Kolobos (1999) User Reviews

Real world meets Saw, sort of.

[shaun8305 · 6/10 · 5 July 2021]

Kolobos is the kind of movie that tries to be smarter than it is, and just doesn't come together well. The movie revolves around a group of people hired to do a reality show that's basically The Real World. However once there they are picked off one by one by a killer who has trapped the house.

The movies concept was solid enough, but the execution came off pretty weak. The kills were fine, but the characters were pretty much unlikable, and the twist was pretty obvious. Despite that it's entertaining enough for a lazy afternoon or a late night time waster.

The Real World: Crystal Lake!

[doctor_dolittle · 6/10 · 23 March 2000]

"Kolobos" is just what you would expect it to be, a direct-to-video B-Flick for the 90s... with a twist. OK, there are substantial amounts of gore (a little too much for my taste), sub-par acting, and a dark house full of victims, but it actually tries to be intelligent. Our main character, Kyra, actually has a bit of depth to her. She is not just another big-breasted ditz out of the eighties; she actually has problems that don't relate to who she is going to take to prom or if her outfit is slutty enough to attract her dream man. Although, the rest of the characters are pretty annoying and you kind of wish they get offed quickly... and, of course, they do, and in a variety of clever ways. It's not just the axe or meat-cleaver for this serial killer. No, no, what we have here is a murder that knows how to cope with their surroundings, using anything in their grasp to eliminating the "Real World" crew, which, let's face it, is what we've all been waiting for. And as for the ending, for those of you that can't figure it out, e-mail me to find out what was going on, because this is not the place to spoil the movie. Personally, I thought the ending was quite intelligent for a piece of direct-to-video schlock, digging deep into the mind of a psychologically disfunctional artist. Overall, not too shabby, but, as always, it could have been so much more.

Not very good.

[Ken-208 · 4/10 · 15 November 1999]

Story is a little far-fetched. Acting a little weak. The ending didn't seem to fit or be that appropriate. The ending is unexpected but also is a disappointing ending because it doesn't seem that appropriate.

Some scary parts but overall just a B movie with not not much going for it.

Don't let the cover fool you

[Cujo108 · 30 October 2010]

"Kolobos" opens in someone else's point of view, someone who's obviously out of it, wandering the night-time streets aimlessly. The person is suddenly hit by a car, and when one of the vehicle's occupants gets out to check on the person, we find out that it's a female as she faintly utters the word "kolobos". The girl is taken to the hospital where she is operated on before being put in a room to recover. The patient next to her decides to read newspaper ads to her for the hell of it, and one of the ads triggers her to remember everything that has happened to her (we also find out that her name is Kyra, and she has spent time in a halfway house). It's an ad looking for five young people to participate in a groundbreaking new experimental film. They will be stuck in this big, fancy house with video cameras watching their every move. There's just one problem. Something is very awry in this house, and all hell is about to break loose. Could ex-loony Kyra be behind it all, or is there something much more sinister afoot?

"Kolobos" is a film which I passed by many times in the video store and never even thought about checking out, as the cover made it look like yet another DTV waste of space. Later, I saw some raves about the film on one of the boards I frequent, so I decided to finally check it out was promptly blown away. The film's cover art does not do it justice at all! It's easily one of the most atmospheric, downright creepy as hell independent horror films I've had the pleasure of viewing.

The characters are all well-portrayed, the actors making them feel like real people in search of their own 15 minutes of fame. It's somewhat ironic that Amy Weber, who plays Kyra, actually went on to be one of those flash in the pan types herself. Too bad, as she's actually quite solid here. The authenticity of the characters makes the brutal gore harder to take than it normally would be. The first death in the film, for instance, not only took me by total surprise, but it was disturbing to watch as the victim slowly succumbed. I didn't even like this particular person, but the brutality and realism, both in character and reaction, managed to get under my skin.

The house makes for a creepy setting, and it oozes a sense of the foreboding right from the start. The film's score also helps, and it should seeing how it sounds quite similar to the masterful music from "Suspiria" at times.

This film took me by surprise and turned out to be one hell of an intense gem in the often generic sea of direct to video horror. It is now a permanent fixture amidst my collection, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The only thing "Kolobos" delivers is annoyance.

