Genres

Visitors Review

weemonk 2012-05-23 10:25:10

NOt a bad horror, could have been more....

Vincent Winterbourne's review seems to think that fans of horror, 80'sand 90's will lap this up. I'm one of those fans....but this filmdoesn't deserve that much praise.Chain Letter is certainly a watchable film. It is clichéd, not hugelyoriginal and nothing none of us haven't seen before. This is another ofthose films that will go floating by and leave you slightly frustratedbecause, placed in the hands of someone else, it could have been aterrific new horror franchise. There's a good core idea - you receive achain email/text which you must forward on or die if you don't ordelete it. What do you choose to do? Ignore it and you'll meet your endvia a nasty gory death by chains (and the use of chains is actuallyquite good). You can almost imagine, whilst watching, the film thiscould have been had the script been slightly more polished, a bit moretime taken with character development and more confident direction.I do applaud the filmmakers though as this isn't a big budget horrorand for the most part it is an entertaining film. It has some niceideas. Unfortunately, everything seems to be hurried. I hardly graspedwho was who out of the school buddies and it seemed like the directorjust wanted to get on to the next murder scene or shock revelation. Thewriters couldn't settle on exactly what was happening. We're givendetails that it's a cult doing the murders yet only one guy does thekilling. The cult hate technology yet that is what they use to trackand kill?It's a shame. This isn't a bad film and I would say give it a try.Could have been so much more though, especially after such a goodopening.Nice to see Keith David with a chunky(ish) role and also Brad Dourif inthere too.

chris dimarino 2012-05-23 05:40:23

Dime a Dozen Shallow Horror Attempt

Chain Letter is not very good. I can relax my standards for horrormovies typically if it has some redeeming qualities. An interestingcharacter or a cool villain or unique plot are all components that canget me through. This movie lacked all of these and really lacked anyhope of being a decent movie.The movie seems so similar to any horror movie that it's hard to findanything it does well. If you like gruesome deaths, than it has acouple unique "chain related" moments. Other than that, the movie isshallow story wise, has flat characters provides very little pay off.There isn't much suspense built up either, but certain scenes showedsome promise.I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone unless they absolutely lovechains.

ashokvangala 2012-05-22 12:21:14

Quite Scary and Gruesome! Good But Not Great...

REVIEW: Quite scary and gruesome! Good but not great. It was a littlemore on the dark side than what i thought it would be.And this movie is a modern day Z-Horror complete with average acting,editing and an overbearing message about technology.Finally CHAIN LETTER is a basic pointless slasher story with nice gorymurders.MY RATING: 6 / 10 (One Time Watch for Gore) SYNOPSIS: When high schoolsenior Jessie Campbell and her tight-knit group of friends begin toreceive a series of foreboding email chain letters, they have no ideathe terror that awaits them. With a warning that if they break thechain, they will lose a life, the seemingly harmless email turns deadlywhen one-by-one the friends that do not forward the chain letter arehunted down and gruesomely killed by horror's newest villain, the ChainMan.

BakuryuuTyranno 2012-05-21 18:44:06

Pain Letter

It's incredible how minor details can ruin everything.Toward the start, the contacts the letter gets forwarded includes a"Michael", although the character "Kevin" is supposed to receive itinstead.Michael mentions not getting it (while rambling); his later dialogueimplies he got it and thinks he's being targeted, which, unless you'repaying close attention it seems there's one more potential victim thanthere should be.Perhaps multiple script drafts were mixed up?That's one detail which renders the plot partly incomprehensible,because really, in a film like "Chain Letter" the audience should knowwhich characters are potential victims. This makes the story harder tofollow than any slasher flick should be.

deepakvenkat 2012-05-17 03:07:13

worth for the horror

If the director intended to convey gory thats all he did. The movie wasworth a casual watch if you want to spend a lonely weekend eveningtrying best to get the things in your stomach out and don't know whatelse to do. other than the movie was one which would make anyone wonderwhat am i doing what this movie. The starting was actually good and onewould probably think its gonna get better. But unfortunately that wasnot to be. the plot was an exciting one or at least could have beenmade an exciting one if more thought had gone into it. The end wasrather predictable and sort of redundant. And some portions of themovie seemed so illogical that you would wonder if any research wentbehind it even if it was just watching a few episodes of CSI orcriminal minds.overall one can watch this movie for all the horror init and if one likes to see some really disturbing things on screen.What could have been a really nice movie was turned into a ratherincoherent, nonfactual and incomplete venture. I give 2 for the plotand 2 for the horror totaling

