Director – Steve Wolsh (Tommy’s Fault)
Starring – Lachlan Buchanan (Behaving Badly), Puja Mohindra (Ghost Whisperer), and Bryce Draper (Bound)
Release Date – 2015
Rating – 2/5
Tagline – “The lucky ones are already dead”
Late last year the movie Muck was making news on various horror sites and forums promising a very unique horror experience. The film did look sexy and fun but very little was given about the film’s story but with the title Muck one could only assume what this film was about. I assumed it would be a slime-based horror flick like The Blob, Slime City, and The Stuff. I like all those films so I was a little excited to check this one out.
I reached out to Anchor Bay and they were kind enough to send me a review copy of the film on blu. I threw it in the second it arrived and quickly learned that the title actually has nothing to do with the film’s premise and that really pisses me off.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a group of twenty-somethings who enter a burial ground and do things they should not do. This awakens an ancient evil that chases them through the marsh and forces them to seek refuge in an old house. They all stay in the home while one runs off to get help and ends up in a pub where he calls his cousin to come pick him up. His cousin agrees to pick him up and brings two women with him.
When they arrive they learn that something evil in the house has killed the remaining people and now they are being hunted down by men covered in white body paint. They are forced to either enter the home with the unseen evil, fight the ancient evil, or go back through the marsh and leave through the cursed burial ground.**Spoiler Alert**
Muck is a film that had a lot of hype going for it but it was unable to deliver on the good. It was unable to offer up a fun horror experience and has left a bad taste in the mouths of several horror fans alike.
Last year the film held a very successful crowd funding campaign that promised a great deal of items for those that contribute. Sadly, several members have came forward on various horror pages on Facebook and claimed they never received the perks they were promised. This is poor business and a quick way to get yourself in a shithole among horror fans. These were just claims, however, with no way of telling if they were true or not. Anyway, back to the review.
The acting in this one is not the best. In fact, some of the scenes has some of the worst acting I have seen in a very long time considering this film was released by Anchor Bay. The cast does not feed well off each other and this clashes all throughout the film. This makes it impossible to believe that they are actually in peril. They also have a hard time reading the situation and conveying the right emotion based on that situation. Some of the characters were way off making the scenes seem confusing.
The story for this one tries way too fucking hard resulting in several different stories going at once with very little entertainment value. Like I said, the story feels like three different stories tossed together in hopes of creating something unique and fun but resulted in something that horror fans will not enjoy. The stories would have been better if they were made into three separate films. Also, the film has some of the worst character development I have ever seen. Within just minutes of watching this film I was ready to turn it off because every fucking character gets on my nerves. This is something other horror fans that had seen the film before me had warned me about.
Finally, the film does have a few on screen kills that are bloody as hell but no amount of blood and gore could save this film. The practical effects are decent as well but by the time the viewer gets to those they are sick of the film and just want it to end. Overall, Muck is a horror flick that wants to use sex appeal to entertain the viewer but no amount of T&A can save this train wreck. I can not recommend this one.
