Alice in Terrorland

Me and my friend watched Alice in Terrorland primarily for the reason that Jon Paul Gates, who is an icon, is in it. That was our first mistake, the film is extremely dull and forgettable. With few scares and even fewer Jon Paul Gates (so sad!) What it does have going for it is its pretty good cinematography and interesting colour scheme. The plot is confusing and unexciting, but at least they tried more than the average low budget horror flick of "this is a spooky house, here are some ghosts, be scared!" I liked the costumes in part too. But these few positives can't excuse such a dull, forgettable and lackluster film. 3/10: Such a dull film can't even justify its short run time.

This movie has very bad ratings, so why do I give it a 10? Because I see it not as a fairy tale, but a story of greed so terrible that it's hard to believe how it brings out the worse in a person. First; I have to say two things about me. One, I am a retired psychologist, so I have seen evil very close. People like one of the characters. Second, I am 77 and I still have my copies of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for almost as long as I have been alive. Both books show the age, but they have been with me throughout all my moves, which included intenational. That's how much they meant to me. This is movie shows the evil side of one of the character, the Red Queen if anyone is wondering. Obviously not a version to take a child to see.

source: Alice in Terrorland

source: Alice in Terrorland

The cover artwork for the front and back of the dvd gave the impression of a slasher bloody type of film. Well, it isn't, and nowhere in the film does Alice kill anything or even ever have a bloody knife and blood drenched dress. The movie centers on a girl named Alice who just lost her parents to a house fire. She is then placed with her grandmother inside a house her grandmother calls "Wonderland." Alice then begins to feel sick, so her grandmother advises her to rest and drink small amounts of tea as she reads her the Alice and Wonderland book. While her grandmother reads, Alice starts to have dreams of cheap variations of characters from the book which really makes no sense. Later on it is revealed that her grandmother has been poisoning her in order to obtainthe house after Alice's demise. The movie was slightly okay, but also a disappointment. It's 77 minutes, but is so dull at times, that feels like it's much longer than that.

Another horror movie that I hadn't heard about prior to stumbling upon it by random chance. And with it being a horror movie that I had never seen nor heard of, of course I had to sit down and watch it. Horror is my go-to genre for entertainment, so of course there was no doubt about me sitting down to watchng what writer and director Richard John Taylor had to deliver here. However, from the glorious 3.2 rating here on IMDb, which was the rating when I sat down to watch the movie, I have to say that I wasn't exactly harboring much of any expectations or hopes to the movie. But still, I opted to watch it on the off chance that the movie might actually be entertaining to me. The storyline in "Alice in Terrorland" was somewhat of a swing and a miss in terms of properly entertaining me. Sure, there were aspects to it that proved good, but the overall impression of the narrative was not something that I found to be overly enjoyable or entertaining. So it was a bit of a struggle to sit through the movie. And truth be told, the pacing of the narrative was rather monotonous and bland, which resulted in a somewhat boring viewing experience. Sure, I will give writer Richard John Taylor points for managing to take Lewis Carroll's classic tale and spin a modern twist on it. Just a shame that it failed to properly entertain me. I was not familiar with anyone on the cast list, and that is actually something that I do enjoy when I sit down and watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were good, though I have to say that I couldn't point anyone out for putting on a memorable performance. Visually then I will say that the movie was fair. The props, wardrobes, etc. Looked good and had a certain atmospheric feel to it that definitely added something to the overall impression of the movie. Now, I am sure that there is an audience out there for a bizarre movie such as what "Alice in Terrorland" turned out to be. So give it a chance, if you find odd movies to be your thing. My rating of "Alice in Terrorland" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The movie was like 77 minutes long. Of those, at least 7 were credits at the beginning and the end. And then the entire "truth" is revealed in the last five minutes. The other 65 minutes it's just completely unrelated scenes with Alice in wonderland reference here and there. You can remove those 65 minutes and the movie would be exactly de same. And here is the worst: the movie used so much slow-motion that the actual runtime would had been like 50 minutes. This is also one of those movies where: is illegal to turn on the lights, Because everything was badlit or very dark. And they only hire people with half a torso as everything was zoomed on the actors faces. And I am going to spoil the movie for you to save you sometime: The grandma wanted to kill Alice to keep the inheritance/house she received after her parents died (this is the "truth" that I mention was revealed in the last five minutes), this is never mention, alluded or implied before during the entire movie. They never mention Alice inherited something, or that the house was of her mother... nothing. So when they reveal the truth it falls flat on its dumb face and you are like: "cool story bro", and you are counting the minutes for the credits to roll. There is nothing else to say about the "plot" because as I mentioned, everything else that happens it's unrelated to the "twist". I always try to give a chance to low budget movies but... what a load of c...

Alice in terrorland is one of your run of the mil direct to dvd horror horror films. It's low budget and doesn't have much pay off. Having that I'm mind though there are a few things this movie does effectively. The opening credits with the colydascope hedge looked trippy and almost brought you into the world. Izzy Willis plays Alice. Some of the better acting here this also includes Jon Paul gates as the mad jatrwr, his hat had a coll design. The location itself was pretty eerie and despite the very bad acting of the other cast members the chaeacters still gave thrm something. Also this d was too short to get going and when it ended I felt there could have been more. Overall not great. But it's not really a terrible film eothet.

It was soulless garbage, and a shallow attempt to make the classic Alice in Wonderland into a horror, which other media will tell you this actually can be done well. This wasn't one of those examples. The dialogue is awkward, and weird. The idea that Alice is being read the original, and in her fever dream is being taken to wonderland could have worked actually. But damn, girl your fever dreams are boring. Even the idea that her parents have passed and that has altered her mental state, has existed before. This just does that badly. The costume elements are boring. The pacing is weird and doesn't work. And it has moments where it tries to be edgy but, it falls flat because it's trying too hard.

This is apparently some film school dropout's final project. They TRY to be "artsy" throughout the whole thing. It starts out with three rapid fire scenes with no context. Then we are "treated" to a monochromatic kaleidoscope of fractal images with some trippy music in the background. I swear, if I'd had some LSD, I'd have at least been in the right mood. All these dropouts seem to think that slow motion builds tension. It is an overused trope that every one of these art projects over use. I'm serious... I have seen molasses flowing up hill in January at a faster pace than this... movie. There is one scene where Alice is literally slow motion crawling across the floor for a GOOD five minutes. If they had run all of the slow motion scenes at normal speed, the movie would have been at least half an hour shorter. Not a lie. Then, as is the case with every single modern "movie," the entire thing is filmed with two candles and a 4 watt night light bulb. I swear... what is it with this freaking trend?! You might as well make it a radio play for all you can actually see. I'll bet you want to know about the plot, though, don't you? Yeah... you and me both. The entire thing is a really bad retelling of "Alice in Wonderland" with a twist you can see coming a mile away. There is an adult, x-rated version of "Alice in Wonderland" - a musical at that! - from 1976 that has a better story line, better acting (and better lighting) than this trainwreck of a "movie."