Independent Film Reviews

Paradise Lost

Posted on 13. Oct, 2007 by Tom in New Release DVD

If your anything like the party-hard teenagers in Paradise Lost, back-packing through Brazil may sound like heaven. Although, just like their trip, this film left me in the same state as half the cast. Cold and Physically Empty. Quoted by a forgettable horror magazine as “better than Hostel” i can only hope i misread the quote instead of “better than a youth hostel” although, even that i find offensive.

Paradise Lost markets itself as an “edge-of-the-seat” ultra gorey horror. I swear, i must have blinked and missed the horror. The version of the film i watched was also advertised as the “extreme” edition, featuring only one scene i would classify as “gorey”, oooh a girls insides, i have seen worse on ER. No really, I have…

The story goes(this wont take long) some american tourists meet some british tourists in Brazil, get stranded, taken out into a house in the middle of nowhere, and guess what happens. No, They dont all die, that would of made the film slightly more entertaining, Infact, i dont remember how many die but it clearly wasn’t enough.

As i said Paradise Lost cleverly pretends to be a Horror slasher, when in reality it lets down in this deparment, acting more of an advertisment for holidays in Brazil (Lots of drink, lots of very “free” women). Even after the film turns its “horror mode” on i can only vaguely remember one scene that could be excused as horror.

Another major disappointment was the way the film was edited. Technically the shots were nothing special, but they were comprehendable. This was then coupled by an editor who didn’t think to watch the film through once he had finished. Characters vanished mid-scene, then turned up again later on. It made viewing a joke.

I fail to see how it managed to pick-up as many rave reviews as it did, it is an abysmal horror and a boring thriller.

Cast-Away meets ER 3/10

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Tags: Bad Editing, Horror, Paradise Lost