Film Review: Pink Eye (2008)

 

SYNOPSIS:

Pink Eye is set in a small town in upstate New York, at a prison-like, dilapidated insane asylum where secret drug testing has gone inexplicably wrong. Patients are dying in sick and twisted ways and those who survive are becoming raging, homicidal lunatics. It’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose and the patients begin to crave freedom to take their vengeance out on the world outside. When one patient does escape deformed, angry and far beyond insane, he brings death and terror to an unsuspecting town and everyone in it.

REVIEW:

Written by: Joshua Nelson
Directed by: James Tucker
Starring: Melissa Bacelar, Joshua Nelson, Emma Hinz and Bridget Megan Clark

Hell-o gore fiends! Today’s review is for the low budgeted “nut case” of a movie called Pink Eye. The film starts out by a quote from the King, himself (Stephen, that is). It is peppered with Edgar Allan quotes throughout the film, which makes sense, because the psychopathic and mutated mental patient was named Edgar by the twisted staff for constantly reciting Poe’s material.

This film is different than most other slasher films. It puts a unique twist on the PCP testing Doctors involved as well as showing a little on each experimental, hallucinating mental patient. The film starts out “insanely” brutal and and falls deeper into depraved dementia from there.

The acting is decent for the most part. If there’s one downfall, it should have focused a little more on Delilah’s character, played by the very pretty Melissa Bacelar. Not just because she was tasty eye candy, but our monster of a human, Edgar is obsessed with her. With this being said, he only captures her for the latter part of the film. I personally think there should have been more mental sufferance on her part. That would have made the conclusion a bit more heart pumping and you would have felt a little more for Delilah (Bacelar). The younger actress, Emma Hinz did a decent job for her age as well. Joshua James, who played the mutated mental patient avenger did very effectively well for his role as “Edgar.”

The lighting changed throughout the film in several ways. The tone of the mental hospital was probably the most appealing throughout the film. Every time we take a trip back to the psyche ward, the halls are filled with greens, reds and other lighting effects. Mostly they are shining from within the room and out, onto the hallway walls. I’d have to say, it was insanely creative and beautifully executed for the lighting crew. Very unique. The hallway shots kind of had a Stanley Kubrick’s “Shining” feel to it.

The gore score was pretty high as well, from beginning to the end. Monster in the Closet Effects provided the pools of grotesque carnage. We start off the film with one of the best eye gouging sequences I’ve laid my eyes on, since Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (when I compare it to this film, I mean the eye gouging and special effects only). There is a self gutting with a piece of a mirror that was pretty cool. Empty eye sockets that looked very convincing were later shown of the gouging victim. One Special Effects gag involved a ripped apart jaw that was delightfully grotesque.

There was a scene with a woman that had needles dangling from her arms. As small as this effect was, it was very effective. Unlike Saw 2’s needle bath, this woman only had a few of them in her arms as she sat there screaming. The difference in the effectiveness was that this woman had been sitting there for quite some time with the needles dangling from her veins. Not the needles themselves (or the act) was the disturbing part, but the make-up involved around each shot to show the progressive lividity of her flesh. Very effective. Another good effects moment was was a jaw that was ripped off completely. The others aren’t anything we haven’t seen. Blown out brains by a gun to the mouth, a gutting and a Jason Voorhees, Tiny Firefly (Devil’s Rejects) type neck break. Speaking of Tiny, that is who Edgar reminded me most of, but almost with a Candyman-ish voice, only not as deep as Tony Todd. Although the tone was as just as menacing.

Over all, I’d say this is a film worth checking out for something different in the escaped mental patient vein. You can tell the writers are very literal ones. They must do a lot of reading as the film is sort of a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe and of course, the gracing of the opening quote introduction by the by my writing idol, Stephen King. Give this film a view if you can stomach the carnage that you will be stumbling upon during your stay at this psych unit of a gore infested good time. I give this film, Pink Eye, FOUR HORNS UP.

Pink Eye (2008)