UHM - Review - Botched

Botched is a film that really took me by surprise. When I started watching the flick I was under the assumption that it was just a heist comedy, but then 20-minutes in some dude gets his head chopped off by a pair of large sheers, delivering a very bloody and awesome scene. I was hooked and as I continued to watch I was treated by decent comedy, fun characters, lots of gore, and a couple over-the-top killers. How the hell did a movie like this slip by me? Apparently it slipped under the radar for a lot of people, as it only received a small blurb over a year ago on various news outlets, but then it pretty much fell off the planet until recently. Scheduled to hit DVD in Germany and other countries later this year, there's currently no US distribution set, but Darclight Films owns the rights, so it'll likely get a DVD release sometime next year.

Originally titled "13" (after the unused floor that they're stuck in) the film is the effort from first-time director Kit Ryan, and tells the story of a man named Ritchie (Stephen Dorff) who's in debt with the Russian mob after they helped his mother immigrate from Russia and start a new life. A professional thief, Ritchie now has one last job to do for the mob before he's finally set free from the debt, but it'll also prove to be his hardest task yet. Teamed up with a couple goofy brothers, the trio are sent to steal a golden cross from the penthouse of a Russian skyscraper. After successfully obtaining the cross, the trigger-happy older brother makes a scene in the elevator after some people refuse to get off, which eventually alerts security and forces the elevator the stop on the unused 13th floor.

Now the theives have a group of hostages to take care of as they attempt to negotiate with the police via a two-way radio. Little do they know that the person on the other end of the radio is one of two twin psychopathic serial killers (one of which believes he's the reincarnation of Russian ruler "Ivan the Terrible") that make short use of the hostages and would-be thieves. Fans of the UK horror-comedy Severance will likely take a shining to this, as two films are similar in gore and comedic aspects, although this film goes a step further by delivering over-the-top characters and gore sequences. The movie is pretty fun from the start, from the interesting and goofy characters that you either love or hate, to the ridiculous dancing lead killer that has rigged the floor with traps, and uses a variety of ancient weapons to dice up his victims.

The only problem I have with the flick is where most of the film is taken place -- the unused 13th floor -- as it gets a little tiresome seeing the lead characters constantly running from one corner to the other (that all look the same), and sometimes looking far too much like a movie set than it should. It also seemed like they could have done a better job in terms of traps, since we really only get one main trap, which wasn't all that great to begin with either. However, this can be overlooked since there was a lot of time for character development, and managed to deliver a good amount of gore-candy for us fans.

OVERALL

This is a relatively unheard of over-the-top gore-filled horror comedy that not only has comedy that works, but fun characters that you can root for as well. Worth a check.

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Dave

Posted 1121 days ago

I agree with Tory...I saw it and I have to say that was the worst horror comedy I´ve seen. It would be funny maybe for 8 yo children. If you want to see good horror comedy ..check out ,,The Severance,,.

TORY

Posted 1328 days ago

This movie sucks, poor storyline, poor acting, poor ideas for a killer, and the movie revolved around steven dorff. Hell, I love comedy in horror movies, but this was sad, really sad, its like the director and his jolly crew was on meth or something. I bet that they made a movie about making this movie and it was starring stephen dorff, not only it would be scary but also very funny.

Morgan

Posted 1359 days ago

The disco part, pure comedy. This is kinda a weird movie. But I really liked it. Plus I think that the lead female, who is super hot! Is the same girl from Night Watch/Day Watch.

Hedcold

Posted 1368 days ago

This movie F*cking rocked!!!! its a great horror/comedy mix definitely worth checking out

creepshow

Posted 1374 days ago

Stephen Dorff? Ok, maybe i'll still check it out. But seriously, Stephen *** ing Dorff?

HorrorseXual

Posted 1582 days ago

I can't wait to see this soon.

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