Rusty-61 2012-05-16 09:28:18

Mean-spirited, Boring Mess of an Excuse for a Horror Movie

Just in case you could not grasp the subtle undertones of my reviewtitle above... My recommendation in a nutshell: NO. I guess to justify the one star Ileft I could base it on Keith David and Brad Dourif doing their besteven when the material to work with is utter crap. Both are the onlyones in the movie who made my brain perk up when they were on screen.You may have heard talk about the show-stopping opening. I was about topoint out that hardly qualifies as 'show-stopping' quality in my book,but it SHOULD have stopped the show. The credit sequence to follow wasan eyesore. It all goes clumsily and rapidly downhill after there.You want a longer explanation? Okay, then. First, I cannot believe Iactually read a few fairly good reviews on horror sites. Possibly dueto some of the gore I rattle (har) off below. Yes, the movie has anasty, mean-spirited, creative dismemberment before the title credits.Actually, the entire movie is very mean-spirited, not just the gore.Here is some but not all gore included (I saw the unrated version):victim's arms being dislocated/Achilles tendons cut, then the face sortof scrubbed off slowly with 2 chains (yes, this all happened to thesame poor guy, arguably the ugliest demise in the whole firm), hookthrough jaw, upper body crushed w/heavy object, giant hook throughshoulder, heat split open by chain ...see now, I don't even think it isworth the use of my brain to recount them all. In at least one scene Igot this specific creepy feeling I get while watching a horror filmthat usually causes me to classify it as 'torture-porn': getting anicky feeling during a drawn-out torture scene that someone involved inthe making of the movie got off on it. Some creepy duct-tape and/ormutilation fetish, or something, bleh, I don't want to think about itany more. I'm pretty sure if I searched here I'd find that a frequenttag associated with CL is "Torture Porn", but that is NOT arecommendation …at least I hope to God it isn't! Where oh where to begin with the bad? Here's some. 'Teenagers' in highschool that appear to be portrayed by actors mid-20s at youngest, andsome closer to pushing 30. Keith David not getting to be bad-assenough. Characters (all of them) that the "writers" did not even TRY togive the flimsiest of personality traits or a back-story to, so youcould not care less who lives or dies. A couple of the 'highschoolers'did their best, but you can only go so far with a boring,sloppily-written script. One 18-year old character's mother looks 30years old, tops. Not enough reasons to avoid? Try adding in these! Noreal ending. They try to convey a message about technology and thatthose who give up their privacy in trade for the newest, mostconvenient, "cool" tech/apps don't deserve safety, but that messageonly would have been original or effective 10 years ago (and a LOT hashappened between now and then). We get hit over the head with thismessage so much it gets insulting to most people's intelligence, andfar before the movie is over. Motive for killing is very vague, andthere's only so many ways you can kill a person directly involving achain and keep it "new".Also--and I hope people are through having to pay money in a theater tosee CL and go for rental only- my DVD had no subtitles, not even CC forthe hearing impaired (when I used the standard TV CC settings) .Barebones for the special features. In fact, I don't even recall if therewas a trailer. NO back-story on the killer, even though he has onedistinctive (but unoriginal) feature, it isn't explained, and couldhave added a teeny bit of depth.Don't get me wrong. I never set out NOT to like a movie, I don't rentthem out of spite, life --and my funds-- are too short. I've seen morehorror movies --just over the past couple years--than most people seein decades. I know what mindless, fun, entertaining horror movies looklike; I grew up in the 80s, so trust me, I know mindless horror funwhen I see it. This is not one of those movies. Want some movie that isa gory blast to watch, has some scares or at least very creepy moments,doesn't follow a complicated plot, and that you could keep up withplot-wise even if you had a few drinks in you? Chain Letter is NOT oneof them. Try, oh, any of the Evil Dead series, the 80s re-make of TheBlob, Planet Terror, 2001 Maniacs, Dead/Alive, Feast ...and those arejust off the top of my head. No wonder Fangoria didn't bother to coverthis train wreck to do a feature.Finally, another BIG minus is the fact that this had a lot ofpotential. I had a little hope before I saw the movie, since the plot,and even some of the buzz, was along the lines of what could have beenanother Final Destination franchise. Now I sincerely hope a sequel doesnot happen, but I think they were trying (and WAY too hard) to be thenext Saw or FD. Not even close.Avoid! If you rent it just to see the gore, don't do it. You'll hateyourself after, take my word for it!

