SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Simon Williams Essentially if you've watched the far superior Frontier(s), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or really any slashes film that revolves around a family of cannibalistic nutcases butchering their hopeless victims you've seen Macabre.It's not necessarily bad, i found myself feeling underwhelmed a lot of the time. I feel it's because i didn't really care about any of the characters , they're just coffin fodder, which is fine but it doesn't make for a particularly interesting horror film.If you're just looking for something that has a fair amount of blood and some entertaining gore then sure it's a way to a few hours, but really why watch this when you can watch the films mentioned above.Aside from the plot, the characters make incredibly stupid decisions throughout which doesn't help you feel invested in their story at all, essentially i'd say this, i own it in my collection, it's not bad enough to sell but it's not good enough to rush to watch again anytime soon.It's fun, It's stupid, It's average....and a little Macabre i suppose.

Maddis I it, there were moments of fun but if you have seen Inside or Frontiers, you will instantly recognize the elements "reimagined" from both. This is the Indonesian version of those two movies with some nice gore but unfortunately not much originality. I would imagine if this was new to some, it could stand as a worthy horror entry but just pales in comparison to the films from which it borrowed. So, recommended but with an asterisk at the bottom.Frontiers was no doubt a French take on Texas Chainsaw but there were enough nuance elements to make it interesting - the Nazi bloodline, the pigs, the original death scenes all made it entertaining. Inside, IMO, was simply brilliant. Awash in a blood soaked homage to a female Michael Michaels stalking a pregnant women in her home, it had several cringe worthy contrived plot devices (the cops for God sakes!), but it manages to pull off a sympathetic antagonist at the end.Now back to Macabre...one thing they did well was to inject some humor and male machismo into an otherwise derivative plot. The idea is of course to make you forget reality and this movie will do that. The blood soaked walls and carnage that remains at the end somewhat discredits the supposed craziness of the family given how meticulously clean and white everything is in the beginning scenes of the home. If you are a horror fan, don't miss it. If you are a fan with international taste, you may be a bit turned off by the repeated themes and copied scenes throughout.Maddis

Simonster One of the highlights of my Cannes 2010 festival, Macabre dishes up the deaths in very assured and bloodily violent form. In a nutshell: 6 young people end up trapped in a house with a very nasty matriarch and her equally nasty offspring. Yes, there is a reason why the baddies do what they do, but you need to see the film for that!It's true, as has already been posted here, Macabre does not break any new ground and perhaps jaded palettes will find little here to their taste, but like a well engineered German car, the film delivers the goods in messy style. Breaking with, say, the US tradition, those whom you think would or deserve to survive, do not, nor does the order of their going follow typical genre rules. Unlike in British horror films there is also no humour to alleviate the situation, although local audiences will clearly get a laugh from the stupidly bumbling police - I found them overplayed and irritating - who fortunately also provide more fodder for the maniacs!

ebossert There were a few things that kept me from putting "Macabre" (2009) on my high priority list. This movie is a feature length spin-off of the "Darah" short film that was originally part of the horror anthology entitled "Takut: Faces of Fear" (2008). I wasn't particularly fond of the short film. It had some good violence but the protagonists irritated me a bit too much (especially their moronic decision-making). Obviously, I put off watching the spin-off for months. Another factor is that I'm still timid with regards to Indonesian horror films due to the scarce number of online reviews and ratings that make the selection process analogous to walking in a mine field. There's really no way to predict whether you're in for an instant classic like "The Forbidden Door" (2009), a cool flick like "Kuntilanak" (2006), or a total turd bomb like "Hantu Perawan Jeruk Purut" (2008).I finally ended up watching "Macabre" tonight and I must say that it was more entertaining than I thought it would be. Within the opening five minutes I already felt at ease once I saw the lovely Julie Estelle grace the screen. Even when she's in a bad movie like "Kuntilanak 2" (2007) she still makes it somewhat watchable, so her unexpected presence automatically raises my rating of this film by 1 or 2 points. Now, fans of Julie's ghost movies are in for a shocking experience when watching "Macabre" because her role here demands a much more physical, emotional performance. She pulls it off very well and this is likely the best performance of her young career.The plot is basic and involves a group of friends who help a young woman by giving her a ride to her home. Things get nasty when her family turns out to be homicidal maniacs. In this sense "Macabre" follows a similar route taken by films such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) and "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003). There's nothing new here, but in this genre it's the execution that counts and in this film there's a healthy dose of gritty, nasty, bloody violence and gore to keep most horror fans satisfied. It doesn't reach the glorious blood overload of "Inside" (2007) (one of my top 10 favorite horror films of the decade), but it holds its own. After the brief setup this is a non-stop mix of suspense and bloodshed. A few of the death scenes are certainly memorable and will help "Macabre" to carve out it's own little identity in the genre.One major problem that I have with loony, murderous family movies is obnoxious antagonists. Just because you're a ruthless, sick family unit doesn't mean that you have to yap your mouths all the time and act like juvenile lunatics. (One of the reasons why I'm not a huge fan of Rob Zombie's movies.) I much prefer the quiet, intelligent, menacing killers who calculate and go about their business with a twisted calmness. You know, the seemingly normal folk that are serving you tea and biscuits one minute and then slicing you in half with a chainsaw the next minute. In "Macabre" that's exactly what they are, and in some ways those quieter qualities help to muffle the bad decision-making that frequently creeps its head in movies such as this. What I mean by this is that the intelligent antagonists quickly handicap the protagonists, which limits their options and creates an entirely realistic scenario. The filmmakers loosen the reigns later on though and eventually the sense of realism recedes until you're left with some unrealistic elements. There are a few bone-headed decisions, but not enough to significantly detract from the positives. In addition, some of these characters take an incredible amount of brutality without kicking the bucket. On the positive side this provides for some long-lasting showdowns as well as some sweet death scenes."Macabre" is definitely worth seeking out, and would make a great Indonesian horror triple feature with "The Forbidden Door" (2009) and "Kuntilanak" (2006). Actually, you can add "The Raid" (2011) and "The Raid 2" (2014) as well to mix up the evening with some fantastic martial arts action.