Film Review: Cradle of Fear (2001)

SYNOPSIS:

Even though child killer Kemper (David McEwen) is locked up in an asylum, he finds a way to continue his bloody spree through his devoted servant (Dani Filth), who’s eager to exact vengeance on those who put away his master. British director Alex Chandon dishes up a quartet of shocking tales linked by the detective (Edmund Dehn) who helped send Kemper to the loony bin — and who must now apprehend the murderer’s Satanic disciple.

A gruesome homage to the cult Amicus anthology Asylum, Cradle of Fear unfolds four screamplays all linked by the unspeakable need of an incarcerated child killer to wreak vengeance on those responsible for his imprisonment. Helped by deranged angel Dani Filth, who leaves a trail of charnel house death in his crimson wake, the cannibal convict forces two Goth vamps to endure a one night stand from hell, two tough female robbers to see through each other, an obscenely rich coke-head to chop up more than a few lines and an internet surfer to descend into madness when he uncovers the ultimate web depravity.

REVIEW:

For a film that came out on 2001, It’s funny that its taken this long to find its way to me. Cradle of Fear features rock singer Dani Filth from the band Cradle of Filth. Though as sometimes rock star films can come across lame, this film kicks major ass! Dani is the perfect villain in COF and no scene is without death destruction and bloody horrific mind-blowing violence. Directed and written by Alex Chandon, I am now compelled to seek out other works of his after witnessing this horrific experience of chaos. It pretty much has it all and does it pretty effectively. First a hats off to the FX team who did an outstanding job with all kinds of props and good head crushing fx work. The FX work is listed as being lead by Adrian Banton. Second, it is apparent that the team was well in sync with the horror culture to deliver a badass maniacal romp of all sorts of madness. The Fx works real well for translating the madness on screen.

The movie splits up into small tales with each one involving some sort of mishap or diabolical scheme. Needless to say, they all end up badly (or should I say brurtally) and they all are tied together with deranged Angel Dani Filth showing up and doing his worst. The tales are all cleverly played out with enough adequate gore and depravity to satisfy andy horror gore fan. The film lacks a bit of toning to kill the video edge look but regardless it still delivers in rich horror. The brutal scenes in this film are exactly that, brutal! It has a lot of fun with stories that are both terrifying and visceral. My fav one was the computer tech who becomes overly fascinated with a realistic snuff site and encounters more that he bargained for. Additional stories include a 1 legged man who takes it upon himself to find a donor with his approval or not.

The climax even holds a few more surprises and again a hats off to the fantastic FX work in this film. Even though this movie may be too extreme for some viewers it reaLLY knocks alot of films I’ve seen out of the water. We have all the elements that make for a good horror film. The Anthology style writing of this is quite clever and all ties together nicely. There is alot of folks who get there just rewards tales here that when they come to climax are quite a finale to behold. Dani Filth, although who has next to zero lines in this film works very effectively as a raging persona of evil. Maybe it’s his dead stare or gritting diabolical snare but he really does present a believable performance that makes him a prime canididate for other features. I hope we see more from this death metal frontman.

So I leave this film with….. for an independent release and somewhat video look to it, this film kicks major gore and rock and roll style ass. I’d love to see this re-done at same point with a Hollywood budget to market to a wider audience as my fear is this may get overlooked on the market for its violence. None-the-less add this to your collection! Enough said.

Cradle of Fear