If you have any experience with the production company 'Necrostorm', the chances are that you are aware of what you are getting yourself into when you sit down to watch one of their films. With that in mind, I would love nothing more than to be a fly on the wall for someone's first watch introduction to this production company. To say that the graphic nature of the content is at times difficult to watch, would be an understatement.
'Nercrostorm' is an Italian production company that specialises in splatter fest horror movies. Yet, what's particularly interesting about 'Little Necro Red' is that this is filmed in London, with English-speaking actors as opposed to their usual Italian with English language dubbing. Surprisingly, this was more jarring for me than the usual Italian language and location I have come to know. Having this style of film take place in the UK with English actors distracting, I think the foreign cinema aspect of this company's films made the violence feel somewhat more excusable in a way.
This is both written and directed by frequent 'Necrostorm' collaborators, Giulio De Santi and Tiziana Machella, and whilst the direction is competent enough and showcases some interesting editing techniques, the writing, on the other hand, is less than desirable. The plot of this film is something that takes quite sometime to even get the slightest grasp of what is going on and I genuinely struggled to keep focused on characters and their place withing the plot. However, if I am being completely honest, based on my previous experience with these films I never came to this film expecting anything more.
The practical effects are what this company prides themselves on. Having seen a number of their films now I can safely say that they are only getting better with time, making 'Little Necro Red' at times difficult to watch. One thing that always draw my attention to these films was how low budget and creative the effects where, they are now getting to the point where they are so realistic its quite stomach churning in some places. I'm not sure that this level of realism is what I want from this company. Its amateur aspect was always so endearing to me and whilst that quality is still there in places, some of it is rather uncomfortable to watch.
The acting is competent enough and probably one of the more convincing efforts I've seen from these films. I would say the lead role is shared between both Victoria Hopkins who plays Angela and Lucy Drive who plays Diane. Neither of whom delivers anything exceptional, yet, for the standard of film they are staring in, I found them both to do a competent enough job, especially that of Hopkins. We even get a breif (but welcomed) cameo from Rayner Bourton who voices Frank Zimosa in the 'Hotel Inferno' series. Bourton is in heavy prosthetics as Detective Costa, but instantly recognisable by his voice work in other films from this company's umbrella.
This honestly isn't a film I can comfortably recommend to anyone who doesn't have any prior knowledge of the 'Necrostorm' production company. This ultra graphic splatter fest is nothing more than a showcase for the amazing practical effects this studio is capable of. It is very limited in terms of its storytelling capability, yet as someone who can appreciate the talent and effort that goes into making low budget effects like this, I find it mesmerising. 'Hotel Inferno' is the most accessible movie of theirs that I have seen to-date, I personally would recommend starting there and if you like that, than check out the rest of their back catalogue.
💀💀1/2
Comments