[MisterMovieMan · 1/10 · 3 December 2004]

Nearly everything about Kolobos is poor. The direction is mediocre and the acting, dialogue and script are so incredibly bad that the film becomes a real test to sit through. The filmmakers have literally lifted ideas and scenes directly from other great horror films and placed them in theirs merely to fill up time in the silly plot. I don't mind when a film pays homage to others but this one often enters into artistic plagiarism. Even the opening song is a near-copy of the witch theme in Suspiria. There are also many scenes in the film that have no relevance and/or make no sense once the "surprise" ending is revealed. If you actually look back at it after viewing the film, you'd see this. If I was Dario Argento or Claudio Simonetti and found out about this film I'd want to file a lawsuit. Even so, despite the filmmakers using the lighting of Suspiria and a key scene in Opera, they screw it all up by making it obvious where they've placed the lights (instead of mysterious and supernatural)and adding strobe lights and laser optic beams shooting through the air. It may as well be a 70's disco club. The main actress is the best of the bunch but since every actor/actress overacts (though some appear to not be acting at all), spits out bad lines, and manages to not even create a character, it could have been improved if it starred puppets. I don't mind some weak low-budget horror acting but this is well below that level. Nothing is quotable in the movie because the dialogue is typically generic though sometimes exaggerated, pointless and/or laughable. The plot and ending aren't as original or fascinating as people would have you believe either. In fact there is hardly anything original about this film that is good at all except that it's perhaps the first 'reality show' horror flick made…but is that really a good thing? Gore you say? Yes it has some low-budget gore but these scenes usually are not even shot or edited right to where it should shock you. Regardless, if you want to see Argento films (including the gums-to-shelf corner scene in Deep Red), Candyman, Cube, The Beyond and much more crammed into an incoherent amateurish mess then this is the film for you. I kept watching it just hoping they would stop stealing constantly from other horror films to enhance their own weak storyline about a teenage girl who sees strange faces (including a man who removed the skin on his face) while hanging out with some other teen idiots being filmed ala The Real World at a 'Cube-like' house. This isn't a 'fun' low-budget horror film – they actually tried to make a scary hour-and-a-half showcase. What they ended up with is a hardly seen flick doomed to collect dust at the video store on the bottom shelf…and that's exactly where it should stay.

Is it just me?

[raineshepard · 3/10 · 8 July 2020]

I keep seeing all these reviews saying this was a breath of fresh air. I have to disagree. This was poorly written, poorly acted and just an all around incoherent mess. Seriously dont waste your time.

Really confused & downright bad horror film that tries to be clever.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 17 December 2005]

Kolobos starts on a dark night as two people (Jeremy Kendall & Laura Holman) driving along run into an injured woman, she is taken to a local hospital where Dr. Waldman (Simms Thomas), an outpatient counsellor, tries to figure out who she is & how this woman had obtained some horrendous injuries... Five people, Kyra (Amy Weber), Tina (Promise LaMarco), Erica (Nichole Pelerine), Tom (Donny Terranova) & Gary (John Fairlie) have all answered an advert in a local newspaper advertising for people to spend some time in a house together with four strangers & have their every movement filmed, they are the chosen five. They all arrive & discover a large nicely furnished cabin which will be their home for the next few days. The director Carl (Jonathan Rone) explains to everyone what he is looking for & tells them all to relax, be natural & have fun. That night Tina heads into the kitchen to get some drinks when she is killed by spinning razor discs. Metal shutters suddenly descend over all the doors & window's trapping the four remaining inhabitants inside. As the night draws on it quickly becomes apparent that there is a killer in the house...

This German production was co-written & directed by the duo of David Todd Ocvirk & Daniel Liatowitsch &, in my humble opinion, is pretty crap, incidentally the word Kolobos apparently comes from the Greek word to self-mutilate so now you know. The script by Ocvirk, Liatowitsch & co-producer Nne Ebong is really slow to get going, the first murder doesn't happen until past the 40 minute mark & all I can say is do you want to sit through 40 odd minutes of highly annoying, boring & clichéd character development? I didn't think so. They are all here, the troubled yet strong female, the annoying wisecracking coward etc. etc. Kolobos is an absolute mess of a film with narrative that is all over the place & one of the worst endings ever, I was expecting some hip, cool twist that would hopefully lift the film a bit but it never came & what I got instead was a limp, lame & throughly lazy climax that holds no surprise apart from the fact that the filmmakers decided to go with it. Was it a dream, reality, a set up, what? To me everything that happened seemed to contradict itself during the climax, very frustrating & ultimately unsatisfying. To obviously keep the budget as low as possible only four character's are given any real screen time which is not good as they are all extremely unlikable. On a positive note at least it's a bit different, there are one or two decent scenes & strikes a certain cord with all the popular reality based shows currently playing on TV.

