Another day and another month already. I'm striving for this month to be different in that I want to reach double digits for reviews. I've been slowly building towards that again and I think I can reach it this month. If all goes well, I will be attending a horror convention at the end of the month, so I'm sure that will help my review count as long as I don't start to feel burnt out again. Anyway, it was time for another Netflix DVD. I've had it about a week now, so it was time to get it sent back. For today, I watched the film Tears Of Kali (2004).
Back in 1983, Lars Eriksson (Pietro Martellanza) is the leader of a cult in India. Not much is known about it. In the present day, three people who were in the cult are now the focus of three short films in Tears Of Kali. In Shakti, we meet Tansul (Celik Nuran) is trying to find answers to her brother's murder. She has gained entry to talk to Elisabeth (Irena-Heliana Jandris), the woman who has said she killed him. Her story doesn't add up though, as she says it was a murder done in a lovers quarl. but the guy was cut up in pieces. Tansul questions Elisabeth, who was in the cult, until she gets the answer she is looking for, but she isn't prepared for what killed her brother. In Devi, Robin (Marcel Trunsch) has committed a brutal assault and is sent to Dr. Steiner (Michael Balaun) for therapy. If he completes it, it will reduce his sentence. But Robin soon finds out that Steiner is able to control people against their will after his time in the cult. This is bad news for Robin since the doctor wants to see him jump out of his skin. And in Kali, Mari (Cora Chilcott), another member of the cult, seeks out faith healer Edgar (Mathieu Carrière), as she can't stand up straight. Even though Edgar senses something inside of Mari, he performs the healing anyway, unleashing a demon that is now seeking a new host.
Tears Of Kali comes from Germany by writer/director Andreas Marschall. I'm assuming that the DVD that Netflix sent to me was made here in the States just because the film has English dubbing with no option for English subtitles. I was a bit disappointed by this since I have liked subtitles over dubbing lately. Besides, the dubbing wasn't all that great for this movie. The premise for the film sounded cool, but after watching it I wasn't all that big on it. The three short stories were kind of interesting, especially the middle one, but it felt like Marschall came up with the short stories and then added a way to link them all in order to make a full-length film out of it all. The cult as it was back in the day is not shown much. We get an opening scene with it starting there and it goes back to there once in a great while. It isn't a bad wrap-around story, but we never learn much about that time in order to really link it to the present day stories. The first and third short stories have a supernatural feel to them, which I suppose could be part of a cult, but I just felt like Marschall kind of missed out by including those elements. The second story is where I felt all three stories should have been plot wise. The start of the wrap-around story ends with a woman cutting off her eyelids, which might tie into the second story, but it was also what I was looking for. Since Marschall wasn't interested in telling us about the cult itself and the horrors that obviously happened there, the next best thing would have been to show the members going on to inflict their own horrors. What man can do to man can be much scarier than something supernatural. The three short films aren't bad really, but there is no payoff to it all. The cult is usually mentioned at least in each story, so there is that I suppose.
One nice thing about Tears Of Kali is that it can be a bit gory at times. Eyelids being cut off, skin being ripped off and all kinds of cuts and scratches. The effects are all done well, but sometimes they are undercut by the way Marschall decided to film the scene. He often uses quick editing and shaky camera work to try to give us more than what we are actually seeing. I get why it is used, but I've always found this style rather frustrating. The acting, besides the dull dubbing, seemed to be pretty good. I wasn't overly impressed by anyone, but I didn't find the acting all that bad either. Just really wish they didn't bother with dubbing.
I was looking forward to Tears Of Kali when I noticed I would be getting it soon. I even thought about bumping it up in my queue, but ended up leaving it where it was at since it wasn't all that far back. This isn't the first horror film from Germany that I have watched, but I do believe it is the first anthology film from Germany that I have watched. Too bad it couldn't have been a better film, but there are people who loved it all the same. In the end, it was just a film that didn't work for me. I didn't feel I was going to rate it as an above average film, even after the second short which ended up being my favorite, but because it didn't work really well for me, I'm going to give it a slightly lower score. Is it still worth checking out? Probably is, especially if you think it is something you would enjoy. Even if I don't like a film, I don't want to discourage anyone from giving it a try.
