cynic-idealist

(2012-04-26 17:31:49)

Not quite a B movie

At least the movie lets you know how horrible it is from the get-go.From the first five minutes you get treated to tired clichГѓВ©s, sub-parwriting delivered by untalented people playing pretend rather thanactually acting, you get to witness cinematography that is on par witha passionate hobbyist who lacks actual experience and the audio for theactors sounds like it's coming out of a shallow can.I understand the fun that can be had from a campy B horror flick butXII misses that classification soundly. No fun can be had here byanyone who is not related to the people involved in making thisreckless attempt at film making.From beginning to end you'll grimace at everything but the actualhorror.

BakuryuuTyranno

(2012-04-26 07:18:52)

Missing something

The movie is about a criminal who escapes from prison and targets thosewho were jury members who found the killer guilty. It's... it should bealong the lines of a slasher movie although I'm not sure the finalproduct really qualifies as one.Minor spoilers: Nobody is exactly safe. People seemingly important areoffed surprisingly quickly. Unfortunately in trying to achieve thisunpredictable feel the movie seemingly lost something. I'm not sureexactly, but whatever it was it would've saved the movie.Whatever the writers were going for never really works, for reasons Ican't quite explain. The movie certainly is far less exciting than afilm like "Twelve" could have been though.

kosmasp

(2012-04-26 20:35:22)

Easy

I'll begin with the title of the movie. Let's just say it's pretty easyto decode/decipher, which makes it kinda painful, that the charactersin the movie, don't realise it for a very long time. That's all I'mgonna say.Having seen HATCHET and therefor seen Ms. McNabs natural and thereforobvious talents, might be a disappointment for those waiting, to be"exposed" to the same thing here (pun intended). But she plays her partvery convincing (for a horror movie) and the others don't let her down.On the other hand, the script does let them and the audience down andthe "Less is sometimes more" phrase could've applied here too(especially at the end, where it tried to compensate for the lack inother departments, in just being ... out there! Not really bad, but notreally good either!

Prolox

(2012-04-26 04:45:13)

Pretty decent for what it is.

After being convicted & sent to prison where he is horribly disfiguredby the other inmates, a criminal returns to the scene of his pastcrimes, (a small town) to seek revenge on the twelve jury members thatsent him to prison, by eliminating them in grisly violent fashion.Violent, sometimes bloody thriller, manages to wring out a fewsuspenseful moments on top of it's overly familiar storyline. Theacting & directing are pretty decent & the gore effects are prettyneat, I especially loved the first kill & another kill that arrivesabout midway in the film (I won't spoil it for you, but I promise itwill catch you off guard as to how quick it happens & when). The filmis pretty violent & in a way kind of reminded me of the moviePLASTERHEAD (& to be truthful I don't really know why, it just did) butthere's enough action & gore on hand to keep horror fans happy. Thevillain in particular looks pretty cool with his LEATHERFACE like mask& his JASON VOORHEES like killing mentality, in fact the film has amutilation scene at the end that reminded me of the Texas ChainsawMassacre. Not the greatest horror movie out there, nor does it try tobe, it's just an hour & 20 minutes of B movie thrills & on that note,XII delivers.*** stars

Paul Andrews

(2012-04-24 14:26:15)

Average teen slasher.

XII is set in a small American town on the eve of Christmas, FBI agentNaughton (Steven Brand) is on the trail of a killer who likes to ripthe faces off his victims, two of his known victims come from thissmall town & agent Naughton talks to deputy Kent (Nick Searcy) aboutthe case. Kent says he will ask around, while talking to pretty youngwaitress Claire (Emily Hardy) she mentions that the two victims servedtogether on jury duty. Kent feels this is important information as thejuror's verdict sent child molester Leonard Karlsson (JeremyFitzgerald) to prison where he was badly disfigured, even more so sinceKarlsson had been recently released. Claire also manages to piece theclues together & since she also served on that jury assumes that herlife is in danger as well as several of her friends, as the twelvejuror's either turn up dead or go missing it seems that Karlsson hasreturned to have his revenge against those who sent him down...Written & directed by Michael A. Nickles this horror teen slasher ispretty typical of the genre & while it's not the worst example outthere I wouldn't exactly call it good, a passable time waster for whatit is I suppose but nothing more. The script feels like it's anassembled patchwork of teen slasher ideas, themes & images with theholiday event setting of Christmas, the badly disfigured killer likeFreddy, the human skin collecting like Leatherface, the plastic masklike Jason & the two main female victims one of whom is all slutty &uncaring while the other is pure virgin material as well as the dumbcops & secondary character's merely there to be killed off. XII isstrictly routine & by the numbers, there's nothing of any greatsurprise, the revenge driven motives for the killer are nothing new (Achild molester? Where have I heard that before?) & his filthy basementhideout is standard teen slasher issue. Lasting under 80 minutes atleast XII is fairly brisk, despite an attention grabbing openingsequence the script settles down & introduces the character's whoslowly release that something nasty is going on before the finalobligatory chase & stand-off between the surviving girl & the maskedkiller. None of it is very original but it's reasonably well staged,the short running time helps & there are a couple of nice moments butotherwise XII is for teen slasher fanatics only.While disfigured & masked killer looks quite good & imposing at timeshe has virtually no back-story, it's not even made clear if he wasinnocent of the charges & wants revenge for that reason or whether he'sjust an evil git. There's a few decent gore scenes including a coolopening in which a guy has his head literally blown off, unfortunatelythis is the films gore highlight & because it comes so early nothingelse lives up to it. There's a also a throat slashing, someone has histongue cut out, someone's face is cut off & removed & there's someblood splatter. Fairly basic in set-up & execution XII doesn't rewriteany slasher rules & for the most part it's pretty predictable &straight forward.Probably shot on a low budget the production values are decent enough,it's looks nice enough & the special effects are alright but it's not afilm that live long in the memory. The acting is OK, the two youngfemale leads look nice enough & aren't too annoying when they scream.XII, or Twelve for those who don't know their Roman numerals, is afairly average teen slasher. It has a decent villain & one or two goodgore scenes but overall I wouldn't say it's anything other than anindifferent way to pass 80 minutes. It could have been better but italso could have been worse.

tylerrhendrickson

(2012-04-23 18:35:09)

Spoiler warning: piece of garbage

This is a typical example of a young film company trying to prosper bymaking films in every genre. This movie has no explanation as to whythe killer does what he does, Horrible direction, and sub par acting.Those responsible including Tenny Stedd should know that persons beingbrought into prison are escorted by bus and not by patrol car. The makeup and special effects are beneath even the Sci Fi channel. The onlyreason to watch the piece of trash is either extreme boredom....actually thats the only reason I can think of. This is a classicexample of idiots trying to make a buck in a profitable genre, exceptthey are idiots and couldn't pull a better story out of their buttholes. In fact, thats probably where they found this film.