Directors Ocvirk & Liatowitsch (who had not made a film prior to Kolobos & thankfully not one since either) do absolutely nothing to liven the dull proceedings up, they aren't sure if they want a realistic hand held feel or not & in the end Kolobos has no style about it at all. They fail to create any tension or atmosphere as they think making the lights flash different colours is scary, guys it's not OK? The gore was disappointing after hearing good things about it, there a few splashes of blood, someone's stomach sliced open with a razor bladed Frisbee, a crappy looking melted face, a sliced ankle & a few other cheap looking effects like someone obviously sticking their head through a hole in a table to simulate a decapitated head & one terrible looking shot where someone's eye is impaled which is achieved by forced perspective.

Technically Kolobos is bland, uninteresting & dull with very little to talk about, so I won't. It was obviously shot on video rather than film which also adds to it's cheapness. The acting is pretty bad by everyone involved, they became very irritating & I ended up hating them all.

Kolobos had potential but it fails miserably in just about everything it sets out to do. The film is generally quite competent but that is about the best thing I can say about it. Definitely not worth 80 odd minutes of your life, there are better ways to spend it!

Watch this before My Little Eye!

[Monica4937 · 7/10 · 5 June 2005]

I have to say this is most definitely a horror gem. When my friend and I were choosing movies to watch on our movie night she decided to rent this one solely based on the description on the back of the cover. Man was this a good decision. For those of you that have already seen My Little Eye and later on watch this film, you will find that MLE is almost like a carbon copy (minus the ending...somewhat). 5 strangers are picked to spend (God knows how many) weeks/months in a house while being video taped 24/7. In MLE it was for a snuff website, in Kolobos it was for a "film". BOTH end up taking a turn for the worse. I really really REALLY enjoyed Kolobos because 1. They offered some fanTASTIC gore effects without all that CGI crap that so many horror films are using now, 2. The storyline is one giant mind fu*k that leaves you sitting there thinking "What the hell just happened? Woah..." (in a good way of course), and 3. The dialog between actors was hilarious. I really enjoyed the one scene where they're watching a cheesy slasher/horror that one of the girls chosen starred in, and one guy is going "This film is crap! How can you watch this bullsh*t." while another guy is sitting there with his eyes glued to the TV going off on some deep, intellectual view of the "crap" movie. . It was truly a funny scene. While I can't say the actual acting was good in this, everything else about it was. Highly recommended! *two thumbs up* 7.5/10

A film that starts on a good step and then falls with a thud

[Fowler-4 · 3/10 · 2 October 1999]

This film wants to be a slasher-flick, a self-referential slasher-flick, a people-trapped-in-the-killer-house-flick, and a psychological-thriller-flick. After a decent setup, the film manages to be as meandering and schizophrenic as its heroine. Too cheesy to be taken seriously, Too muddled to be any fun.

Freaky, strange and obscure little gem

[acidburn-10 · 7/10 · 8 April 2014]

I remember viewing this little gem many years ago during the late 90's early 00's wave of slasher movies. And during that time a lot of junk came and went and very few stuck in my head, but this was the one that stayed in my mind and I was so glad that I got to view this again.

I'd to say that "Kolobus" is very stylish and effective movie that tells the story of 5 people people enter a reality based TV series house where they hope to gain fame and fortune, including one of the characters is already an actress, a fallen actress with a hope to regain her time in the spotlight. But as soon as they arrive they are locked in with a sadistic killer who has set up an array of gruesome traps.

The movie has a eerie nightmarish quality to it and the sudden darkness with just flashing red lights adds a great creepy Gothic tone to the proceedings, and especially when the characters sets off the one of the traps which are very nasty and effective and adds a brilliant amount of tension and fear, especially when the first victim gets sliced apart in the first trap as it totally comes out of the blue and the gore is really unsettling and brilliant. The others include eye impalement, disembowelment and an acid shower each done brilliantly.

Amy Weber is a definite standout in the cast as the final girl and gives a good chase at the end and shows layers to her character throughout the movie. Illa Volok as Faceless the killer was very menacing in his little screen time which made his character all the more scary too much of him would have lessened his creepiness.