Jakealope 2012-05-11 16:02:51

Pretty Bad Stuff

I was looking through Red Box the other night when I rented this loadof crap. I saw Brad Dourif and Keith David in the credits so I figuredit had some merit, wrong. Hey these days torture porn and teen slashermovies are almost passé. Serial killer movies have grown from genre tocategory next to Drama or Comedy. No one expects too much from any ofthese genres but this movie manages to out stupid the worst in each ofthe above genres.OK, teens get weird chain email threatening death if they don't spam 5friends with a forward of the email. So real steel chains are literallyused to dismember these teenagers if they delete CHAIN letter, get it?It was reminiscent of Hellraiser with all those chains and hookstearing into bodies but minus the supernatural voodoo that made thatmovie bearable. First off, there is supposed to be some sort ofconspiracy, some Luddite anti technology group that is protesting ourloss of privacy via cell phone and internet technology. So why pick 5random teen agers to kill in a gruesome fashion but with no terroristdemands or media frenzy to promote the cause? In all those teen slashermovies the teens did something or went somewhere they weren't supposedto and the monster had some good reason to kill them, like they justhad sex or something. But no real motives here, from a cell of supposedwarped Unibomber type geniuses who want to send out a message. Then theconspiracy finds some Leather Face Texas Chainsaw guy to do the actualmurders, which makes so much sense. Then, for all the yapping aboutdecreased privacy due to things like cell phone tracking, all the teenswere killed right at their homes or in their favorite haunts, that tookno technical wizardry past a phone book to track them. Then we have aveteran cop who is supposed to be tracking all this but never once doeshe call in for any sort of backup as he goes rummaging around emptyplant buildings by his lonesome in his town's biggest crime waveinvestigation.Finally there is this utterly stupid and gory dismemberment scene thatopened and closed the film, literally a repeat. There was no coherentplot and a cheap theme that doesn't even tie the movie together. Therewas one teen who even forwarded the messages but got wasted anyways assoon as he deleted his copy. It made no sense on so many levels and wassimply a cheapest sort of exploitation of an exploitation movie. I alsorented & watched "I am No. 4" from Redbox last weekend and that was aturkey too. But at least that one had a coherent if silly andderivative plot.

gavin6942 2012-05-11 07:46:29

Some Great Talent Come Together For This...

Six friends are pitched against each other when they are sent via emailand text message, a chain letter, which if not passed on, sends apsycho-killer after them. Their loyalties to each other are tested whenthey must pass the letter to each other, or not at all, and if theybreak the chain, they lose their life.The film and its directing are very stylistic. From the introduction,we are shown a lot of short shots, close-ups, blood, and color. Unlikethe "torture porn" craze, the focus is not on the gore, despite howeasy it would be to do so. I give them a lot of credit for making thedecision to leave a little bit to our imaginations.Even the opening credits sets a tone with its overview of moderntechnology and how frightening it may be for some people with theUnabomber, Y2K, cell phones with GPS and more. Technology is ourfriend, an extension of our very bodies... but it can both help andharm, keep us safe or spy on us menacingly. There is a trade off --added technology means less privacy.The film features a really great cast of horror veterans. Keith David("They Live") is Detective Jim Crenshaw. Nikki Reed ("Twilight") isJessie Campbell. Brad Dourif ("Child's Play") is Mr. Smirker, aparanoid neo-Luddite who carries the opening credit theme a stepfurther into the film. Dourif has never failed to excel, and this is noexception. And Betsy Russell ("Saw") is Sergeant Hamill.There seems to be some debate among viewers whether this is a remake ofthe Japanese film "Chain". And while there are many American remakes ofJapanese films, this time it seems debatable. The writers do not wantto tell you it is, so it may just be a coincidence... or a conspiracy.Who knows? The DVD from Image Entertainment is bare bones. The film comes ineither R-rated or unrated (with an extra two minutes), but that is allyou get. No commentary, no featurettes. It does not even have alternatelanguages or subtitles (sorry, deaf people). So if you want more fromthis film, it will not happen... you will have to track down thoseinvolved and let them know how you feel.The film is really pretty good, and much better than you would expectfrom something that went under our radar. And if the gore and humor arenot enough for you, there is even a sexy bathtub scene... I think thisis one of the better horror films of 2010, and it is a shame it wasoverlooked.

