Noutions
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Allison Davies
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Paul Magne Haakonsen
The DVD cover for "Make-Out with Violence" had the 'the year's rom-zom-com' on it, and that is what caught my attention along with a couple of other high praise lines from various magazines and websites. And being the zombie aficionado that I am, I just had to get it and see what it was.And now having seen it, I must say that it wasn't anything at all what I had expected it to be. The movie was incredibly slow moving. That being said, then I am not saying that the movie was bad, because it was really nicely filmed and edited, plus it had a good enough storyline. I, however, had just expected something more from it and more than just one decomposing girl, zombie-wise. And the 'zombie' is more of a backdrop character to help the story along.The story in "Make-Out with Violence" is about two brothers, Patrick (played by Eric Lehning) and Carol (played by Cody DeVos) who is trying to deal with and come to terms with the loss of their close friend Wendy (played by Shellie Marie Shartzer). They happen to come across her body, as it was never found, but Wendy is now a living dead. They bring her to a house, where they try to keep her alive and have something that resemble a life.Actually, the storyline was well put together and worked out well enough, I just had a whole other expectation to what it would be. And as such, I wasn't really enjoying the movie, because it was a drama and not a horror (as the DVD cover had listed as the genre). Don't expect this movie to be a zombie fest, because it only have that one zombie in it.The people they had hired for the various roles were actually doing good jobs with their roles, and they really helped the movie to step up a notch. Most noteworthy, in my opinion, was Eric Lehning; his performance was just incredible.If you enjoy zombie movies that aren't mainstream, then "Make-Out with Violence" might just be something for you. Just bear in mind that it is a drama about the lives of the brothers and their friends and their morbid situation of having a living dead amongst them, and not being a horror zombie movie. It is a beautiful movie, to be honest, but hardly an ordinary zombie movie.
MrGKB
...and that's from the kid who played the little brother in this tedious emo-saturated "drama" (and I use the term loosely) that reminded me of a boring "alternative" comic book transposed to video (think Daniel Clowes only not nearly as clever or involving). I really don't mean to be mean to these people, as I'm sure they meant well, but Syd Field would have torn their script in half after about five pages, and Ted Sturgeon would have simply told them to start over after they had a real story, real actors, and a real budget. This might (and I emphasize might) have made a decent 20-minute short, but stretched to feature length it's simply stultifying. Featuring ostensible twins (the characters, not the actors) with distressingly bad haircuts and the expressiveness and appeal of a bag of rocks (the femme leads totally outclass all the men in this poor thing), and a soundtrack guaranteed to make you switch your allegiance to heavy metal, rap, or even classical music just to rid your system of any trace of unadulterated wimp, this forgettable indie has little, if anything, to say, and very little to show. There are a handful of interesting camera shots, sporadic passable acting (again, pretty much all from the ladies), and precious little else; there's simply nothing to latch onto to hold any interest beyond the fascination of watching a wreck unfold before your disbelieving eyes. A sad squandering of my time, sorry to say, and a bit of my public library's limited resources. Word to the wise, pass this one up and remain lucky to never know what you missed. I'm going to have to go track down "Deadgirl" now, having read the other comments on this board. Surely it's better than this badly titled yawner.
evanston_dad
There are enough stylistic coups to indicate that the creators of "Make-Out with Violence," an uneasy genre-bending tale about twin brothers who are keeping the not-quite-dead (or once but no longer dead) object of the oldest brother's affections on ice in the bathtub of a friend's house, have potential to make a really good movie. However, this isn't that movie. It's not especially bad, but it suffers from a lack of confidence in tone. The writers and directors pitch it somewhere between the deadpan humor of "Napolean Dynamite" and the disturbing surrealism of "Donnie Darko," but don't commit fully in either direction. Therefore, it too often leaves the audience feeling adrift, not sure how we're supposed to be reacting.It doesn't help that the majority of the acting is sub-par, especially that of the actor who has perhaps the most crucial role, Patrick (Eric Lehning), the older (by minutes) brother. Cody DeVos, on the other hand, playing the younger twin Carol, goes a long way if not quite all the way at making up for what Lehning fails to deliver. Leah High, as Addy, love interest for Carol, does some nice work, but Jordan Lehning, as the friend who lends his house to a zombie, and Brett Miller as Beetle, the younger brother of Patrick and Carol who also serves as our narrator, are weak.The film's central conceit -- that Patrick's love for a zombie is a symbol for all the unrequited angst-filled yearnings swirling around this group of almost-adults over the course of a lazy summer -- is a good one, and the movie's not a total wash by a long shot. But mostly it spends its running time being just good enough to make you wish it was better.Grade: B-
koomazaz
'Twas terrible. During it's premiere, people were getting up and leaving. I wanted to. I honestly don't know how it won any awards. It was simply a bloody, gory mess. The story doesn't make much sense at all, and it is just quite plainly strange. I don't know what people saw in this movie, but the girl eats dogs, rats, and a man. Just weird. It is now my duty in life to prevent as many people as possible from watching this terrible movie of crap. I dislike it. I dislike the story. There was really nothing good in the movie, and nothing good that came out of the movie. I highly recommend watching it. It is great in all senses of the word. It was terrible. Don't watch this poop hole.
