The perils of independent film-making, particularly horror-based, come to the fore in the brand-new Canadian indie horror offering INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE.
When faced with the prospect of bad things happening to him, a sleaze-head film director has to resort to desperate measures, having spent $250,000 of a budget that was intended to form the basis for him making a horror film months before.
Desperate and in need of a shot in the arm for his career, he decides to go ahead with his plans and lures naïve actors, among them Grace (MJ Kehler) to an isolated house, where he places CCTV cameras in every room and sends what appears to be the next piece of schedule for his actors. However, it turns out to be a variant on the same scene, which is pretty dark as it is. For the actors, though, they start to question whether life will imitate art…
With a director using an actor to play himself in the film, and the line between cinematic fantasy and reality very hazy in the case of this film, it is something that does leave the audience wondering where they are in the general plot of the film, which does dampen some of the potential impact within the horror and suspense.
INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE taps in the same kind of format that Wes Craven tried in his NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET companion piece-cum-sequel, NEW NIGHTMARE, where he played himself alongside Heather Langenkamp as they battled the seemingly real demons of their antagonist Freddy Krueger.
Now, this film isn’t really as imaginative as that one, which was one of the best NIGHTMARE sequels, but what it lacks in concept it makes up for in uncomfortable horror as the characters are manipulated by an ambitious but troubled director aspiring to be an artist. It racks up the blood supply in the second half of the film, but doesn’t quite have the pay-off that one warrants from a seemingly clever concept.
Whilst not as incredible in terms of body count as the title promises, INCREDIBLE VIOLENCE remains a modest attempt of a horror experience.
