Visitors Review

Matt_Layden (2012-05-26 16:46)

Interesting premise is ruined by filmmakers cutting corners.

A man gets out of prison and goes on a killing rampage of those whowere on the jury. 12 jury members, 12 people to kill.I was really intrigued by the premise of this film. I think if doneright, it would make for a very good thriller/horror film. A killerkilling off those who put him away. Those 12 jury members. I'm sure itwas probably done before since the idea isn't original, but I haven'tseen any films based on that idea. So when I saw XII was about justthat, I thought why not, let's give it a chance. It's a shame thoughbecause this film lacks anything that would make it interesting orentertaining. The killer is in prison for apparently having sexual relations with aminor. There is only one bit of dialogue that supports this. Other thanthat, we have no idea who this guy is, why he went to prison oranything else. The film doesn't really set events up well, the openingcredit sequence is horribly shot and edited that you don't really don'tknow what you're watching until the 5 years later text pops up.All of the cast are bland and boring with the exception of MercedesMcNab of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame. She played Harmony. She seemslike the only one who knows that she is in a horror film. She plays theblonde bitchy type friend of the supposed heroine well enough to makethis not an entire travesty. The kills are non existent. The film starts off with a kill near Vegaswhere one guy gets his head blown off with a shot gun. Then it is alldownhill from there. The killer rips the skin off of his victims face,sometimes while they are still alive. This should make for somegruesome scenes but non of it scares, excites or interests the viewer.The killer is a lame Ed Gein wannabe who wears the skin of his victimsas well. Low rent horror this is, but not even the good kind. I can't help butfeel what I could have done with this story and budget. Or anyone elsefor that matter. The guy who directed this played Jim Morrison inWayne's World 2. Yeah...you read that correctly.

Paul Andrews (2012-05-26 03:09)

Average teen slasher.

XII is set in a small American town on the eve of Christmas, FBI agentNaughton (Steven Brand) is on the trail of a killer who likes to ripthe faces off his victims, two of his known victims come from thissmall town & agent Naughton talks to deputy Kent (Nick Searcy) aboutthe case. Kent says he will ask around, while talking to pretty youngwaitress Claire (Emily Hardy) she mentions that the two victims servedtogether on jury duty. Kent feels this is important information as thejuror's verdict sent child molester Leonard Karlsson (JeremyFitzgerald) to prison where he was badly disfigured, even more so sinceKarlsson had been recently released. Claire also manages to piece theclues together & since she also served on that jury assumes that herlife is in danger as well as several of her friends, as the twelvejuror's either turn up dead or go missing it seems that Karlsson hasreturned to have his revenge against those who sent him down...Written & directed by Michael A. Nickles this horror teen slasher ispretty typical of the genre & while it's not the worst example outthere I wouldn't exactly call it good, a passable time waster for whatit is I suppose but nothing more. The script feels like it's anassembled patchwork of teen slasher ideas, themes & images with theholiday event setting of Christmas, the badly disfigured killer likeFreddy, the human skin collecting like Leatherface, the plastic masklike Jason & the two main female victims one of whom is all slutty &uncaring while the other is pure virgin material as well as the dumbcops & secondary character's merely there to be killed off. XII isstrictly routine & by the numbers, there's nothing of any greatsurprise, the revenge driven motives for the killer are nothing new (Achild molester? Where have I heard that before?) & his filthy basementhideout is standard teen slasher issue. Lasting under 80 minutes atleast XII is fairly brisk, despite an attention grabbing openingsequence the script settles down & introduces the character's whoslowly release that something nasty is going on before the finalobligatory chase & stand-off between the surviving girl & the maskedkiller. None of it is very original but it's reasonably well staged,the short running time helps & there are a couple of nice moments butotherwise XII is for teen slasher fanatics only.While disfigured & masked killer looks quite good & imposing at timeshe has virtually no back-story, it's not even made clear if he wasinnocent of the charges & wants revenge for that reason or whether he'sjust an evil git. There's a few decent gore scenes including a coolopening in which a guy has his head literally blown off, unfortunatelythis is the films gore highlight & because it comes so early nothingelse lives up to it. There's a also a throat slashing, someone has histongue cut out, someone's face is cut off & removed & there's someblood splatter. Fairly basic in set-up & execution XII doesn't rewriteany slasher rules & for the most part it's pretty predictable &straight forward.Probably shot on a low budget the production values are decent enough,it's looks nice enough & the special effects are alright but it's not afilm that live long in the memory. The acting is OK, the two youngfemale leads look nice enough & aren't too annoying when they scream.XII, or Twelve for those who don't know their Roman numerals, is afairly average teen slasher. It has a decent villain & one or two goodgore scenes but overall I wouldn't say it's anything other than anindifferent way to pass 80 minutes. It could have been better but italso could have been worse.

tequila101 (2012-05-24 21:57)

I had hope. Oh well

I saw this film in the video shop yesterday and decided to give it atry. When I saw what ratings this film got here, I was sort of put offbut at the same, I had high hopes that this might succeed in me givingit at least a 6.That's not the case in this film and I tell you why in pointers.First off like the film Seed, I don't know about you guys but I foundSeed to be some sort of Michael Myers rip-off. Here I have the sameminor problem. At first the Leonard Karl Character is quite awesome butas we see what goes behind doors, in his house, he is more portrayed asa Leatherface character. I don't know if that's what you guys think butthat's what I think. Yes, we get a cool looking killer but it treadedon when a poor writing director tries to use someone else's characterto rip theirs off. The director ruined his killer which sucks (in thatsense). Overally I found the Killer enjoyable to watch in action. Onething with Karl I found the director pulled off well was the amount ofscreen time Karl was on for. He was on at the right moments and he waspaced on the screen well, not revealing too much till the end.From start to finish, we get crappy un-developed characters that wereally don't care about, and we just want them to die or live eitherway. I had high hopes that eventually we would come to like thesecharacters. oh well.the music is OK.The acting is bad. Not much else to say about how bad it is.The kills are average at best. They were timed right (being honest). Inever had a problem with them.The story also could have been more awesome and conclusive if we didn'thave such poor actors, scenes and scares. There was nothing about thisfilm that was scary and as for the script, it feels as if it's poorlywritten and when every scene comes around the corner, it just goes nowhere.A really poor film. 4.9/10

kosmasp (2012-05-24 11:24)

Easy

I'll begin with the title of the movie. Let's just say it's pretty easyto decode/decipher, which makes it kinda painful, that the charactersin the movie, don't realise it for a very long time. That's all I'mgonna say.Having seen HATCHET and therefor seen Ms. McNabs natural and thereforobvious talents, might be a disappointment for those waiting, to be"exposed" to the same thing here (pun intended). But she plays her partvery convincing (for a horror movie) and the others don't let her down.On the other hand, the script does let them and the audience down andthe "Less is sometimes more" phrase could've applied here too(especially at the end, where it tried to compensate for the lack inother departments, in just being ... out there! Not really bad, but notreally good either!