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Us Sinners (2008)



Us Sinners

 

Us Sinners is no-budget, first attempt at filmmaking by writer / director George Snow.  Apparently, Snow spent years on this script before attempting to shoot the film.  Although the story behind Us Sinners isn't too bad, it is relatively generic (a shy pushover who has been mentally abused by his overly religious mother all his life goes psycho and kills people).  However, there are a few taboos that Snow pushes to the extreme and in doing so, he manages to create a story that some viewers my find unnerving.  Also, some of the shock and gore scenes are creative and unique giving the film merit for any of the gore fans out there.  Most of the acting is about what you would expect from a no-budget horror film, but some of the acting was surprisingly decent.  Where the film does fall short is mainly in the production itself and, unfortunately, due to the quality of the filming and editing, Us Sinners is difficult to watch even for a amateur, no-budget movie.  


Inconsistent audio volumes that make the dialog difficult to hear are a common problem with this type of film and Us Sinners is no exception.   The soundtrack is distractingly bad mainly due to the terrible recording quality of the songs (all written and performed by George Snow), which is about as amateur as you can get.  The shot composition seems like it wasn't thought out at all.  The editing could have been a lot better.  There are many long scenes that would have benefited from a tighter edit.  The movie as a whole would have been a lot shorter if all of the unnecessarily long scenes were cut down to a more comfortable length.  It seems that Snow may have had trouble getting enough actors for the film because there are several awkward scenes with disembodied dialog coming from off screen offered as the only representation of some of the characters.  Although much of the cast didn't seem like actors as much a friends who had been convinced to help out with the movie, there were a couple of stand out performances.  Co-Star Brenda Cooney, who has actually been in numerous other films, did an excellent job as the potential love interest.  Jason Shoulders, who had a relatively small role as a co-worker, was also very good.

The quality and quantity of the blood and gore were pretty good, but I think it was really the original ideas behind the blood and gore that make this movie stand apart from similar films.  In the nudity department, the film is pretty lacking especially when the sexual nature of the murders is taken into consideration.  In fact, there really wasn't any female nudity, just a few ass shots of the lead actor (Brandon Schraml).  Gore and skin aside, I think the real downfall of production may have been in Snow trying to do everything himself.  Sometimes, that's the only way to get a film done when you have no cash to hire people, but it really seems like too many important factors (audio, soundtrack, editing, etc.) just didn't receive the time and attention that they deserved.  Still, if you can make it through the production quality, Us Sinners delivers a story with a couple of cool twists and a generous helping of gratuitous gore!  Check out the website for more info.:

ussinners.com


Gore-o-meter rating: 4 out of 5
(There is a fairly good amount of gore in original ways)

Skin-o-meter: 0 out of 5 (not much skin)