KirnehGlitch 2012-05-10 09:07:21

Too Late

The movie starts out very well and the whole movie has the golden rulesfor horror, which most of us have gotten tired of since it makes moviestoo predictable, and this movie is no exception.The movie builds up very well and with good pacing. You get the chanceto get to know a few of the characters on a deeper level, but nothingto stand up for. The gore is very well made and not over done, that'sactually the best about this movie, the killings. The ending was veryweak, very predictable and didn't leave you in awe as Secret Window orIdentity did.Chain Letters, we have all received them and we all hate them, and mostof us delete them before finishing reading them without thinking aboutit. That's what makes this movie quite alright on the plot part, it's anice fresh idea to what Wes Craven started back in '96 with "Scream"(the teenage horror flicks) or perhaps he started it with "A Nightmareon Elm Street" back in '84, depends on how you look at it.I kind of liked the movie, but it's a one time watch. You should watchthis when you're in the mood for a simple flick with minimum amount ofbrain activity usage, because this is not one to watch when you'reactually in the mood for a movie evening with your partner or friends.I rate this ******

Prolox 2012-05-09 19:05:02

Good but not great slasher film.

CHAIN LETTER is a mix of 1990's horror like SCREAM & a dose of brutaltorture & violence ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre, SAW & HOSTEL. Afterreceiving a chain letter, one of six friends passes it on to her otherfriends, however when some of them ignore the letter, they are brutallypicked off by a hideous looking psycho killer, with a cop hot on histrail & the remaining friends banning together to try & figure out away to stop the psycho, the body count quickly rises & the friendsfears of being next escalate, but why is the killer doing this & can hebe stopped before it's too late? CHAIN LETTER is a pretty good, but atthe same time none to fantastic horror item. I will say this, it boastssome pretty gruesome special effects work, so fans looking to get theirfill of gore should no doubt be satisfied & the kills are prettyawesome & at times down right painful looking. The direction was verywell handled, with the director delivering a series of very interestingshots & camera movements to help the film rise up above most horrorfilms, where it's mainly point & shoot. The killer looks pretty cool &the plot itself about a maniac picking off a group of people over themrefusing to deliver a chain mail letter to their friends is ripe forall kinds of suspenseful opportunities, unfortunately that's whereCHAIN LETTER fails in some area's, the story is not all that fleshedout & it's not helped by some uninteresting characterizations & peoplewe could care less for, now I did say the acting was pretty good, butit seemed at times that the characters were no doubt very interestingon paper, it's just the actors cast didn't or couldn't pull it off. Thesuspense is lacking in some area's & the detective subplot was kind ofbland & the films climax which sets itself up to explain everythingi.e. who is doing this & why, is very disappointing, not to mentionconfusing & seems like it's intending to lay the groundwork down for apossible sequel. BRAD DOURIF (CHILD'S PLAY 1-5) & BETSY RUSSELL (SAW4-7) despite being two of the top billed really only have small cameoappearances. On a whole, CHAIN LETTER is a good movie, not a great one,but a good one, because like I said the explanation was a tad confusing& disappointing & could have been better & the characterization &detective subplot & the fact that the film didn't really fully exploitit's interesting themes & idea's, coupled with a flat ending, isanother thing I felt weighed the film down & a bit more suspense wouldhave been nice, but like I say the direction & acting made up for a lotof it & the gore was plenty & the kills were painful & brutal. In theend I recommend this only to die hard slasher fans, others beware.Filmed in 2008, but sat unreleased until just recently, the filmsdirect to DVD release I honestly believe was mainly due to the fact thetorture porn genre that began in 2003 up until 2009, has seemingly cometo an end, that & the rising popularity of TWILIGHT star NIKKI REED.*** stars

