User reviews

The plot of 7EVENTY 5IVE involves college kids who play a cruel phone game that unexpectedly (to them, if not to fans of horror) gets them in over their heads. The STORY of 7EVENTY 5IVE, on the other hand, is that of a horror film that had a wee little bit of promise, sadly outweighed by really bad writing.

What could have been a fun, if somewhat silly, old-fashioned slasher tale is derailed early on by its filmmakers' misguided belief that the audience would enjoy watching a bunch of loud, whiny rich kids bitching at each other for most of the film's running time. With the exception of a police detective played by Rutger Hauer, (in a minor role that is designed mainly to add the movie's only star power) every character on screen is a different breed of young A-hole.

Male and female, black and white, straight and gay, an entire ensemble of shallow and shrill college kids carries the bulk of the film's narrative. Worse, since the tale deals with a PARTY game gone awry, most of the time the scenes are completely filled with these little b*****ds. Because of this, there are few breaks for the viewer, who must put up with the angry sniping of the thinly-drawn protagonists. Even though at least some of these people are supposedly friends, invariably all characters interact in a very hostile manner, long before any genuine conflict has actually arisen. This leads to the worst possible result in a slasher film: The audience, intended to care about the leads, instead not only cheers on the anonymous killer, but wishes that he had arrived to start picking off the vacuous brats far earlier.

The real shame of this poor characterization is that otherwise 7EVENTY 5IVE actually DID have some potential. Visually it's fine. First-time directors Brian Hooks and Deon Taylor know how to build a suspenseful mood. They also manage to deliver on some competent, if sparse, moments of classic 80s-style gore. Surprisingly, the production's cast is also fairly able. It isn't that the actors aren't capable of expressing realistic human emotion; it is simply that the screenplay (co-written by newcomer Vashon Nutt and director Hooks, who fared much better behind the camera than with a keyboard) is short of such moments.

7EVENTY 5IVE can hardly be recommended, as its familiar premise and few thrills can't outweigh the bad taste left behind by a story driven by a gaggle of unpleasant characters. In this tepid whodunnit, the real mystery is why anyone should care about a group of young folk who can't even manage to like each other.

Everything about this movie is standard stuff. Except for a few points. First, the killer in the first five minutes doesn't seem to have much motivation. Second, there are some really strange scenes. There are two scenes back to back that seemed to exist to promote condom use. It almost came across like it was product placement, although the idea may have been to insert a moral into the movie. Third, some of the characters are nearly offensive in how stereotypical they are. There's a gay character that exists to talk in a stereotyped fey voice. There are two black guys who talk and behave in a stereotyped "black guy" style.

There's nothing compelling about the movie, but aside from these things, there's also nothing worth looking for.

This movie has a quite good promising concept for a genre movie. It's a slasher in which lots of people are getting killed randomly by a serial killer. Like many genre movies before the movie uses phone-calls as its main concept. It's something which always works out well for horror/thriller movies. Nothing wrong with the phone-class but everything else about the movie is just way below par.

I purely watch these kind of movies because of Rutger Hauer. Even though the movies are always horrible, his presence still gives the movies always something special. But like always, his role is far too small. Perhaps if he was the main lead the movie would still had been more bearable. It now is as if he plays in a totally different movie himself and has nothing to do with the main plot-line of the movie. Like his scenes were shot at a totally different phase of production. I bet he never ever even met most of the other actors and crew members involved with the movie.

One of the movie its problem are its characters. The movie is a slasher, so of course it features a bunch of university students, played of course by a bunch of actors who are close to- or even older than 30 years already. None of them are however likable or memorable. They are basically all the same and a bunch of typical stereotypes. I don't even know who all these characters were and what their names were. There are just too many characters in it and most of them are just asking to be killed.

The movie its story also just doesn't ever seem to get off the ground. The first halve of the movie is filled with many false scares. Way too many. The scare moments of the movie because of this start to become really ineffective. It even makes the movie more comical like at times than an horror movie. Not sure if this was the point of it all. It was Brian Hooks first and as of yet only directed movie. Besides that he also played the main lead and served as a producer and writer for the movie. He's obviously not the most talented person around in the business.

