Well Deserved Praise

The greatest movie ever!

Takes itself way too seriously

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Based on a novel of the same name, "Shiver" delivers only occasionally. The predictable, derivative screen story gains a little traction from performances, but not enough to keep it afloat. Among these are uneven performances by Danielle Harris (some of her scenes are quite good) as the wallflower office worker Wendy Alden, and John Jarrett as the serial killer Franklin Rood, who stalks her. (But don't expect anything close his creepy performance in "Wolf Creek"). Casper Van Dien and Rae Dawn Chong do quite well in their performances as the detectives on the loony's trail. The central problem is the script, which may not do justice to the novel: the main characters are flat and under-developed; the police and corrections officers are presented as incredibly incompetent. And the rationale behind the crimes is unexplored; evidently a single traumatic event in Rood's childhood drives him over the edge. The camera work is fine, and the editing sharp, though a little jagged. Taken on its own terms the jazz soundtrack is okay, but it seems to belong to another film.

Franklin Rood is a serial killer - RUDE....GET IT??That's about the extent of the depth of this POS. John Jarratt is the most annoying serial killer ever. Half retarded and....half retarded. He's a serial killer because someone broke his glasses. Seriously. We know he's a "genius" because he knows Edgar Allen Poe. And he's smart enough to scream "NOT SO SMART NOW, ARE YOU?" after he kills the woman who misquoted The Raven. Wendy is a gorgeous wallflower, too timid to ask for a raise, but magically becomes a tigress street-smart enough to slip a knife up her sleeve when she feels threatened and calm enough to continue to slip away when threatened. Adding insult to injury are jazz standards that pound away on the soundtrack. Most stalker movies you have some kind of kinship with the killer. This guy you just want dead. And not in a good way.

Shiver tells the story of Wendy (Danielle Harris), a young woman who is struggling with financial issues, has no time for dating, and has a not-so-close relationship with her mother. When Wendy is targeted by a killer known as The Gryphon (John Jarratt), she must use her smarts and the strength she never knew she had in order to escape from becoming a part of The Gryphon's "collection". Shiver is a film that is slightly different for Scream Queen Danielle Harris. Instead of starring in a typical by-the-numbers slasher film, she's now the prime focus of a psychopath, as well as the prime focus of the viewer. Harris by far gives her strongest performance in this film. We watch as her character tries to stay calm in times of great terror, but when the time comes for her to fight, Harris plays it off with great strength and ease. Beside Harris we have John Jarratt, whom is well-known for his role as the psychotic killer in the film Wolf Creek. Jarratt is back again playing another psycho. While he definitely played his role well, he really didn't put as much effort into it as he did in Wolf Creek. But he does do a good job of trying to show both sides of his character's personality. He can go from calm one moment, but then completely creepy and crazy the next. As for the film itself, it isn't really anything to write home about. It keeps a person interested mostly because of the cat and mouse game between our protagonist and antagonist. It's not one of the greatest films ever, nor is it a stand out film of it's kind, but it's at least worth checking out if one's ever interested. But the performances of Harris and Jarratt are what makes the film worth seeing, especially the strong performance by Harris.My rating: 6/10

I was lucky enough to get to see this movie at a screening and I really don't want to say much about the movie because you need to see it yourself and be surprised. But it is very WELL worth your time to watch. Danielle Harris did an outstanding job with her role and the script was very well written. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and there were a lot of things I was NOT expecting to happen. Overall I would give the movie a 10/10 because it was good. I'm a big supporter of Indie films and respect them so much and I think this has to be one of my favorite B movies along with Stakeland which Danielle also happens to be in oddly enough. So give the movie a watch you won't regret it!