Search - The Hamiltons - After Dark Horror Fest on DVD

Sean S. (Phishman) from SOUTHAMPTON, MA
Reviewed on 12/19/2010...

This movie was horrible. Acting was bad, writing was bad, production values were bad.

The premise is good and this had potential to be a very good movie but it was certainly not executed.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Sarah H. (psychogurl13) from CROSSVILLE, TN
Reviewed on 4/24/2009...

Personally, this is my favorite film to come from the After Dark Horrorfest. Not at all what I expected it to be. Definitly not your average vampire movie.

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Finally...

Mr. Richard K. Weems | Fair Lawn, NJ USA | 06/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have written reviews for almost every After Dark Horror Fest release so far (to be honest, this is #6), and this is my highest rating so far. Before I tell you what I like about this one, let me tell you what I wasn't liking about the others:

I have great hope in horror movies, because it seems that this genre might be one of the most visceral mainstays of creativity in the movie business nowadays. The essence of that creativity is its accessibility--it seems that just about anyone can make a horror movie (and does). They are famously low budget, and many big names have made their starts in horror movies--two of the most famous now would be Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. And horror movies don't have to be high-grossing to be famous--just go on eBay and find tons of stuff relating to 'cult' movies, movies that maybe only ever saw the light of day in local theatres or on video, but spread by word of mouth (and, let's face it, drunken parties) over years until they became famous. Also, I think horror movies are wonderful for being able to reinvent themselves--horror movie makers are for the most part very well versed in horror, so while some may make run-of-the-mill horror, there are those who make horror movies that acknowledge the long history before them and stack themselves on top of that tradition either by playing with the form (as in Shaun of the Dead) or bring it down to its most visceral roots of splatter, gore and fun (as in The Evil Dead).

I was hoping for either of these in spades with the HorrorFest movies, but unfortunately, many of them were reminding me that there are also a lot of crap horror movies in the world, and that sometimes people get their friends together and make a horror movie because they just don't have the talent or creativity to make anything good, so they just work up on old formula. A lot of HorrorFest films were being little more than the usual formula in a new setting, doing the usual formula without bringing anything new to it (the ones that mostly come to mind for this were Dark Ride - After Dark Horror Fest, Penny Dreadful - After Dark Horror Fest and Unrest - After Dark Horror Fest).

This film, however, was the first one I watched without continually checking the elapsed time or getting the urge to fast forward through the obvious parts. This is also a film that is served well by its preview, a rare thing, for of late I have been finding a lot of previews to be either lies or giving away too much and thus making the movie less interesting to see.

This film is probably best summarized as a mixture of American Beauty (Widescreen Edition) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Two-Disc Ultimate Edition). The Hamiltons are four children who have been orphaned and are left to fend for themselves. Part of this fending for themselves involves the murder of transients and the housing of bodies, live and dead, in their basement. There is also a mysterious creature, Lenny, locked up in their basement as well. David, the oldest, tries to be the authority figure, while the twins, Darlene and Wendell, are the wild guns of the family and constantly threaten to act impetuously and reveal the secret that David has been working hard to keep in the family.

Francis, the adolescent, is unfortuantely going through his own rebelliousness and his own family squabbles over murder and kidnapping. This makes for a dynamic that is very driving and not dependent on a heavy wading through the usual 30-minute lead-up before the blood starts flying. This film might depend a little too much on a twist ending which didn't seem necessary or all that surprising (I am not going to spoil it here, though I think some other reviews here already did), for the drive of this movie is to see how this family works and what goes wrong and how they get through their lives with their secret or 'disease,' as Francis calls it, but the conflicts and the challenges they all go through are interesting and bring monster (and monster family) genre to a new height. There is of course an innocent social worker who has no idea of the kind of family he is working with, and Darlene has a friend who future does not look too bright, but this kind of predictability is only secondary to the dynamics among these kids, whose lives have been taken to extraordinary heights, so they must respond in like.

So far, this is one of the best Horror Fest movies that I've seen. I still have two more, so I'm hoping that I just started on the wrong end of the list and have a couple more decent movies to get through.
"

Boring with a capital BORE

Jeff Eastwood | New Orleans, LA USA | 05/27/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Amaturish acting, lame dialouge and worst of all, NOT SCARY! I've seen home movies that were more suspenseful."

THE HAMILTONS: Fun with the Horror Genre

Travis Stevens | Los Angeles | 02/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"THE HAMILTONS is a horror film directed by filmmakers who want to play with our perception of what a horror film is.

Sure, the filmmakers dress the walls of their basement cage with big wet splatters of blood, and bind their victims with tape and chain...but at the end of the day The Butcher Brothers care more about exploring the relationships between our family of orphan killers than the plight of the victims held down below. This is not a movie where some dumb teenagers go some out of the way place, do something "wrong" and then get hunted by crazed maniacs.

It is a movie about a good looking family that moves into your town--hardworking and on hardluck that just happen to have your daughter chained up in their basement. It is this reason that THE HAMILTONS was one of the most recognized indie horror films of 2006 and most certainly one of, if not the best, of the AfterDark Horror Fest: 8 Films to Die For.

Featuring charming and often times hilarious performances by a talented cast the movie is a smart, fun, critique of American family values, what consitutes a family, and the dangers of letting adolescence blossom outside of a well constructed and tightly chained box.

A real treat."