Ogre |
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 • Canada / USA • 2008 • 90m •    • Directed by: Steven R. Monroe. • Starring: John Schneider, Ryan Kennedy, Katharine Isabelle, Brendan Fletcher, Chelan Simmons, Andrew Wheeler, Kyle Labine, Kimberley Warnat, John Shaw, Chilton Crane, Tyler Johnston, John Wardlow, Michael Puttonen. • Music by: Pinar Toprak.     A forgotten town harbors a horrible secret that's discovered by a group of teens seeking to unlock the mysteries of the past. Somewhere, in the woods surrounding a remote village, a temperamental ogre waits for his next victim. When four teens in search of a cursed village arouse the ogre's attention, their discovery of a shaky true between the beast and the local population threatens to spell doom for all involved.
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This American Canadian production was directed by Steven R. Monroe & originally premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel & to be brutally honest Ogre is crap. Yet another 'Creature Feature' with terrible CGI computer effects I think there's a factory somewhere which churn this type of film out for the Sci-Fi Channel, the Sci-Fi Channel sure likes it's generic lifeless 'Creature Features' & I have seen dozens of the things on there. The script by Chuck Reeves is a little bit more imaginative than usual although the end result is still the same, for a change the giant creatureinsectmonster isn't a result of a genetic experiment gone wrong or the result of some experiment to create the ultimate weapon for the military which are the usual stand by explanations. No, here there's a small town stuck in a time warp that is a clear rip-off of The Village (2004) which is terrorised by a big Ogre that doesn't look too dissimilar to Shrek (2001) & then it spins the whole story around the old as mud plot about teenage kids becoming lost & then menaced by something evil that isn't a million miles off The Blair Witch Project (1999) or any number of teen slasher flicks. Unfortunately none of these elements come together to make a good film, Ogre is really slow going, it's boring, it makes no real sense (if the town is cut off from the real world where did they get supplies from like food, clothes, candles, bullets etc & how can this huge Ogre that usually roars & stomps his feet about generally making lots of noise sneak up on so many people without them noticing?) if you think about it & the special effects are far from special. The set-pieces revolving around the Ogre are poor, they lack energy or excitement & feel very flat. The character's are poor & I never felt for anyone who was killed, the dialogue is poor, the subplot about the evil mage Sir Henry goes nowhere & by the hour mark all I wanted was for it to finish.
Right lets talk special effects, the Ogre looks awful. The Ogre makes an appearance within the first ten minutes & it's an awful CGI computer effect, why didn't the makers keep him in the shadows until much later in the film? Why show such a bad special effect so early? It just ruins the films credibility straight away, it's hilarious to see the various character's try to act terrified around it when it just looks so poor. It never moves anything on the ground when it walks, it never leaves footprints despite being huge & it never really feels like it's there if you know what I mean, it just feels like a computer image on the screen that doesn't interact with anything else. The film has a really bland look & feel to it, the period costumes are alright but we never see more than two buildings at any one time & in my book that doesn't even equate to a street let alone anything approaching that could be described as a town. The gore is tame, there's a severed arm, a severed leg, a slashed open stomach, someones head is stepped on & crushed & the best bit involves someone getting their head bitten off by the Ogre & their headless body falling to the ground spurting blood from the neck stump, unfortunately we never do get to see the Ogre eat anyone.
If you take away the poor CGI computer generated Ogre then the film isn't too badly made but it doesn't have any style or substance. Shot on location in Vancouver in British Columbia in Canada. The acting isn't too bad to be fair, the kids are suitably attractive if nothing else.
Ogre is another poor Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that tries to be a bit different but at the end of the day turns out exactly the same as any other except for the setting, Ogre isn't as bad as say Bone Eater (2007) (what is?) but it's still pretty bad all the same.
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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