The title and the story it implies is enough to get eyes on the upcoming horror film Killer Sofa. But is this feature from Mad Kiki and 1220 Film Productions actually worth your time? Even when writing this review, I’m still not sure! Written and directed by Bernie Rao, Killer Sofa follows the tragic story of Francesca, a young woman whose always attracted weirdos and stalkers. When one of them dies, it sets off a chain of events that ends with Francesca’s grandfather, Jack, putting a used reclining chair in her apartment. Little do they know, a Dybbuk is lurking inside the piece of furniture, and it becomes attracted to Francesca, much like every man who comes across her. Crimes of passion launched by the chair end with bloody and hysterical results in Killer Sofa, releasing on DVD and digital this October courtesy of High Octane Pictures. Starring Sarah Munn, Piimio Mei, Jed Brophy, Stacey King, Harley Neville, Angelica Thomas, Jim Baltaxe, Hamis Boyle and James Cain, Killer Sofa combines sex, magic and blood that’ll make you fear the ominous ottoman.
Killer Sofa is a little bit of Child’s Play, a little bit of Christine, and a lot of silliness. Its use of dark magic and psychic abilities lead me to believe that the victim or killer from the opening sequence had put their essence into the sofa, but as luck would have it, the Dybbuk was hiding in the chair all along. The rabbi and his friend, along with the cops investigating the murders and missing persons case, also had be feeling like Child’s Play meets Christine. Only the culprit is a reclining chair with stitching and buttons in all the right places. It looks like a Barnie costume that died in the production line and I absolutely love it. And if you’re waiting for the first real couch attack, you have to wait until the half hour mark to see this lazy bad boy in action. It’s so hokey and so cheesy, but again, it was everything I was hoping for. Only I was hoping for more, a lot more, because if you’re going to “go there” with your story, you really need to go there. Don’t half ass what people are really looking for.
Killer Sofa was produced by Bernie Rao with co-producers Jim Baltaxe and Marc Tyron. It features cinematography and editing by Rao, with further editing duties handled by Paulo Lourenco. As far as grading this film as a production, I have to say that I don’t have any complaints. Surprisingly. Killer Sofa has good acting across the board and a very modern feel to its style and quality. It has truckloads of sexuality and really cool throwbacks done with trippy lighting and filters. It’s smokey, comfortable and fun. And, almost as importantly, the script produced by Rao does an amazing job with story progression and evolution. Killer Sofa has many twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting, and an ending that was completely out of the norm – in a good way. New Zealand really knocked it out of the park with this one. High Octane Pictures is releasing this cozy movie filler in October… and I guess I could recommend it to people who enjoy killer household item titles. Just don’t expect it to go as far as you want it to. That’s my only complaint.
Final Score: 7 out of 10.
