Lost media is sadly a very common thing that does effect all forms of media including horror films as for one reason or another a film will just become lost be it due to no one archiving the film in some way or someone loosing the film shortly after it was made. This film tho is one of the film that has had scenes cut from the film with those scenes being shown only on certain American VHS tapes of the film which is something that does make this film partially lost and so then join me as I review the film that has a weird obsession with James Bon with the film in question being called simply just "The Last Horror Film" enjoy.
The plot of this film is an obsessed fan of an actor goes to the Cannes Film Festival in the hopes of meeting her and getting her to star in one of his films. Now then interms of what Imp0ersonally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. This films plot is to be frank hard to make out alot of the time as there are huge portions of the film where it does seem like nothing happening and that the film has dropped its plot only for it to then suddenly do something that does do something that's plot related. Not really helping things on the plot point of view is the fact that the films plot just isn't that good as the film doesn't focus on its plot alot of the time with the makers of this film focusing on other aspects of the film when it should have been giving its plot alot more focus and attention this is despite the fact that the film does have a really good and down right scary idea that is still relevant to this very day and if the the film was remade today then it's plot wouldn't need to be changed as it's something that modern audiences see all the time on the news but even with this being said whilst the films plot really is still a decent plot it is one that really did need a bit more working on before the film went into production just to iron out a few of its wrinkles with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Caroline Munro as Jana Bates , Joe Spinell as Vinny Durand and this films co-writer and co-producer Judd Hamilton as Alan Cunningham. Also starring in this film is Devin Goldenberg as Marty Bernstein , this films co-writer , co producer and director David Winters as Stanley Kline , Susanne Benton as Susan Archer , Filomena Spagnuolo as Vinny's Mother , Glenn Jacobson as Bret Bates and Kris Kristofferson as Himself.
Now then interms of what Imp0ersonally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. From an acting perspective you can tell that alot of this films like both Caroline Munro and Joe Spinell are turning in some really good performances and yet at the same time we have actors like David Winters for example who are at best wooden with it being made clear as day that David Winters really has no clue of how to direct his actors with alot of them feeling lost and unsure of themselves and unsure of what kind of performance that they should be giving with this being something that he should have fixed while filming the movie itself. With the best actor in the whole entire film being Joe Spinell as Vinny Durand as he does play this really creepy character so well that you did end buying into his performance alot of more as it does come of more as an extension of Joe himself with this being something that does make him more of an easy character for Joe to play with him more then acting his socks off and actually making this film alot more watchable then what it would have been if quite literally anyone else was playing that character as he does add in alot of things that make the character feel unique with this being something that does help and shine through in his performance in this film. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
The films character are alot more better then what they really should have been as there some bare amount of thought put into making them feel unique. As Jana is a Hollywood actor who is trying to get her next big film role whilst also trying not to get typecast as a horror actor which is something hat does make her stand out as there aren't any characters like her in horror films with it being helped by the fact that she is made to be this really likable person thanks to Caroline Munro herself being a really likable person and with Vinny we get someone who is clearly suffering from sort of mental illness just trying to reach his dream without him realising that the person that he thinks loves him in truth doesn't know that he even exists in the first place. The film is filled to the brim with characters that on paper do sound like really good characters due to the films scripts being so bad they don't feel like fleshed out characters as again going back to Jana we don't really find out why she's in Cannes one would assume that she's there to promote a movie but the film never really says that and with Vinny the film doesn't actually got that much detail into him as a character this is despite the fact that he is the most interesting character as the film does spend more time with him then it does with Jana and yet he still feels like a flat character but both of those two characters get the gold star treatment when compared to any of this films other characters like for example the character of Brett who is Jana's ex husband the film doesn't give him that much of a personality and yet he plays a big role in the film, there really needed to be more thought and effort put into all of this films characters as on paper they all could have worked as this film does quite clearly have something to say about how obsessive that some fans can be but the film still needed to make it's characters feel more well rounded in order to make this idea work.
For some odd reason this film seems to have this obsession with James Bond as we not only see Vinny attending some sort of event for the film Your Eyes only which doesn't work as Caroline Munro wasn't in that one she was in The Spy Who Loved Me which we even see that Vinny has stills of her from that film. Him attending the For Your Eyes Only event would have made if that was the film that Caroline Munro was in but due to the fat that this film treats all of the films that she did as films that her character did it doesn't make sense as she wasn't in that film and while that is a huge nitpick it is something that James Bond fans will notice right away. On the other hand them showing him attending this event is something that does make sense as Vinny is meant to be this film nerd as we see him go and watch several horror films all throughout the film and it would make sense for that James Bond film to be featured there but it is still weird that they would promote a James Bond film that Caroline Munro isn't in and then just a few shorts scenes later have a scene where we can quite clearly see stills of her from The Spy Who Loved Me with the implication being that all of her films are the films that her character has been in, even with the film being set at Cannes we don't really get to see alot of other real life films as all of the other films that we mainly see Vinny watching seem to be films that were made for this film like how cool would it have been if we saw him watching films like Maniac or even Dracula A.D. 1972 for example yes it would have been a pain to get the rights to show any footage from those films but if your going to have a character watching films at a famous film festival then why not go all the way and get the rights to show as many real life films as you can watch and heck we even see him entertaining a theater that's showing Cannibal Holocaust and yet we don't see any footage from that film.
