Five college girls are on vacation at the posh mansion of one of their uncles, when they run into Caleb and Rankin- two handsome young men that live in town. Soon after meeting them, the girls start to disappear one by one...
What I just wrote above sounds interesting and has potential, right? Well, the reality of its execution in "A Brush With Death" was the opposite.
Let's start with the characters. Five young women- two of which, I would consider hot (possibly three). They're not very likable. They're kinda snotty, whiney, and well, skanky. Only two of them show any redeeming value... but even that's not enough to make me care about whether they live or die. They all do look in bikinis though. Caleb is somewhat likeable, but dull and not very engaging when it comes to caring about him. Rankin seems like a cool dude- at first, but even then, you can tell he's a bit of a douchebag. The creepy gas station owner? Ugh... but then again, you're not supposed to like him at least. Ultimately, I simply didn't care about the people on the screen... in fact, I wanted to see them die.
Which brings us to the story- and the kills. The story is rather disjointed in its telling. The director tries to be clever by throwing in some flashbacks, a warped fantasy scene, and a precognitive dream sequence. All it did was fill in time in between kills. And speaking of kills, I was really bloody disappointed in them. Just as you're about to see some possible grue, the camera would cut to black- or a shot of some blood splashing on the wall. Not a cool tease at all.
There was some decent camera work though- most notably during the opening credits (I really liked the font they used for the text), the bikini pool party scene, and the rather steamy, but warped sex fantasy scene. If I had to give an opinion, I'd have to say that the director has shot either porn, or bikini videos in their past with the way he lovingly caressed wet bikini clad buttocks with the camera. Beyond those particular scenes, the camera work is rather amateurish and basic.
"A Brush With Death" is definately one movie that I won't be watching again any time soon, and I'm placing it in "The Ugly".
hi michael,
ReplyDeletemy name is sevé schelenz and i'm trying to get ahold of you by e-mail as i don't use twitter or facebook. i'm the writer/director of a psychological horror feature entitled "skew". jason over at "reviews from the basement" mentioned that you were interested in having a look at "skew" and possibly doing a review. i'm not sure if jason passed along a copy of the film to you but please feel free to drop me an e-mail at sleepapneaprods@hotmail.com to chat. sorry to contact you through the comment section. please feel free to delete this. thanks and hope to chat soon.