All in all "Kolobus" is very tense and unsettling, although it doesn't keep it up all the way through and the last 40 minutes does try to pack too much in, but the twist ending is very well done though that was a real head scratcher.

Worst acting I saw in ages

[Conny_R · 2/10 · 7 May 2020]

Honestly, the acting is so bad. Everyone is just repeating their lines without actually acting. Was already annoyed after 15 minutes. That's all I have to say!

The (Sur)Real World

[tildagravette · 8/10 · 12 July 2019]

A group of 20-somethings are lured to a house under the guise of doing some sort of Big Brother type reality show and they end up getting killed one by one in various grotesque ways.

Kolobos doesn't really make that much sense, but it's well made, decently acted, and has a handful of unforgettable images that will stick with you for awhile and I'll take that over a generic, by the numbers Hollywood movie anytime. I suppose you could chalk all the weirdness up to the nightmare logic of the film. In this way, it does resemble a Bava or Argento film. The dialogue, character arcs, and storyline might be a bit flat, but it's never dull and the film looks excellent.

The ending seems to be the major issue with everyone and I'd agree - it feels tacked on and strange and almost like they were trying too hard to explain everything while, somehow, managing to make everything even more convoluted.

Besides that, Kolobos is a likable and enjoyable piece of nightmare cinema that comes highly recommended.

A Good Gory Slasher-Psycho Chiller Video

[jfcthejock · 6/10 · 21 February 2012]

Kolobos is quite an endearing premise, with quite an original title for the film being Kolobos which is Latin for mutilation. Alright its low budget, as low of a budget as you are gonna get especially in the late 1990's. I remembered seeing this film, when my family rented it from the video store for a Friday night horror shocker. It stayed with me for many years, the simplicity of a television turning on and showing a man cutting away layers of his face laughing hysterically really creeped me out as a child so I always kept my eye out for it, and saw it at least once every three years when it was on the budget horror channel and one day I saw it to buy and forked out for it, childhood memories of being scared to my wits of a man who seemed to have a fondness of some gruesome ways to murder his victims in the locked down house.

There were some ingenious methods of murder used in Kolobos, including a gory kitchen scene when a saw-type of launcher fires off a razor Sharp saw gutting its intended victims pretty much in half and then there is the shower scene, of acid pumped into the mains and eventually the horrific curdling Deer Antler scene which many who have seen Kolobos will remember.

Its not a film to write a lot of praise for, its dated and very low budget but its a good film that you can enjoy thinking of the old 90's horror nasties.

It's like these filmmakers used up all their talent before getting to the last 15 pages of the script

[MBunge · 5/10 · 6 August 2012]

Kolobos might have been a pretty good little horror flick if it had even a half-decent ending. It's got a talented cast, a script with a nice beginning and middle, above average gore effects and a distinctly 1970s vibe to the look and rhythm of the production that sets it apart from most of its low-budget kin. It does have too much annoyingly stereotypical "scary" music on its soundtrack, but I was able to put that out of mind after a while. Unfortunately, all of the quality work here is just build up for a big conclusion that falls flatter than western Nebraska. This movie has one of those finishes that leaves you saying out loud to the screen "Wait…that's it? Seriously?" It's the sort that leaves you so let down and disappointed, you almost forget everything you liked up to that point while being reminded of all the loose ends and holes in the plot. I don't know what these filmmakers thought they were doing with this ending. All they accomplish is betraying their otherwise admirable efforts.

The story is about 5 people who agree to live in a house for some kind of ill-defined experimental film. No one ever references or even alludes to MTV's Real World or similar such reality television when talking about the project, which is part of the 1970s feel to Kolobos. There's little about this film, either culturally or in technique, that brands it as being from its particular era. If you'd told me it was made in 1978 instead of 1998, I would have absolutely believed it.

In the house are Kyra (Amy Weber), a young artist with psychological problems; Tina (Promise LaMarco), a sassy kid with a zest for life; Erica (Nichole Pelerine), an ambitious and somewhat full of herself actress; Tom (Donny Terranova), an assertive but unfunny standup comic; and Gary (John Fairle), a pretentious college student. The tale is told in flashbacks as members of the group are killed off one by one while Kyra has hallucinations about disembodied voices and faceless figures. The flashbacks end with Kyra leaving the hospital after recovering from her ordeal, and that's when the wet fart of a conclusion kicks in.