This film is considered to be partially lost as even tho when the film did get released in 1982 when the film then got released on some America VHS tapes alot of the more gorier scenes where cut from the film with some VHS tapes being the theatrical cut of the film. The VHS tapes that had the theatrical cut of the film chose to keep those scenes whilst the others chose to edit them out this is something that does make this film a partially lost film as alot of the film companies that have since tried released the film on DVD have had a hard time tracking down good quality copies of these scenes with alot of them using VHS rips of those scenes not because they wanted to but because of the fact that those were the only versions of them that they could use. With companies like Troma who released the film on DVD in 2009 for example they had to go back to VHS stocks of the film to try and piece it together which did result in alot of damage to the film something which wasn't picked up until they re-released it on Blu-Ray in 2015 with the closest thing to there being a fully blown reconstruction of the film with good quality images being the 2023 Blu-Ray release by Severin Films as they had used recently found footage of the film to help to bring there cut f the film back to life, it is hard to say if the version of the film that I watched had the missing scenes in it or not as there's no list of the missing scenes but given the fact that I got a warning at the start of the film about there being a drop in quality during a few scenes it's save to ay that I watched the Troma release however this is still a strange case as there is no reason for any of the scenes to be cut AFTER being shown theatrically therefor one has to wonder if the scenes by people who thought that they might possibly offend someone which doesn't make sense as the film had already been shown in cinemas or if there was perhaps another reason for them being cut in the first place.
For some odd reason the ending of this film gets really weird as when we find out that Vinny actually isn't a killer and that the main killer is actually Bret. Bret does then try to kill both Jena and Vinny and when Vinny does kill Bret and is about to be arrested for his murder the film then cuts to black and then reveals that it was just Vinny's film with him watching it with his mother at a private screening this is just a WTF ending as it doesn't make clear if it was only that part of the film that was his actual film or if the film on the whole was his film with the films ending really bringing up alot more questions as it is just such an open ending which is something that would have been fine if the film had been really good with a good mystery of who the killer is but the film doesn't do any of that therefore giving the film this open ending makes no sense. If the makers of this film truly wanted to make us care about the film then they should have gone the extra mile and gave us a good ending that made sense like maybe Vinny still does kill Bret but he doesn't get framed rather he gets to complete his film with Jana agreeing willingly to be in the film only for it to be revealed to be one of his daydreams something which we do see him have all throughout the film with it being revealed that he is in a mental hospital and that he did actually kill of all the people that we see him kill in the film, this is an ending that would allow for Vinny to gave his own sort of happy ending and it also give us the audience a nice little twist and yet for some odd reason the makers of this film instead chose to go the route that makes no sense and that while it does stick with you after its finished it's not for the right reasons as all we're doing is trying to make sense of what happened at the end of the film.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty seven minuets and thirty seven seconds. This is pretty much the bog standard running time that you'd expect a film like this one to have and to be fair this film does work really well with that running time but at the same time tho due to the films really poor and slow pacing you really do feel every single second of this film as the film does feel alot more longer then that with there being alot of scenes with Vinny at the theaters not really adding to the film as they all just hit on the same point over and over again that being that Vinny loves films and that's great for one scene but we don't need to see it several times over all throughout the film we just need to see it the once and that's it with the film having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. The film doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to dully develop its plot as the film barely focuses on it's plot in the first place this is despite the fact that the idea of a stalker stalking his favorite film star halfway across the world is a really good and creepy idea but there still needs to be things added to the plot to make it feel more developed and more thought with the makers of this film caring more about giving us pointless dream sequences then they are in giving us a well developed plot. The same thing is also true for the films lack of character development as none of the films characters get any kind of character development which if this film was meant to be a dumb direct to VHS slasher film would be understandable but this film isn't trying to be that its trying to be the next big slasher film and yet there's clearly no thought and no effort put into making the characters in this film appear to be well developed characters and yet this is something should have absolutely have been in the film as it would have helped to make the film be all the more memorable to watch with it being clear as day that the makers of this film cared more about showing Vinny watching fake movies then they did about giving us well thought and developed characters but I really will admit that this film really did have some really bad pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a slasher film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Heck you could make the point that the films kills are the film does shine it's brightest as they are some really fun and creative kills with the kills being where the films confusing ending does somewhat make them better as now we are left wondering who it was that did actually kill these people in the first place and what the killers actual goal was in the first place but in saying this tho the films kills do work just as well without the films confusing ending. With the films being best kill being the "death" of Bret as near the start of the film he does actually get killed of in a really gruesome fashion as even tho he only gets his throat slit what makes it gruesome is the fact that Jana then comes to his hotel to look for him with her then discovering his supposed dead body with his head then popping clean off of his body and landing in the bathroom sink next to him with this bein the kind of over the top kill that a film like this one really should have had as you look at a film like this and you do expect there to be alot of over the top kills and yet it's only this kill that gives you exactly that and it works because of it and while the films ending does undo this kill the fact that it was featured in this film in the first place does show us that the audience the makers of this film really did know how to craft a really good and gruesome kill with the rest of the films kills being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is really hard to judge as alot of the things that are bad about the film could very well be chalked to them being in Vinnies film but when all is said and done this is a film that is best left forgotten as the ending is really confusing and the film itself just isn't that memorable of a film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Amazon . Co . UK , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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