Amusement (2009)

Sometimes the job of a reviewer is to watch a film and then warn its intended audience not to. This is one such occasion. Amusement is about three young women and the young man who has become obsessed with them. Through flashbacks we are informed that whilst all four were just children, and attending School together, the three girls managed to land the boy in trouble when he exhibits clear psychopathic behaviour by dissecting and elaborately displaying a small animal. Several years later he stalks and attempts to murder all three of the women, one by one, in order to exact what he feels is justice.

First off, there is simply nothing to like about this movie. The direction is bland, the acting is average, the scares and gore are non-existent and the story and script are dreadful. There is so much about it that just doesn’t make an ounce of sense that I had lost count of the lengthy list of plot-holes even before the halfway mark. There are certain set-pieces that could be described as ambitious but the makers clearly didn’t have the talent, budget or ingenuity to realise them fully. Other scenes feel as though they were thrown together in a single afternoon by people who lacked the talent or even desire to do so.

The movie is split into thirds, each third concentrating on a different girl and the specific way in which the young man stalks and captures them. To say that his methods are needlessly elaborate and completely nonsensical would be an enormous understatement. The fact that the script turns its back so vehemently on any semblance of realism means that the audience are bound to feel detached from the events on screen. There is no one to relate to and the characterisation is so poor that there is no-one to root for so we are left watching each scene play out in a monotonous and tediously uninteresting way and with a kind of disconnected despondency.

The only reason to watch this movie is if you are interested in watching three young and attractive actresses run and scream their way through 85 minutes of turd-tastic, straight-to-DVD bilge. I dare say even the likes of Uwe Boll could have improved on this, at least then we’d have had some decent gore for our buck. Unfortunately though, it’s merely a big fat waste of time. With barely a coherent story to speak of and gaping plot-holes galore from start to finish, the World is an inferior place for housing this piece of absolute garbage. Amusement is neither amusing, nor entertaining in any way. Avoid.

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