Chris P 2012-05-05 20:40:23

Chain Letter....Review

'Chain Letter' is a weird movie that involves something unique to the horror genre and that is obviously using chain letters. The movie didn't have a storyline that didn't make sense that much. I knew this movie wouldn't be a big thrill, but I gave it shot, and I was wrong to. In my opinion, I think the director focused more on the sadistic killings than the actual plot. And the killings were gruesome, but come on, the story line is more important. I mean half of the time I look forward to see what they will do with the grisly killings, but it's not worth watching, it will only disappoint you. But it's my opinion only. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

s_albert 2012-05-05 08:55:44

Yuck

Besides being tediously predictable with a puddle deep storyline, thisslasher wanna-be didn't even deliver on its promise of spectaculargore. The worst part for me was the big swing and miss attempt at theold 'show the conclusion first' ploy. The problem was that I didn'tcare for the girl torn in two and if her gory demise was the director'sintended pay-off, it was a miserable failure. The whole premise of adie-if-you-don't chain email is extremely weak and the anti-technologyactivist group justification didn't hold any water. More depth ofintent should have been given to the killer whose whole chain motifjust wasn't scary at all. A movie like this has two ways of causingscares - the sudden 'eek' like when the chain dude smashed through thewindow, or for something to be particularly creepy or twisted. In theend, I found myself feeling ripped off.

Jan Strydom 2012-05-03 04:02:06

Started off good, ended really bad.

This film was actually not bad, at least not the first half was buttowards the the third act it really went into a downward direction, itslike it tried to sidestep obvious genre clichés but it just didn'twork, the ending came off as a complete rush job and the overall plothad about a dozen holes in it.The acting was actually pretty good, it had a few familiar faces in thecast like Keith David (PITCH BLACK), Betsy Russell (SAW) and MichealBailey Smith (THE HILLS HAVE EYES) that do a good bit of acting butthis film lacked the effort that could've made it into a great film.Overall, its not really worth recommending because the ending ruins thefilm enough to render any plus points meaningless.

Murli 2012-05-02 17:47:55

Poor and pointless

This is completely pointless movie, one of those where you watch it tosee what happens and then it just ends suddenly and you think WTF?Normally in slasher movies like this you'd think the weakest points arethe plot and the acting. Surprisingly, there was nothing wrong with theacting. The main cast did what they were meant to but the ultra poorscript didn't have any proper development for each character so therewas nothing much to feel for any of them. Even the premise of the storydidn't make sense. A huge guy with a bandaged face sends out chainletter e-mails to people with the threat of death of they don't playthe game. What the game is...no one knows because all the letter saysis that if you don't play you die. There's no mention if you delete thee-mail you die or if you don't forward the message you die. This movieis that lame that a few simple rules aren't even scripted in.Some of the deaths are truly gory, even by Saw standards. But in thegrand scheme of things they are entirely pointless. Even the Saw sceneshad some intelligence to the deaths- you're a bad person but you get achance at redemption but not until you go through a trial by fire andlots of pain. The deaths in Chain Letter are just gore and pain. Thismakes watching any Paris Hilton movie fun and educational.Deon Taylor should be made to undergo one of the death scenes in hismovie- either that or threaten him with a scene if he doesn't stopwriting and directing such rubbish.Recommendation: only if you like to pull out your fingernails with atweezer dipped in acid.

meredithcockerille 2012-05-02 05:21:04

I would forward it

This movie makes it because it does manage to remain entertaining.Although not in the realm of a cult classic, it holds itself togethervery well. The gore is gruesome enough to make you cringe. I appreciatethe fact that they didn't over-do it. Less was more in this particularcase. When they did utilize the blood and guts, it was effective. Theytook an angle with the film, revolving it around the concept of thecorruption of technology. This ups the scare factor for the modernaudience, bringing the reality of the film closer to home. They usedgreat symbolism with the killer always using "chains" to off hisvictims. It's nice how they kept each kill fresh, recycling his methodsinto new, unique ways with each murder. The actor appearances were welldone. Brad Dourif ('Chucky' from "Child's Play") and the grandfatherfrom the Texas "Chain"saw Massacre remake both have small roles in thefilm, which seems appropriate and a smart move on the castingdirector's part in order to draw in more attention, what with all theunknowns who are leading the cast. Nikki Reed does an exceptional jobas the leading role, but definitely outshines her co-stars who playvery flat, static characters. They really hit home with the concept ofthe "chain mail" legends, bringing to life the little doubts we've allhad now and then about the sometimes threatening messages that warn usto pass them on or face doom. Overall, I rate it a 7 out of 10. It maynot be a masterpiece, but it will definitely make you think twice nexttime before you mindlessly delete than ominous chain message off yourcell phone.

