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Extreme Entertainment has created a very unique gore masterpiece with "CATACOMBS" and it is unlike any movie making experience any of the cast or crew had ever experienced. The film was shot entirely in the Catacombs Haunted House in Kansas City, MO. The cast and crew were locked in every night that they were on set, and not only were they subjected to the atmosphere and traps set by the Director and his assistants, they were also subjected to facing their own fears as well as the imaginary fears they dream up on any given night. It is also possibly the COLDEST film that extreme Entertainment has ever produced, with the temps being anywhere from 40 to 10 degrees in the old building... no heat, no hot water (sometimes no running water at all) and lots of dirt and dust... the cast realy went through a tough time on the film, but they did a great job and the film turned out to be a very atmospheric and gory Horror flick that should entertain even the most jaded Horror buff.
The story centers around a group of students that are brought
into this controlled environment to study fear. What scares people, how
they react and the cures for certain phobias. Once inside, the people are
preyed upon by a dark figure known only as The Face. His origins and his
true nature are unknown, he commands evil spirits and forces of darkness, and he
want their souls!
"One of the unique things about
Catacombs," Director Todd Sheets says. "Is that you never know what is
real and what isn't. Was the scene you just saw really happening or a part
of the traps and stuff that has been set for the characters in the film... and
that is also true of the way we filmed it. The cast never knew when
something was going to scare the hell out of them."
This is one sick movie. But it's a Todd Sheets film, so that's no surprise. After all, here's a filmmaker who killed off a barely teenage girl by having a sicko hick shoot her between the legs (witness the carnage of Zombie Bloodbath 2). Todd Sheets doesn't pull any punches. He would probably laugh if you referred to I Know What You Did Last Summer as a horror film. I respect his attitude. He's not trying to make movies that will win Oscars -- he's a horror fan trying to make movies that he and other like-minded horror fans will have fun watching.....
In the movie, a handful of easily disposable characters are brought together at a haunted house attraction in Kansas City, Missouri called Catacombs. A university professor (Ari Bavel) is doing a study in fear and has rounded up a group of young locals for a weekend lock-in to discover what really arouses fear and perhaps find ways to help people deal with phobias. Whatever. The setup is just an excuse to get 10 characters locked inside this place so a psycho-killer in a white mask can knock them off one by one.
And believe me, it gets nasty really quick.
There's plenty of sickening disembowelments, a death by electrocution, and a demon-penis episode (uh, don't ask) that might bring you close to losing your lunch. The killer (Mike Gordon) even vomits on one of his victims -- for a long time, it just keeps gushing out -- and that's the scene that turned my stomach the most. There's just something about watching someone vomit that makes me more sick than the goriest disemboweling ever could. That said, Todd Sheets is having a lot of fun slinging all this gore around. If you've seen any of his movies, you're probably familiar with the loving closeups in which he captures all this carnage.
I must admit, though, there is at least one sequence in Catacombs that's kinda nerve jangling in a fun way. After the kids break up into groups (but of course) to explore the place, a blonde girl (Jen Davis, very good here) is separated from the two guys she was with. She starts getting scared, calling out for them while wandering through the dark, creepy corridors, until she winds up being silently stalked by the killer. That sequence alone has more queasy tension packed into it than all of the gore scenes combined.
REVIEW BY Michael Scutchin - Flipside Movie Emporium
Read the Letter
that was given to the cast!
