Laid To Rest - 2.5/5

Coming into this film hearing all kinds of hype like "one of the best new horror films in years", there was a lot riding on this one. The story sounded very interesting and the killer with his silver skull mask and very cool knives (as seen on the cover) just made me want to love this movie already. But alas, a few flaws in the film itself prevented it from being anything but a low budget slasher in the end.

Here's the good. Director Robert Hall does everything he can with the budget he has. This is pretty damn low budget and he uses some nice directing work to make a lot of the moments more interesting then they should have been. He gets some mad props from being clever with his work. Also on the good side is the gore effects. I'm guessing the majority of this film's budget must have been pumped into the special effects as these are top notch works of classic horror. Whether its slitting throats (he tends to saw blade them in this one), fake dead bodies, or stabbing someone through the side of the skull it all looks ridiculously real and its perhaps the biggest highlight in "Laid To Rest".

On the other side of the fence, I was so completely frustrated with the script and poor acting (especially from the main actress who made me want to kill myself pretty early on with her poor attempts at acting like she lost her memory - seriously she can't remember the term funeral home and calls it the place with the dead people?? What the fuck?!). The script lacks a lot of logic and ends up being almost comedic at many moments. The characters make decisions that any normal person would think is just down right daft. I found myself not involved with the story but wanting to take the general concept, which is VERY good, and rewrite the shit out of it. Robert Hall...loved your directing but you should probably stay away from writing for now.

As a horror fan for a long time, I really wanted this to succeed. Great concepts and some solid directing just couldn't right the poor script flow and poor acting (for poorly developed characters anyway). This might end up being a kick ass franchise if they get some solid writers behind it and perhaps a larger budget. A disappointment in the end. 

Written By Matt Reifschneider