Sadly Over-hyped

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Spoilers: This film contains Joe Estevez Woohoo – it's another slasher film. In lover's lane, two jocks and their girlfriends are brutally stabbed by an murderer and only one of the jocks survives. The other is the brother of the local deputy, who has a rocky relationship with his father. You've also got Joe Estevez as the chief of police also trying to deal with an escape from the local asylum. There's an FBI agent in there too, plus other folks I'd imagine.For a slasher film, there's an awful lot of interaction between the characters I mentioned and not a lot of actual slashing. The films also seem to tie together about three different plot lines and just ended up raising about a billion questions.Without spoiling the film, let me say that when that other character did that thing, was it a coincidence that the other character turned up at the same time to do that other thing? Or, in the same scene, how come one character managed to do that thing to himself while the other character did that other thing to that other character? How come that guy didn't notice the other guy doing that thing? And how many characters have (things)? Or (thing) from that (thing)? (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing) (thing).Loads of red herrings in this one. Things pick up when Robert Z'Dar and Linnea Quigley turn up. It's definitely not the worst slasher film I've watched, and it's free from any of that smug Scream self-referential crap. It just tried to cram too much drama, and not enough scares.

I'm in a good mood, so I gave this a 5. If this gotten into the hands of a strong screenwriter, that score would have doubled.We start with the standard teenagers in lovers' lane. Blood, guts, you've seen it all before.The setting is a small town in Illinois, population between 500 and 500,000. Since we never get a sense of the town, we don't get a sense of what binds the characters together. It seems that pretty well everyone knows everyone else.One of the victims was the brother of a Sheriff's Deputy. Charlie has Father Issues: dad was prouder of his younger son, now deceased, and Charlie feels that he's been a disappointment to his dad, Bill.A detective begins investigating the crime. The detective is a young woman who looks to be about 19 years old. we don't know what law enforcement agency she's affiliated with. She shows up with a badge and a partner, introducing herself as Detective Rodgers. That doesn't help.Eventually the script stumbles into William Inge territory. This is a Small Town with a Secret. Before he got married, Charlie's dad (now a widower) was involved with Mary Burns, a local tart (played in the third act by Scream Queen Linnea Quigley, now 52 years old). He got Mary pregnant. She had the baby and left town and hasn't been seen since. It turns out that Charlie is her son.OK. Bill shows up with a baby boy. Mom goes ahead and marries Bill, raises Charlie as her own, gives birth to another boy, nobody in town questions where the bonus son came from. Uh, I'm from a small town. Ain't gonna happen.But I digress. Bodies continue to pile up. Charlie is a suspect, but it can't be him. But there's such a shortage of other suspects that there's nobody else (the detective? the sheriff?) to suspect.Then the cardinal rule of mystery writing is broken. Yea, shattered. A very major character is clumsily introduced in the third act.We find that Mary Burns is out of the mental hospital, and she has a friend with her, B-movie veteran Robert Z'Dar (fondly remembered from MANIAC COP). Playing The Man (it's too much trouble to give a brand new character a name) he's been the killer all along.The plot is whipped into some semblance of order at the end. Charlie's dad and the sheriff are killed by The Man, Charlie is wounded, the detective is unconscious but manages to kill The Man first, and Mary wanders into the night just before the police get to the house.In a peculiar and very limp coda Charlie puts his dad's house up for sale, says goodbye to the detective, and drives away.These are not bad actors. They're actors working with substandard material. Performances are primarily at a level I'd call pretty good for community theater, but this isn't the stage at the American Legion hall.Film is a very unforgiving medium. Houses are houses. Cars are cars. Bars are bars. Motel rooms are motel rooms. This isn't an actor in ROMEO AND JULIET announcing "This is Verona," and our imaginations filling in the rest. Realistic settings call for realistic performances.These very same actors might have delivered compelling performances if the material had been shaped by stronger hands. But as is, this is a interesting Amateur Night that should have been much better.These are young actors. I wish them all the very best, and would urge them to do as much stage work as possible so as to have the experience of working with really strong material.Better luck next time, guys.THE ROCKVILLE SLAYER is definitely worth watching, but don't expect too much for it.

The drab tranquility of the sleepy little town of Rockville gets harshly thrown out of wack after four teens are viciously murdered. It's up to stalwart Sheriff Duncan (a strikingly good portrayal by the usually lacking Joe Estevez) and sincere, but rather inept Deputy Charlie Fisher (the engagingly geeky Circus Szalewski), assisted by obsessively thorough Detective Amy Rogers (well played by ravishing brunette Nicole Buehrer), to catch the culprit. The most probable suspect is a young lady who just escaped from a nearby asylum. The young lady is arrested, attempts to get away and is subsequently killed while making her attempt. But the seemingly simple cut and dried case is far from over or solved. In fact, it's just the opening of a whole can of worms which will change several people's lives forever. "The Rockville Slayer" rates as a most pleasant and unexpected surprise. For starters, it's a complex and involving mystery thriller instead of the mindless slasher horror flick its misleading title suggests. Moreover, the well-drawn characters are refreshingly real, flawed and recognizably human. Director Marc Selz, working from his own intricate and intriguing script, delivers a nice smattering of nudity and grisly violence, effectively creates a creepy and unnerving atmosphere, offers plenty of truly startling plot twists, and keeps the pace moving forward at a pleasingly speedy clip. The fine cast all contribute excellent performances, with especially nifty appearances by Linnea Quigley as a local harlot who went crazy and the ever-intimidating Robert Z'Dar as her brutish husband. Kudos are also in order for Joe Harris' crisp, handsome cinematography and Karl Sundstrom's neatly spare'n'shivery synthesizer score. Overall, this baby qualifies as a real strong and satisfying unsung little sleeper.

Thought the film was OK. Z'Dar as always makes a silk purse out of a sows ear. If he wasn't in this flick I'd have given it maybe an 8/10. The amount of films this man has rescued is staggering. He was great as ass-face in Tyrone, a bad film lifted by him Even when his coasting like in Guns of El Chupacabra he lifts the film. incidentally his name in that, Z-Man Lord Invader is one of the all time great cinema monikers. I don't want to sound like I like everything that Z'Dar has been in. Frogtown 2 was nowhere near as good the original, he was partly to blame for this sadly. I also have too say his big break, sadly headlining a well respected horror franchise doesn't seem top count, but thats another issue. His big break in the brat pack mafia Mobsters. Well the film was such a stinker that all those involved suffered some career damage, sadly as the lowly goon Robert was bound to suffer more than most. Real shame.