LIVING HELL

Frank Sears discovers a top-secret project in a military base and from this learns about a creature, similar to a plant, that feeds on light and energy and continues to grow, engulfing and destroying everything in its path. While the army prepares to fight, in a completely ineffective way, the advance of the creature, and people try to escape its unstoppable path, Frank will discover that the origin of this Evil has to do with his own past and with his greatest fear. "Living Hell" is the second of the three films produced by Robert Kurtzman for home video to arrive in our country, after the disastrous slasher "Buried Alive", an anthem to incompetence and lack of ideas of apocalyptic proportions. The writer hoped that at least with "Living Hell" Kurtzman had spent his money on a project worthy of being supported, but it is disappointing to note that this time too the former guru of special effects and now an occasional director has failed miserably. Directed by Richard Jefferies, screenwriter of the watchable "Oscure Presenze a Cold Creek", "Living Hell" seems to want to pay homage to the B-movies of invasion of the 50s-60s with today's means, but the goal was not reached at all, as no one needed a demented and vegetable version of "Blob", both the original and the beautiful remake of the 80s by Chuck Russell. Yes, because instead of the gelatinous substance we have this mysterious plantiform being (long live neologisms), but otherwise we move quietly within the coordinates of the cult movie mentioned above. The creature grows out of proportion minute by minute, engulfing and destroying everything it encounters on its path. Useless the attempts of the army, the cities are evacuated and blah blah blah, all by the book. Result: the viewer gets bored quickly not only because of the predictability of a story already seen and reviewed thousands of times, but also because of the total lack of narrative tension, a television direction, poorly characterized characters and, last but not least, bad CGI special effects. If you don't have the means to make a movie and you are not able to make up for it with smart ideas, let's avoid making the movie, please, because if the results have to be those of "Living Hell" no one will miss it. It is indeed evident that after the first half hour no one knows where to go anymore and precisely for this reason the film falls into repetitiveness and clichés, the suspense suddenly drops (assuming it ever made its appearance) and the characters seem to move like puppets without really understanding what is happening on screen. Thus, a plot that is already quite thin is diluted in ninety minutes without attraction that, for the record, are not boring for the lack of rhythm (because the plant makes a mess) but simply because everything takes place without great upsets, without capturing the imagination and attention of the viewer. Everything goes smoothly, but there is nothing that can remain in the viewer's memory once the film is over. Blame a script lacking ideas and that fires all its few bullets too quickly, stereotypical characters (and enough with the brain-atrophied military!!!) and a direction really too but too television-like. A beautiful photography is saved, unfortunately ruined by CGI interventions that do not manage to link convincingly with the context, and a rather dark and claustrophobic final section with a disturbing charge not to be underestimated. Precisely this is what is frustrating: "Living Hell" works decently at the beginning and at the end, but everything in between is pure emptiness of ideas and inability to create the right tension. The cast is certainly not among the strong points of the film, but at the same time it does not sink further a product already too polite (very little blood, minimal violent details) that can (must) pass unnoticed without anyone missing it. If you really want to see a horror with an angry plantiform monster, go for the disturbing "Rovine" and if you are in the mood for the B-movies that were, go back to watch "Blob" or, to stay on the vegetable theme, "The Day of the Triffids". Try again, Kurtz!!!