 |
DVD Death and Cremation
 Run time: 86 min Rating: 5.9 Genres: Thriller Director: Justin Steele Writers: Alecc Bracero, Justin Steele Stars: Brad Dourif, Jeremy Sumpter, Scott Elrod |
| Storyline In a typical American suburb filled with middle class morals, a lonely 59-year-old, Stan, contributes to society by offering cremation services from his basement. In fact, Stan murders neighbors he perceives to be social bullies. Jarod, a fatherless 17-year-old high school outcast, lands an after-school job in Stan’s cremation house and the two develop an unusual working relationship that quickly evolves into a partnership. As detective Matt Fairchild puts together clues from local disappearances, Stan must decide if protecting his newfound trainee is worth killing for. Written by AJI Productions |
|
| Plot Keywords: cremation, bully, crematorium | |
| Details: Country: USA Release Date: 10 October 2010 (USA) |
|
DVD Death and Cremation
previous post
4 comments
In Smith County, the lonely owner of the Stanley Crematory is a deranged psychopath that kills bullies and cremates their bodies. The also lonely outcast teenager Jarod Leary (Jeremy Sumpter) misses his father Robert Leary and lives with his mother Martha Leary (Debbon Ayer) in a trailer. He is daily bullied at the Banyon High School by David Valentine (Blake Hood) and his gang.
When the brother-in-law of Bill Weaver (Daniel Baldwin) dies of AIDS, he goes to the funeral home with his wife Becky (Staci Keanan) and their daughter Lindsey (Kate Maher) to research the costs, but Stan (Brad Dourif) does not give much attention to the family. Lindsey curses him and then she plays a prank on Jarod at school. Sooner Stan kidnaps and cremates Lindsey and Detective Matt Fairchild (Scott Elrod) from the Police Department is assigned to investigate the case of missing person. Meanwhile, Jarod asks for a job to Stan and they get close to each other.
When Jarod gets beaten up by David, Stan decides to protect Jarod and abducts David and cremates him. Jarod learns Stan's secret and decides to get rid off the arrogant lawyer Rick Waters (Sam Ingraffia) that is dating his mother. But the neophyte Jarod panics and commits mistakes and Stan decides to fix the problem of his protégé.
"Death and Cremation" is a slash-movie about bullying and cremation that is not as bad as the IMDb User Rating indicates. The story is flawed; the one dimension characters are poorly developed with the exception of Jared. The motives of Stan has become a psychopath should be better explained. However, this genre usually is more interested in the deaths than in well-developed characters. In the end, I liked this underrated film. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "O Crematório" ("The Crematory")
Death and Cremation is the story of a embittered teenage outcast who finds an unlikely friend in the owner and operator of Stanley Cremations. Stanley, it would seem, likes to heat up his oven to rid the town of bullies.
The movie, made for cable, is quite well made. As with any movie you'll be asked to excuse a few logic gaps and enjoy the ride. It isn't a new thing for a movie to ask you to sympathize with a killer but this one, at least from this reviewer's point of view, does well in that respect.
Brad Dourif, a veteran character actor with an impressive resume, is given the starring role and hits it out of the park! Dourif has never been insincere in his performances and this is no exception. The young actor playing his protégé was quite good, as well.
Try to catch this one! If you're a purist, however, the DVD is pan and scan.
I've never heard of this film, but my experiences watching Brad Dourif getting his creep on, convinced me to have a look. I was not disappointed, generally speaking, although I would have to say it would've been a better film with more talent behind the cameras.
The cast did a descent job, particularly Jeremy Sumpter as the veteran serial killer Dourif's apprentice psycho. He portrayed a disillusioned teen who couldn't connect with the world on many levels, and finds his eventual place sharing his mentor's penchant for exacting his own brand of justice on his unfeeling fellow man.
I would've given it another star – for a B horror movie, mind you – if the direction had been a little tighter, and the strained moments of our troubled teen had been a little better written. It does stumble along now and then.
Like I said, even the bit actors did a believable job backing up the main characters, and those efforts made for a good film. The cop character was the only genuinely weak link in the cast. The actor was a pretty boy, clearly chosen for that chiseled heroic look, rather than his acting talent.
Brad Dourif plays Stan, an unkempt, spotty-faced 59 year old loner with a bizarre pastime. He kills people he doesn't like. Just like that and doesn't think any more about it.
Someone says something to him and he doesn't like what they've said, it's over their head with a baseball bat, then straight with the body in the furnace at the Crematorium where he works. It's comical in a way, but also grizzly.
Step forward Scott Elrod who plays Matt, another loner and high school outcast, who strikes up a curious friendship with Stan. Matt starts work at the Crematorium and well things gather pace. I will say no more, so not to spoil the film. But be prepared for some twists and turns.
* I really liked this film. The friendship between Stan and Matt is intriguing, for as strange as it may seem Stan is the father figure Matt doesn't have.
There's blood. There's gore, but the movie should have lasted longer. The end is a slight disappointment in my view. But I expect you'll come to your own conclusions.
I gave this film 8 out of 10. Its current IMDb rating is far too low in my view. Maybe not enough people have seen it.