Sick Product of a Sick System

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A psychopath dressed in an ironworks werewolf costume (while brief glimpses are often all we get, it is quite a really menacing metal wolf creation, with claws of steel even) killed a little girl. Her brother grew up to be a cop, and he is responsible (or so he, and everyone else thinks) for the arrest of the killer (but not before the killer murdered his partner, played by John Rhys-Davies (looking might gaunt)). The killer (or the one we are led to believe is the killer) is sent to the asylum of Dr. Robert Parker (William B Davis, who practically has "sinister" stamped on his forehead), who puts shock collars around the necks of the criminally insane! During a night of hell, the asylum suffers a "power outage", the cells become unlocked, and the loonies are free to roam. Our hero cop (the morose Andrew Cymek, who directed this film), his estranged doc wife (Brigitte Kinglesy), a fellow cop (WWE wrestler Christian), an attorney (Mercedes McNab), and the staff at the asylum (along with a little girl) are trapped in the asylum with the violent patients, with lots of mayhem ensuing. Not bad little low budget asylum horror flick has lots of human monsters on the rampage, including a giant behemoth that actually crushes a security guard's head in his hands, a woman named Mabel who likes to massacre bodies before chopping them up and cooking them (one of the cast gets his throat sliced, then mutilated as Mabel goes through how to cook him up as if a gourmet meal!), and the Wolf serial killer. The surprise regarding who the metal werewolf costume killer is will probably not surprise anyone because the film has a hard time disguising how guilty a particular character looks. The claws on the metalworks arms of the costume resemble Wolverine's adamantine ones and they do some serious damage, penetrating right through a victim who discovers too much when investigating Parker's files. The asylum is darkly lit for obvious foreboding, and the criminals of the film are appropriately ferocious/disturbing/unpleasant. William B Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man of The X Files) just has a hard time escaping typecasting in these kinds of movies; he rarely knows how to not look suspicious. He smirks at one scene when he purposely shocks a patient seemingly for kicks. Cymek casting himself as the hero is a bit much, but he's stoic and of few words, and there's no showboating (he even takes his licks when engaged in fights with nutty patients) involved. Mercedes and Brigitte are babes...Brigitte has a session with Mabel that reminded me of Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct (the way Brigitte crosses her legs in her really short skirt).

The plot: When a system error releases all the prisoners in a high security psychiatric hospital, visitors and staff are hunted down by the most dangerous patients, including a newly arrived serial killer.By any standard, this is a terrible movie. However, I reject the inevitable calls of "worst movie ever made". The acting and writing suck, but it's just not boring enough to qualify.There are many scenes in this movie that defy common sense, but if you're watching low budget, independent, direct-to-video horror movies, I imagine that you're not all that concerned with such matters. If, however, you're expecting this ridiculous movie to make any kind of sense or exist in the real world, then I see why you'd be very disappointed. From the beginning, it seemed like this was a pretty big ripoff of Arkham Asylum, a fixture of Batman comic books. It even has a cheap Bane knockoff, a menacing head psychiatrist, and a tormented crime-fighter. I mean, really, how much more derivative can you get?Still, despite the lack of originality, bad writing, bad acting, and iffy directing, I was able to sit through the entire movie. I think that should count for something. I've decided to be somewhat generous and award this movie a 4/10. It's bad, but it's nowhere near bad enough for some of the hyperbolic criticism that it has attracted.

My boyfriend and I watch a movie nearly every night before we go to bed, and we generally like to watch scary movies for some reason. We looked through Netflix and found Medium Raw, which looked interesting enough, judging from the description.We turned on the movie and watched it from beginning to end (unlike most reviewers on here, I'm guessing.) We liked it, for the most part. Sure, there are plot holes, it wasn't scary (except for a few 'disturbing moments' involving the cannibal, etc), the two main actors were awful, and there were like 5 different plot lines.That's one thing that really bugged me, the movie seemed like it was being pulled in so many different directions; if I hadn't of read the description I probably would've been lost.In the beginning, Johnny (a cop) is trying to find the 'Wolf' serial killer who killed his sister when he was a child, which he witnessed. His wife works in a mental institution as a doctor, and once the Wolf killer is caught, he is sent to the mental institution where Johnny comes to visit him for revenge. Then, a system mishap causes the system in the building to crash, turning out all the lights and unlocking all the inmates, which turns the night into a fight for survival.I think the movie could have been great given a different budget, director, cleaner writing, better actors, etc. The idea was good, and the premise was scary. When the system was showing 'system error: unlocking doors" I was genuinely scared. There were so many 'oh sh*t!' moments in this movie, but I walked away unscared and forgot about this movie like ten minutes after the credits rolled.The 'twist' at the ending was also extremely predictable. I called what was going to happen about 20 minutes into the movie. However, I'll leave that for *you* to find out for yourself :-)Like a lot of the reviews on this board, I'm not going to say that this is 'the worst movie ever made,' because it wasn't. I enjoyed it for what it was. A lot of people sit down at movies and expect it to be the next 'Scream' or 'Friday the 13th,' but with this (a movie rated a 3 on netflix) I just took it for what it was and enjoyed it. Be open minded. Forget about plot lines and things that bother you. It will make your experience with this movie more fulfilling.5/10

2/10. 1 for the intro scene and one for the costume maker who did a good job (even if it went to waste)."In the small town of Garden, 14 young girls were taken from their homes never to be heard from again. They will forever be remembered as the Red Riding Hood Victims because of a message that was left at each crime scene... ARE YOU THE WOODCUTTER?".When I read this I was intrigued. Thinking it might be an interesting take on a werewolf horror meets crime thriller. Or even simply a good crime thriller. Sadly after the first scene, which is the best scene, things quickly go downhill. The two kids in this first scene are without a doubt the best actors in the entire film.After the interesting premise and decent opening scene things quickly fall apart in all departments from direction and writing to acting, largely because of the the common denominator: Andrew Cymek. The plot which had real potential suddenly veers away from the numerous good possibilities and heads for the absurd. By the end the only enjoyment I had was laughing aloud at the acting in the last 10 minutes of the movie by Andrew Cymek, who's listed so many times in the credits that he's even listed once as "Andy" Cymek, possibly to make it seems like someone else worked on this film.It's worth noting "The Wolf's" costume is also interesting but far too much of the film is spent with the "villian" out of the suit. I have to wonder why they even bothered making the suit at all. Andrew Cymek should have saved that money for some acting classes.