Plot:
The virginity of Evelyn is something that was better left untouched. After many discussions with her gay friend she ends up having drunken sex with a random dude and the night ends in bloodshed when she slits his throat open and keeps his body parts for sex. Until she gets bored of him..
Our thoughts:
Brian Hirschbine and Abortion Bin productions also made the film "TapeWorm" that I reviewed a while back, and needless to say it shows. They are as equal to eachother as any sequel without being sequels. Both movies are very low budget independent backyard-style gore films with lots of perversities. Brian Hirschbine seems to be very focused on being as brutal and gross as possible and maybe even trying to do it on a deeper level. His films really remind me of the films of Brian Paulin, even though there is alot of difference. But there is a certain style they both follow. However, Brian Paulin knows that the 101 of independent gore films is to keep the troops...ermm, viewers, entertained so he takes a slightly more fun route while Brian Hirschbine focuses completely on getting his film made as brutal and meaningful as possible. Neither of them make great serious films, but Brian Paulin makes awesome gory rides with great low budget effects. Take "Bone Sickness" as a perfect example (even though "Fetus" probably shares more with the Abortion Bin films).
It takes way too long for "Black Ice" to get it's story going, it spends about 20-30 of the first minutes just to make sure the viewer knows that Evelyn is a virgin and that she has weird dreams. It's not until much later in the film that we're introduced to the man that is gonna take her virginity, and even that sex scene goes on for so long that more time has passed until we finally see her kill him. The final hour is a mix of more discussions with her gay friend that goes on for too long, and sex scenes ending in murder. Add the occasional dream sequence that looks too cheesy to be interesting and you have "Black Ice".
I'm not gonna be too harsh on Brian Hirschbine though, as his intentions are in the right places. Meaning, he wants to sicken you but do it with style and thought. Ultimately I think that he would need someone more in control than him on the films though. Someone that can tell him to shorten scenes down, get rid of some dialogue, and maybe light the scenes in ways that hides the poorly made effects. Doing all of the above would improve his films so much, and that's my honest opinion.
Sadly the flaws are there and we are left with a movie that is way too long (nearly 2 hours!). It gets the sick scenes ruined by cheesiness and bad effects and the sexual scenes just aren't worth it when everything around it are dragging the whole thing down. I hope the director uses this review as a guide on his next film because it could be vital for him to make a somewhat good/entertaining films, especially when two of his four films (since I've only seen two) are bad for the same reasons. |