When the movie becomes more of a slasher and horror/thriller movie the movie becomes more watchable to watch for the genre fans, despite being formulaic and predictable with it all. No, it's just not the most exciting or scary genre movie around but there are also definitely worse of out there. The genre fans should be able to appreciate some of the gore and violence of the movie.

The movie soon however starts to get worse again as it heads toward its ending, when the movie is trying to be clever by trowing a couple of twists (what else is new?), which are just too far out there and don't work out well for the movie as a whole.

5ive/10en

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

5 minutes into this movie I was hyperventilating, shaking, and writhing in pain. And not in the good way. The story is about a troupe of idiotic children making prank phone calls to a psycho which is always a good idea. Turns out psychos don't like prank phone calls because in 2 minutes time he's at their door killing poor Williams mom and dad. Well skip ahead 15 years and guess what? Still prank phone calling people. Yep you would of thought that a horrible murder would of deterred them from doing that ever again but no. So after about two hours later and way too many scream ripoffs I realized that this movie gave me nothing but a terrible taste in my mouth and a severe urge to take my own life. This piece of crap isn't even worth laughing at the shoddy production, the "acting", or Rutger haurs dwindling career. I love crappy horror movies but this is the most unsatisfying piece I've ever seen. Just don't.

Here we go with other slasher movie, Good looking people and Acting from everyone was really good!

Few kids playing pranks phones calls and there parents are killed by the killer in front of the kids! 20 Years after they are still friends, They go to huge house, have fun, Drugs and Sex (no nudity) for least half a hour of the movie! Again they start making pranks phone call all over again! and then killer comes back kills them off one by one and killer is in BIG BLACK COAT with axe just like Urban Legend movie,

Deaths scene really weird, really odd times too.

Nice slasher movie at this part would gave 7/10 but the twist at the end of the movie made the whole movie kinda of pointless

The twist killed the movie for me so I going to give it 4/10

This was great, it took me back to being a kid and going to see all those 80's horror flicks! No its not an original concept but really how many of those are left? Nothings original in Hollywood. It's just a straight forward lots of blood, a bit of a storyline slasher flick.

As for caring about the characters, are we supposed to? To me a slasher flick is supposed to be full of one dimensional characters that can be cut into tiny pieces every couple minutes. It's pure fun!

Rutger does a good job in his small role, just enough to add a bit of seriousness to the film but not enough to make you think too much and with a slasher do you really want to think? Naw.

There are times when you want a horror movie to be genuinely frightening ---if this is one of those times for you, you might want to hang up on Dead Tone. It's just not that type of slasher. It's more of the get-a- bunch-of-your-friends-together-throw-stuff-at-the-screen-and-play- drinking-games kind of a slasher.

I've never thought ultra-graphic horror was that frightening...in movies, that is, especially on-a-budget outings like this. Kind of like the shark in Jaws, the closer you get to it, the less horrific it seems. The killer in Dead Tone wears a hooded ski parka and wields an axe, so the kills are violent, but you see them coming for seconds before they hit. From that point on, it's just a matter of how bad the effects suck.

Still, Dead Tone ain't a total snooze. Given the lack of thrills, marginal to bad acting, and zero character development, all that's really left to make this watchable is "how serious are the directors taking this?" Turns out, not very...and that's good.

There's the standard rest-stop sequence, where the "crew" (a multi-culti Benneton crew, of course) stops to take a bathroom break, and that whole scene --- toothless redneck from hell clerk, mega-blasted "fright" music cues at the stupidest moments --- really works. When this film is lampooning the genre and itself, it's the best and brightest.

Sadly, though, those moments are few and far between. There are a lot of visual and scripted call-backs to other, better slashers (Urban Legend, Black Christmas, etc.) that prove the filmmakers weren't just rubes. But they didn't quite have a handle on what they wanted to do, and the film as a whole suffers for it.

