New from Real Gore Releasing is The Orphan Killer, an extremely violent gorefest from a
distribution company that specializes in these types of films. Despite an
excellent amount of gore and imagery that harkens back to the exploitation
cinema of the 1970’s, this ends up being a somewhat average attempt at creating
a new slasher franchise. The distributor obviously feels that they have
something special on their hands, as they will be releasing a sequel titled The Orphan Killer 2: Bound X Blood in February
2017.
The story involves a slasher that terrorizes the occupants
of a church orphanage, specifically one adult female. It is a mixture of
slasher subgenre characters like Leatherface and Jason Voorhees and abuse in
the Catholic Church and their orphanages. The religious extremism themes and
torture that take place seem outdated in a picture that occurs in the present
time. It would have been better suited to have taken place in the 1970’s or
earlier. The pacing starts off fast then slows down some, but really picks up
in the third act. The final thirty minutes are the best part of the movie and felt
like an exploitation or grindhouse flick from the 1970’s.
The acting is pretty average and the dialogue is kept to a
minimum, so that saves anyone from looking too bad. All of the minor characters
seem believable but were annoying, maybe presenting some justification for
their well deserved deaths. Diane Foster played the main character and she is
put through utter hell and torture. She does a fine job and is at her best in
the final act. David Backus portrays the Orphan Killer, who has an interesting
look with a Leatherface style mask. The decision to have the killer speak was a
poor one in my opinion. The successful slasher characters are more menacing
because they don’t talk and you don’t know what’s going on underneath the mask.
When he spoke it was reminiscent of Darth Vader, which just didn’t work in this
scenario.
The directing and cinematography from Matt Farnsworth was
hit and miss. There was some decent camera placement choices and cool imagery,
along with some large scale overhead shots of the city. The major issues
involved moments where the camera was shaking or there were jarring movements
and angles, which made me question if this was a creative decision or some type
of rushed mistake. The score is a host of metal music providing by recording
distributor Bullet Tooth. Creatively this choice didn’t work for me as I
believe a traditional score would have been much more effective. This appeared
to be a decision to appeal to a specific demographic that both likes metal
music and gore movies.
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| I look creepy when I don't talk |
It more than delivers on a heavy amount of gore, blood,
nudity, and violence that all looks very realistic. The special effects are
what drives this picture and will most likely entice the viewers that Real Gore
Releasing is catering to. While I found it be to a fairly average, most
hardcore gore fans will most likely enjoy this bloody fare.
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