Playback (2012)
Directed by Michael Nickles
Starring Johnny Pacar, Toby Hemingway, Alessandra Torresani, and Christian Slater
Available from Magnolia
Reviewer: Horrorphilia Jason

The Lowdown: A supernatural semi-slasher that’s probably worth a watch.

Synopsis
A high school student and his friends are filming a re-enactiment of a famous murder in their town, that occurred almost two decades earlier for a school project. As they dig deeper into the story, the spirit of the murderer possesses one of the friends, and he starts to murder them one by one. Meanwhile a  perverted cop (Christian Slater) that is assigned to the case, gets off on watching high school girls that he is secretly taping. He eventually learns the true identity of the killer, but will it be too late for anyone to stop him?

The movie has all the trappings of a shitty modern horror film. Ultra slick production, annoying kids, a modern sountrack, but despite all of that I still somewhat enjoyed it. Basically the killer filmed people by hidden cameras, and he could control their soul by having them look at the camera. He then would have them do his bidding and then eventually kill them. Nothing too complex or original but it worked. The backstory about the invention of film and the evil character Louis LePrince was kinda cool and fit well within the context of the story.

Now if you’re watching the film because of Christian Slater then get ready to be disappointed. He has a pivotal role but he’s far from the main character. I don’t think he shows up until the second act of the film. I’ve always liked Slater, he’s great at the good guy roles and I think the older he gets the more I buy him as a baddie. He plays a masterbating pervy cop to perfection in this film. He was in it enough to make it more than a cameo but I do wish his role was slightly larger. The main character grew on me as the film went on, but the one character Deedee, played by Jennifer Missoni, had me frustrated at some of her acting. She was suppose to be a good virginal girl and I didn’t buy it for one moment. It came across as trying way too hard. The main villain Quinn (Toby Hemingway), was awesome and I hated his guts from the first moment on screen.

I had my doubts there was going to be some good gore, but I was pleasantly surprised. You get some gun shots to the head, a throat slashing and a dude impaled through the head, which all looked damn cool. There was some T&A in the film but not near enough for the subject matter. A film involving hidden camera needs some scandolous stuff, it should have had titties and ass flying at ya.

The ending is your typical slasher type ending with the mandatory ghost twist. Not bad but not anything that blows your socks off. Even though it’s a mixture of ghost and slasher genres I have a feeling the ghost loving crowd may dig it a little more. I almost forgot to mention the soundtrack was also pretty damn good. Perfect song for the cock tease lap dance scene. Not for everyone but I think it’s worth a watch.

Final Rating: 6/10

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• Playback (2012) Movie Review(horrorphilia.com)

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