Now, maybe I'm missing something so I'll lay it out for you. Kyra is specifically and repeatedly described and portrayed as having serious mental health issues. She's tried to commit suicide, is generally skittish and emotionally shaky and constantly sees and hears things that aren't there. So, the mindblowing twist at the end of Kolobos is…wait for it…Kyra is crazy. No, I'm not leaving anything out. The crazy chick turns out to be crazy. That's it.

I'm at a loss because the rest of the screenplay is rather well written, at least for this kind of thing. It's not high art but the characters are clearly established and their interactions are relatively believable. The scenes are solidly constructed and the direction, while clearly bound by financial limitations, is intelligent and sharp. The five main members of the cast all come off like folks who should be acting for a living, which is not something you can say about a lot of low-budget cinema. Promise LaMarco appears to be someone who could have a good career as "cute horror chick".

Yet all that leads to closing scenes so awesomely lame that I almost lost the use of my legs through osmosis. Something else…hell, literally any other type of finale would have been better than we get. I went into Kolobos thinking it was going to suck. I'd never heard of it or any of the people in it before. The DVD had a lot of the signs indicating cheaply made gunk. When I popped it into my DVD player, it doesn't even have a menu with set up options or scene selections. It's just an image of Kyra and Tom, the title and the word "play". As I watched it, however, I grew more and more pleasantly surprised and interested. It seemed to be a hidden gem. Then the last 5 minutes left me thinking it should have never been unearthed.

I can't call Kolobos bad but I also can't recommend something that falls down so severely at the end. Decide for yourself and don't come complaining to me afterwards.

I wish THE REAL WORLD was actually like this

[Beast-5 · 16 January 2002]

KOLOBOS surprised me. I thought it would be your run-of-the-mill Dead Teenager movie,but the movie went far beyond mere slasher conventions. The images are genuinely surreal,the script is smart and the deaths

look seriously painful. The ending rocks and even if you don't understand it,you WILL squirm. KOLOBOS is a very good movie that deserves to be experienced.

1 hour and 24 but a tad too long at that.

[grahamcarter-1 · 5/10 · 10 June 2017]

The opening music is very reminiscent of 'Suspiria' in Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk's 'Kolobos' (1999), but unfortunately this film suffers from the common ailment of low budget horror films; the problem of weak dialogue and variable performances.

The filmmakers obviously appreciate the slasher genre and at the same time acknowledge its weaknesses. One of the characters is an actress who appears in the fictional movie franchise 'The Slaughterhouse Factor,' which when the characters in Kolobos sit down to watch the series in its entirety, either mercilessly mock it or simply fall asleep as they tick off the rudimentary clichés of the genre.

Kolobos goes into the potentially interesting area of reality TV, with Big Brother (which only started in 1999) type territory being delved into. The set up has the characters answering advertisements to appear in a project where they will come together in a house with hidden cameras and be filmed for five days, having no access to the outside world.

Dario Argento 'Giallo' black gloves are given a guernsey, as are anatomy drawings, POV stumble cam, a Deep Red style tooth smashing, and the colour scheme is straight out of Suspiria and Inferno. For the U.S audience who maybe isn't familiar with 'Giallo,' Kyra is from the get-go set up as the final girl… but is she?

After an interesting start, Kolobos becomes plodding, and with a meager running time of 1 hour and 24 minutes, I still found myself checking my watch.

What On Earth Did I Just Watch?

[goinghelterskelter · 2/10 · 14 May 2020]

I barely managed to watch this from start to finish, forgiving the terrible script and admittedly the worst acting I've ever seen (a couple of glasses of wine helped). Don't get me wrong, there are many great horrors revolving around a group of people trapped by circumstance in a house, lodge, cabin etc...this is definitely not one of them. Surprised by all the highly rated reviews on this. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Not good.

[nsbrwttt · 2/10 · 2 March 2006]

I watched this film when I was younger and it scared the hell out of me, to this day I talked about how scary it was so I took the plunge and bought it off the web for a fiver. I was wondering which DVD cover I was going to get as I've seen about five different types.

