CRADLE OF FEAR

While a police officer investigates a demon who commits brutal murders to honor Satan, four stories are told. In the first, a dark girl ends up in bed with the aforementioned demon, who impregnates her with a monstrous and repulsive creature. In the second episode, two thieves end up in a whirlwind of blood during a botched robbery. The third chapter is about a man who decides to replace his leg with that of a poor boy; the "transplant" succeeds, but... In the final story, a sadistic web technician becomes addicted to a site (obviously paid) where you can decide how to torture a person and watch the carnage live. Shot in high-resolution digital, this independent film (and not amateur, as someone might think) is born from the meeting between the English underground director Alex Chandon and the singer Dani Filth of the metal group "Cradle of Filth" (who plays the demon that ties the various episodes) and relies on a professional staging, mainly consisting of good photography (derived from music videos, one of the activities with which Chandon makes a living) and the use of the video camera. The latter, in fact, realizes shots worthy of Sam Raimi that influence greatly the final result. The various episodes are of unequal quality, some a bit predictable, and the plot in general is nothing sophisticated or innovative, but what seems to count for the director is the purely visual aspect of the film, and it must be said that the thing, within its limits, has succeeded. The performers, on the other hand, are quite convincing, although some are not the maximum of expressiveness, a common characteristic of many underground films and not only. The special effects in general are good, although some, made in digital, due to the miserable budget, are quite rough (an example above all, the scene of the car accident in the third episode). Nothing to object instead regarding the gore effects, copious and generally well done, although in some scenes "the makeup" is a bit too obvious. On the field of citations, the examples are several, "Alien" first of all; a special mention must be made for the fourth episode, which, clearly inspired by "Videodrome", anticipates "Paura.com", a film made a year later and with much more money. In short, a nice film, not a masterpiece, but that is watched with pleasure. Perhaps it would deserve half a skull more.