moviewiz-4 2012-05-01 11:06:09

Another sadistic movie with different plot

After searching for another thriller and gruesome movie, i finally findone, "chain letter". The story, everyone know this is another teenmovie (although i am an adult) but i still enjoy this a lot. It isabout a chain letter and as you know the story goes one. The plot ismainly focusing at technology and not with the title itself. What i cansay is that it is better to categorize this into "horror" instead ofother genre. I remember some countries in the world are quitefantasized with the so called chain letter. I received it myself ten tofifteen years ago but with different purpose. It goes like this, "ifyou sent it to 10 people you will get lucky and to 20 or more you willget luckier. It was in the 80's so "this" chain letter movie is simplyoutdated and no research has been made before from the director (sorrybut no offend).

itsacatchphrase 2012-04-28 23:50:24

Almost

A well intentioned movie. One that never really feels like it startsuntil your at the end. Or should I say, "the end?". I feel like this isa director to look out for. The deaths were great and the overall lookand feel was really good and fresh. Dialogue and acting could reallycould have used more help in general. I would say that i wouldrecommend it, but only for the deaths. In all it would have been agreat movie had there been a completely different editor and a morecognitive storyline. A lot of buzz words and frantic talking do not aplot make. Oh well. Do yourself a favor and go check out the remake of"I Spit On Your Grave"

Vincent Winterbourne 2012-04-28 11:45:39

Entertaining.

This is a movie for Horror fans. If you've grown up with horrorclassics from the 80s and 90s you'll have a better appreciation forthis movie. Many people and critics are not feeling the movie becausethey are looking into the wrong message, but the horror fans are. Thismovie is not intellectually stimulating, as someone mentioned, it is asimple plot (technology vs. man). It is only meant to be taken asentertainment, nothing more. If you are looking for a plot in a horrorthriller you will find that plots have been run into the ground (TheRing/Ringu concept, for example) and it's just another excuse toentertain. If that disappoints you bow out of Horror now. Plot recycleshappen, so take it for what it's worth and enjoy the thrills. I know Idid.

2012-04-27 02:40:04

Pleasantly surprised!

I don't qualify as a horror fan and randomly watched this movie becausemy friend chose it. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. While itfulfills what audience would expect from the genre (serial killer,gruesome and very creative details of killing, some nudity, prettyteenage girls, etc ), it managed to engage my attention throughout themovie. it def. kept me guessing the whole way (and because I had tocover my eyes for some parts, I didn't get all the answers- won't gointo details to avoid spoilers...) Performance-wise, I noticed several very familiar faces altho icouldn't tell their names. i googled them after watching the movie. Oneof the leads Cody Kasch was Meridith's son from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVESand he gave an incredible performance in this movie! Brad Dourif (mostppl would remember him as Grima Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings)plays a rather creepy teacher and def. made a very strong impression.The girls are great too. Nikki Reed fans should be happy to see herhaving so much screen time. Very realistic concerns about internet safety and privacy is addressedin the movie. After this I am SERIOUSLY considering deleting myfacebook page permanently and stop blogging. (I wonder if watchingSOCIAL NETWORK will counter this decision) Will def. be very carefulwho I give out my phone # and name card to for sure... I can imaginethis movie might be very chilling for the parents of teens. Overall it was a pretty intense 90 min in the theater. I guess it'd bemore enjoyable for horror fans but overall it was worth the $$ for me.:)

nibblesunlimited2004 2012-04-26 20:14:31

again

I give this film film 3-10 for the fact thats twenty's are playing teenagain.It plays like saw showing similitude of a madman but not who? Which isgreat.But always an opening for sequels and just another franchise to makemoney from.Which if we are all honest about can we really want or hope for more? Ihave sat through lots of films with this same teen dialogue and italways comes out the same.We need a male to survive....