My girlfriend and I turned out the lights and I was hoping to be scared shitless that night but it did not happen. Back then when I watched it the first time I didn't look for things like acting, camera work, dialogue and lighting. All of which in this film are bad, I wish I never bought it. I can remember being terrified of the wobbly head 'Silent Hill' type stuff but it was laughable. The no face scenes look scary when I think back about them but when you watch them it just doesn't cut it. It leaves it to look like there's going to be a sequel. Lets hope not.

Sudden death: just what Big Brother's been missing!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 2 October 2009]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought that the installation of deadly booby traps into the next Big Brother house would be an interesting idea: it would certainly help the show's falling ratings if Davina's irritating, fame-hungry contestants died horribly live on TV (hey, maybe they're going to do that for the final series next year... y'know, go out in style).

Well, in Kolobos, that's exactly what happens—a group of young hopefuls enter a plush, Big Brother style house to take part in an experimental film, but become trapped and meet gruesome fates as they accidentally activate spring loaded circular saw blades, acid showers, and ankle mangling pincers, before being finished off by a mysterious killer known as Kolobos. At first it seems as though the director of the project has tricked the house-mates into becoming the unwitting stars of a snuff film, but when he also meets a sticky fate, suspicion falls on contestant Kyra (Amy Weber), a mentally disturbed 'artist' (I use quote-marks because her drawings are crap!) who sketches twisted images, and suffers from terrifying visions.

For the most part, this is an entertaining affair which reminds me a little of the British horror movie My Little Eye; the trouble is that Kolobos decides to get a little clever for its own good, adding a large dose of psychological/split identity guff (ala John Cusack thriller Identity) and becoming all too confusing in the process. By the end of the film, I was unsure as to who the killer was or whether the events shown had ever actually happened.

Was there really a faceless monster named Kolobos stalking the house? Was Kyra the murderer? Or had she conjured the whole thing up in her mind as a test run for the Real McCoy? And whilst I'm raising awkward questions, how the hell does someone go about converting a large, suburban property into an escape proof, metal clad prison without someone questioning your motives? And am I the only one who reckons that the film's music rips-off Suspiria's soundtrack?

Anyway, despite all of the unanswered questions, general confusion, and ambiguity, I still had a reasonably good time with this film: the girls are cute (Weber has the beautiful weirdo thing down pat, and Promise LaMarco, as ditzy Tina, is blessed with a lovely set of dimples); the gore is impressively nasty; and directors Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk manage to deliver enough effective scares and creepy atmosphere to make it fun while it lasts.

Possibly, Just Possibly, the 3rd Worst Movie Ever Made

[jm-vincent · 1/10 · 4 September 2021]

Plan 9 from Outer Space of course takes the prize, followed closely by Robot Monster, but this is definitely the 3rd place loser. Promise LaMarco is the most annoying actress I've seen in 40+ years of movie-watching, with Donny Terranova her male equal. This flick (not film) is almost unwatchable, to the point at which I had to turn the sound off and simply read the eminently forgettable dialogue in subtitles. If you want a touchstone for quality look at the achievements of the writers, directors and cast since making this trash. Almost Zero work - a testimony to their complete and utter lack of talent evidenced here.

Stolen Ideas , Bad Acting but somewhat Entertaining

[BloodyPredator2 · 6/10 · 18 October 2022]

I read a article on BloodyDisgusting they say this i a hidden gem and this Film is ahead of its time , I disagree. This Film looks Simplistic , the Storyline isn't very smart or clever neither is the twist at the end. The Acting was very bad even from the Main Actress. However Kolobos has some nice Gore Scenes and some good athmospheric scenes. Its Obvious this Film stole Ideas from other movies for example : The Laser Trap ( Cube) The Main Theme (Suspiria) The Razor (Tenebrae) even the Kill Scene from Erica was borrowed from the Lucio Fulci Film Zombi 2. There isn't much more Information about this film on the Internet and the Directors never made another Feature Film after this.

Feels like a troubled produciton.

[CDiablo · 3/10 · 27 June 2023]

Kolobos doesn't really have much going for it. I watched it because I was in the mood for a gore movie and thats about all it really has that is good and even then not great.

The story follows a mix of conventional slasher tropes in an unconventional setting that might have been somewhat unique for it's time but been done many times since. Then there is the ending.

The ending(and certain scenes in peppered throughout the movie) made me feel like the movie was either too short or went bad with test audiences so they made this absurd B plot which added 20 minutes to the overall movie that led to a very unsatisfying end. You could remove it all and add a somewhat different ending, one in line with the rest of the movie, and no one would know the difference. Maybe this is a spoiler but the ending is VERY unsatisfying and can't answer the questions that the viewer naturally thinks of.

