A Major Disappointment

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Playback" (R - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: Paranormal/Ghost My Score: 5.0Cast=6 Acting=4 Plot=7 Ending=4 Story=4 Scare=4 Jump=5 F/X=6 Creep=6 Twist=4A cop investigates the case of a missing local teen, though he discovers a dark secret that has been unleashed in his town, and an evil spirit that will stop at nothing to find its heir. "This is destiny...and you get to be a part of it." This movie set the record for lowest box office gross of all time...$252. It's no bigger than a meh, but it's better than it's total in the theater. It action has a good premise and is decently creepy...trouble is the story was written in crayon and you can see the twist coming from a mile off. If you can see the forest through the trees, this would be an ok watch with no expectations. Otherwise I do not recommend it.

If you read some of the reviews for Playback, you may notice it receives more than its fair share of negativity. In some ways it deserves it, in others it doesn't. A lot of the criticism comes from how it's been sold. If you read the blurb, you'll see it mentions an 'ex cop (played by Christian Slater) investigating a mysterious killer.' This is simply not true. For a start, Christian Slater's part in this film is little more than an extended cameo and it seems to be a blatant attempt by the studio/promoters to do their best at cashing in on the one and only (semi) big name attached to the project.The film is actually about a group of teenagers who are trying to make their own horror film when they stumble on a particularly nasty supernatural force that links back to their town's past. In many ways, Playback is little more than a (supernatural) slasher film that loosely borrows from superior works like The Ring. You may even forget that Christian Slater is in the film because his character has so little to do.Playback is okay. If you can ignore its miss-selling and are just looking for a run-of-the-mill horror to fill an hour and a half, then this one will probably do. Yes, there are a fair few unexplained bits that may leave you with a question mark or two over your head, but, like I say, it's far from perfect, but it just about makes the grade.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

When a group of film students attempt to document the brutal history of their town's past, they unleash the evil spirit which inspired the rampage and must stop it's current rampage before it exposes the secret behind it's existence.This is overall a pretty lame and barely worthwhile effort. The only true sense of credit that this one really has is it's plot line about the body-hopping spirit that can only be transfered through video, which is pretty creepy and doesn't get used often-enough as a concept since it generates some really impressive moments here and there of the possessed beings out and about with their unknowing victims. Otherwise, this here is a gory, low-budget boring mess that seems to fling itself around in ten different directions without any sort of inner compass to determine what it wants to do, a low-budget feel that never lets it's full scope become apparent despite the feel it's going for and a laid-back pace that rarely lets on it's a horror film and never really goes for any sort of excitement or enjoyability. A true let-down and not really worth it.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and underage drinking.

I loved this movie. The suspense, the cinematography, the music, everything. Definitely a horror movie for the shelves. I know it has gotten some bad reviews and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the bad reviews are just because it's not Christian Slaters BEST work. But come on, how can a guy top 3:10 to Yuma or the Dark Knight Trilogy? Christian Slaters performance in this film was far from bad. Also, I have to give a shout out to the guy who did the lighting. (I'd give you his name but I can't figure out how to open up a new tab on this library PC) Every scene was lit so well. The darks and the lights reflected Slater's emotions like a mirror. I was having flashbacks to The Fighter!