breathing also, but she also has to find out who Chrome Skull is if she’s to find out who she is.
Laid to Rest is somewhat of a throwback to the serial killer flicks of old. The plot is a basic one, heroine pursued by mysterious killer. Stripping a film down to those barest essentials can work for it and it can also be a stumbling block. Unfortunately, I think that Laid to Rest falls more towards stumbling than working.
I had to guffaw when our mysterious killer was in possession of some high tech gadgetry, fancy car, and the vanity plates were just too much. Even worse are all the screenwriter’s tricks that populate the plot. They just happen upon a guy that has the Internet, but just happens to now have a phone to call the police? Ludicrous.
Chrome Skull does have a very interesting look, but that video camera on his shoulder seemed a silly touch. It’s nothing that you’ve not seen before in other films, just in different circumstances. In being a throwback though, gore hounds can find some grue to love.
The filmmaker’s aren’t afraid to produce some really gory effects shots and folks buy it in all manner of yucky ways. Two throats slit, a knife through the skull, very nasty use of tire inflation fluid, and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s just that when the ride is over the script and it’s still plot devices leave you wanting more.
Laid to Rest is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary with writer/director Robert Hall and actor/producer Bobbi Sue Luther.
Next is the 31 minute “Postmortem” making of. The 7 minute “Torture Porn” looks at how they achieved the gory special effects. Next are 4 minutes of deleted scenes, 6 minutes of bloopers, and the 85 second trailer.
If you’re looking for gore then you might get a kick out of Laid to Rest. I would’ve wished for a bit more character development (heck, our heroine really isn’t give a name) and less reliance on goofy plot devices.
Laid to Rest is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a May 11th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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