The Last Horror Movie (2003) Kevin Howarth, Mark Stevenson, Antonia Beamish, Christabel Muir Movie Review

The Last Horror Movie (2003)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Kevin Howarth in The Last Horror Movie (2003)

The Life of Max

Max Parry (Kevin Howarth) is a politely spoken wedding photographer, the last person you would ever imagine of having a dark side. But it is his dark side which he wishes to share with you having hired a homeless camera-man to record him as he murders various people. And how he wishes to share it with you is having recorded over a teen slasher movie from a rental shop so that the person renting it gets a real life horror movie rather than some Hollywood take on horror as they watch him murder one person after another in a blase, matter of fact manner.

As I watched "The Last Horror Movie" I found myself wondering when the last time I rented a movie on VHS was and it must have been around 1999 as that is when I got my first DVD player. It is the first issue which presents itself as you watch "The Last Horror Movie" because whilst this was made back in 2003 many people has already shifted to DVD and rental shops such as Blockbusters, remember them, were shifting over to DVD which almost makes this movie redundant because of the VHS aspect.

But whilst this recording over a rental movie has an important part to play in the big picture the real focus of "The Last Horror Movie" is on Kevin Howarth's performance as Max and his complete matter of fact way he goes about killing people. It is intended as black comedy and it almost gets there but it ends up lacking something which stops it from being as amusing as it thinks it is. I suppose the issue comes from budget as this movie was made for just £50,000 and whilst it intentionally has a home made feel it almost lacks the noise of every day life and that feels weird.

There is of course the gore aspect with Max's murders and this is where "The Last Horror Movie" has another issue as whilst it is graphic with scenes of people getting their head smashes by a brick or strangled there is a distinct lack of blood with many a scene involving blood often happening outside of the shot. It makes it feel too cheap which is a shame as Kevin Howarth's droll performance makes it quite entertaining.

What this all boils down to is that "The Last Horror Movie" has a good idea but not only did it come too late the lack of budget ends up letting this down. Despite that it is still worth watching if you are a fan of quirky horror movies.


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