2 out of 5 The Cult of the mermaid, coming soon!
Back in 1983, Lars Eriksson (Pietro Martellanza) is the leader of a cult in India. Not much is known about it. In the present day, three people who were in the cult are now the focus of three short films in Tears Of Kali. In Shakti, we meet Tansul (Celik Nuran) is trying to find answers to her brother's murder. She has gained entry to talk to Elisabeth (Irena-Heliana Jandris), the woman who has said she killed him. Her story doesn't add up though, as she says it was a murder done in a lovers quarl. but the guy was cut up in pieces. Tansul questions Elisabeth, who was in the cult, until she gets the answer she is looking for, but she isn't prepared for what killed her brother. In Devi, Robin (Marcel Trunsch) has committed a brutal assault and is sent to Dr. Steiner (Michael Balaun) for therapy. If he completes it, it will reduce his sentence. But Robin soon finds out that Steiner is able to control people against their will after his time in the cult. This is bad news for Robin since the doctor wants to see him jump out of his skin. And in Kali, Mari (Cora Chilcott), another member of the cult, seeks out faith healer Edgar (Mathieu Carrière), as she can't stand up straight. Even though Edgar senses something inside of Mari, he performs the healing anyway, unleashing a demon that is now seeking a new host.
Tears Of Kali comes from Germany by writer/director Andreas Marschall. I'm assuming that the DVD that Netflix sent to me was made here in the States just because the film has English dubbing with no option for English subtitles. I was a bit disappointed by this since I have liked subtitles over dubbing lately. Besides, the dubbing wasn't all that great for this movie. The premise for the film sounded cool, but after watching it I wasn't all that big on it. The three short stories were kind of interesting, especially the middle one, but it felt like Marschall came up with the short stories and then added a way to link them all in order to make a full-length film out of it all. The cult as it was back in the day is not shown much. We get an opening scene with it starting there and it goes back to there once in a great while. It isn't a bad wrap-around story, but we never learn much about that time in order to really link it to the present day stories. The first and third short stories have a supernatural feel to them, which I suppose could be part of a cult, but I just felt like Marschall kind of missed out by including those elements. The second story is where I felt all three stories should have been plot wise. The start of the wrap-around story ends with a woman cutting off her eyelids, which might tie into the second story, but it was also what I was looking for. Since Marschall wasn't interested in telling us about the cult itself and the horrors that obviously happened there, the next best thing would have been to show the members going on to inflict their own horrors. What man can do to man can be much scarier than something supernatural. The three short films aren't bad really, but there is no payoff to it all. The cult is usually mentioned at least in each story, so there is that I suppose.
One nice thing about Tears Of Kali is that it can be a bit gory at times. Eyelids being cut off, skin being ripped off and all kinds of cuts and scratches. The effects are all done well, but sometimes they are undercut by the way Marschall decided to film the scene. He often uses quick editing and shaky camera work to try to give us more than what we are actually seeing. I get why it is used, but I've always found this style rather frustrating. The acting, besides the dull dubbing, seemed to be pretty good. I wasn't overly impressed by anyone, but I didn't find the acting all that bad either. Just really wish they didn't bother with dubbing.
I was looking forward to Tears Of Kali when I noticed I would be getting it soon. I even thought about bumping it up in my queue, but ended up leaving it where it was at since it wasn't all that far back. This isn't the first horror film from Germany that I have watched, but I do believe it is the first anthology film from Germany that I have watched. Too bad it couldn't have been a better film, but there are people who loved it all the same. In the end, it was just a film that didn't work for me. I didn't feel I was going to rate it as an above average film, even after the second short which ended up being my favorite, but because it didn't work really well for me, I'm going to give it a slightly lower score. Is it still worth checking out? Probably is, especially if you think it is something you would enjoy. Even if I don't like a film, I don't want to discourage anyone from giving it a try.
2 out of 5 The Cult of the mermaid, coming soon!
