Coffin Baby - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

Before I watched this movie, I noticed from a little online research that it wasn't especially popular.  Actually that's me being kind.  People seem to HATE this movie, thinking it a poor sequel to the remake of Toolbox Murders, so I wasn't expecting very much.

Did I hate the movie on the same level as most other people who submitted their opinions online?  It seems not.  It's an odd one.  There were aspects of this movie which were great!  I loved how it looked, the scene settings, the bad guy looked awesome, the gore was incredible.  Some of the scenes were amongst the most gruesome I have ever seen in a movie.  When I say most gruesome, what I mean is, they look very real.  There is no faffing about and suspense here.  It's in for the kill - pun intended!

Our basic premis here involves a young woman who is kidnapped by a murderer who is responsible for killing her sister.  He holds her captive and makes her watch while he tortures and murders others in front of her in many different adventurous ways.

The plot itself was sadly full of holes and raised many questions which were never answered or addressed.  Some details which seemed imporant throughout the story seemed to have been forgotten and were just left hanging.   In places the acting was a bit 'hammy' and overdone.  I have seen much, much worse though.



Moving on to the positives, the first murder scene in the movie is almost impossible to watch without registering some form of disgust or cowering away from the scene you're witnessing.  It involves a very graphic facial mutilation before the actual murder itself, which had me cringing and thinking I may find it too difficult to watch this movie if there were more of the same.  The special effects, sounds and general way this is depicted all seemed very realistic to me.  So realistic it made me actually feel pretty damn uncomfortable watching it.

Did the gore continue?  Well yes, but I think that particular scene was the one which freaked me out the most.  Another scene starts off quite amusingly where a young black man has got out of his car (egged on by his mates) to move a random trolley that's blocking his way.  Cue our bad guy who is not best amused that his belongings have been tampered with.  An argument of sorts ensues where the young guy is wildly gesticulating at our bad guy.  I was chuckling away when the mood changed very quickly and some more gore is thrown our way.

This theme does continue and there are many more good examples of these effects to keep all gore hounds happy.     There are a couple of rather nasty beheadings (one of which was particularly realistic and not something I enjoyed watching at all) and a woman who is tied to a table and has slices of her flesh cut out and cooked to be eaten while she is still alive.  The killer makes our hostage eat the flesh also and as she is starving, she is unable to help herself.  A man is cut in half from the groin to the head with a table saw... the list continues.

Now, where the movie falls down.  As I said earlier, the plot-line is very weak, there are inconsistencies everywhere, the acting, while it is not the worst I've ever seen is a bit over dramatic in places.  It all seemed to end very quickly for my liking and without any proper kind of justice.  Also a supernatural element that there really was no need for is introduced.  This actually detracted for the movie for me.

All in all, it wasn't as awful a movie as reviews online would have you believe.  I certainly didn't feel like I'd wasted my time in watching it, like is sometimes the case, but I doubt it's going to make many peoples top 10 movie list.

I would only recommend to anyone I know likes a bit of gore and isn't bothered about depth of story.