Oh yeah, a postscript: Rutger Hauer is the brand-name star here, playing the usual doggerel cop role, and looking barely engaged enough to make camera contact. One mystery at least solved: I wondered how he managed to tumble down the long road to something like the rancid "Hobo With a Shotgun"...this is a telling detour.

This film is an incredibly mixed bag of a horror movie. It is y scenes, but not enough of them to actual credit the movie with good writing. The opening is pretty stupid, and feels like something a 12 year old would think up as a scary opening.

A huge problem with this movie that goes against slasher formula, is that none of the women are good looking at all. Normally they are just cast to look nice on screen and less for their actual acting ability. However, the women in this movie are neither good looking, or able to act.

Rutger Hauer is in the movie for around 10 minutes worth, though he does not really move the plot forward at all. It felt more like he owed someone a favor and was written into the film to reach a larger viewing base. He does a decent enough job with having no good dialogue. He just intensely stares into the camera, which is scarier than any of the actual horror moments the film presents.

After the initial characterizations, when the killer finally shows up, the film really gets going. The special effects are not that good, but it still presents us with enough fun to make it memorable. I had a good time watching this movie and if you are a fan of slashers, this will definitely pass the time. Has a nice conclusion as well.

The Good- Fun slasher, decent enough gore, some funny moments, ending.

The Bad- ugly people, below average acting, bad opening scene.

--- Note: The original name of the movie is '7eventy 5ive'. If you look carefully, you will see that number in various places throughout the film.

When I caught a glimpse of the title I thought are we going to get another try-hard hip slasher, but actually I found "7eventy 5ive" to be a mildly passable, and almost 80s throwback after a tediously slow mid-section it picks up momentum for the final half-hour leading to it's outrageously tacky climax and downright cop out ending. It won't win awards for originality, because it's as systematic as you can get and steals its thunder in the way of thrills (usual cheap jump scares), location (secluded mansion) and motivation from other films. The gleaming direction is by-the-book and the material is quite hackneyed with poorly realised red herrings within its elaborate plotting and flimsy script. Sometimes laughable, but nonetheless I was entertained mainly due to its brutal and grisly acts of pulpy violence towards some rather obnoxiously annoying college students by a psychotic killer with a battle axe. The performances weren't bad in the shape of a spunky young cast, however the characters they were portraying weren't particularly enticing. An always presentable Rutger Hauer shows up in a short supportive role as a grizzled detective. A slickly made, but a shallow and forgettable addition to the fold.

I've seen a lot worse films than this. The cinematography, FX, and sound are just fine. Very good, even. It's the story that's hackneyed and predictable. As for the actors/actresses, they do an OK job with what they've been handed. This is definitely intended for the slasher crowd at the theater, as it really doesn't come across as well on the small screen.

Hauer's role is really no more than an extended cameo. The other actors are interchangeable. After a decent beginning, you'll get a lot of blood, some nudity, and some really anti-social behavior between friends/class-mates.

Again, much better than a lot of the independent junk that's out there. It doesn't hurt to watch it.

Gory and unsettling at times, this movie gives somewhat of an original spin to the slasher sub-genre; however, it fails to expand on the killer's twisted mind and background.

The strongest points are some twists, the varied personalities of the group of youngsters being hunted down and the mansion chosen as the main setting.

This wasn't really a very good movie. There were lots of implausible and predictable things that happened during the course of the film...but I think that most of the reviewers are missing the point of why this movie should be enjoyed by a wide audience. THIS MOVIE WAS PRODUCED BY MAGIC JOHNSON! Isn't that enough to inspire us all to check out this film? A film produced by a former NBA star doesn't come along every day, you know. Beautifully stupid kids in a big house getting slashed by an axe wielding psycho. Every cliché trotted out for us to groan over. Teen sex. And it was all produced by MAGIC JOHNSON! I can't say enough about this movie! Teen drug use! College hijinx! And it was all produced by MAGIC JOHNSON! Yippeeee!