The characters are mostly insufferable and talk/act as if it was written by someone not of society. Maybe it's just the 90's aesthetic and 90's nature of the characters, but I lived through the 90's and nobody I know was like these folks. Maybe it's a case of an old person trying to write "hip" characters.

Another negative is the "slasher" with embarrassing makeup effects.

It's shot well and the gore is good but thats really all it has going for it. Any tension made by the film is ruined by the ending.

Don't watch this one, you will be upset that you did when the ending begins.

Candy Colored Nightmare Fuel

[jeanlevy · 8/10 · 21 June 2019]

Kolobos might not be a title you hear thrown out in horror circles very often, because it was dumped into video stores without a theatrical release and given lousy artwork that had nothing to do with the film. This is definitely a small, low budget affair, but there's a lot of thought put into it and it looks absolutely beautiful.

The entire film is bathed in lighting that would make Argento and Bava proud and the death sequences are fairly imaginative and well done, especially for a low budget film like this. The final twist isn't handled very well and it comes across as a bad afterthought, but everything else is so captivating that I can't even fault it for that.

Reality-gore!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 5 February 2006]

I anticipated "Kolobos" rather sceptically but it really wasn't as bad as I initially feared. It looks like another unoriginal and overly loud new age horror flick and the internet buzz wasn't very positive, neither. But right from the opening credits' music, which is clearly inspired by Dario Argento's "Suspiria", this film turns out to be an interesting and experimenting thriller of which the makers aren't afraid to finally show some downright sick gore again. I have to agree with most other reviewers about the plot and story continuity being absolute rubbish, though. The basic plot and the introduction of the characters are still very watchable but pretty soon the scriptwriters pretend to be more clever than they are and throw in implausible situations and enormously confusing plot twists. The whole ending is one giant "what-the-hell" moment. Personally, I didn't understand one iota of it and I like to think of myself that I'm not entirely stupid. Then why would I still encourage horror fans to give "Kolobos" a look? Because it's one of the only late 90's horror movies out there that contains many actual disturbing images and truly shocking and nauseating gore! Many creepy visions and hallucinations appear to leading lady Kyra (like a guy slicing off his own face) and the other character die in ultra-violent ways that are definitely not for the fainthearted! One poor guy even has his head smashed to pulp against a wall. The build up to these massacres are always quite atmospheric and the barbaric make-up effects are hugely convincing. Maybe first-time writers/directors David Todd Ocvirk and Daniel Liatowitsch should have put a little more effort in the plotting, but they're obviously great admirers of the horror genre that surely know their classics and therefore I can only applaud their work and look forward to further (and substantially better?) work.

Stupid load of rubbish

[The_Void · 3/10 · 25 August 2005]

Kolobos is one of those dreary horror films that is about as original as the lead character turning out to be dead, and twice as irritating. The plot of this film will be familiar to anyone who's seen the later, better marketed, but still rubbish 'My Little Eye'. It follows five whiny, irritating strangers that are placed in a house together as part of an experiment. It isn't long after they've started to get to know one another that they're being picked off by an unknown assailant and a load of booby traps. The plot thickens when it turns out that one of the group lives in a mental home and after they've seen her drawings, she seems to be the prime suspect. The plot plays out in a common 'slasher' sort of a way, and is therefore very uninteresting. It's obvious that the director of Kolobos wanted it to be something more than it is, which is reflected in the way that the film tries to be psychological in it's approach. This angle hinders the film, however, and makes it very easy to get bored. Kolobos is a film that has tried to be clever, and failed miserably.

Another help to the film's downfall is the fact that it doesn't present one single likable character. The people in the film just capture different degrees of annoyingness; and when the plot is dismal, and the characters are hateable; it's obvious that you haven't got a great, or even good, film on your hands. Something that could have saved the film is the gore. I'm a big fan of gore in movies, but it really has to be done in a way that's interesting. Quite how you can depict someone being sliced and diced and have it be boring is beyond me; but this film has somehow managed it. The acting is just as bad as the rest of the film too, and once again makes it all too easy to hate Kolobos. The lead villain is stupid, and basically a rip off from Clive Barkers 'Nightbreed' (which wasn't very good anyway). All in all; this film is a complete dead loss. Bad acting, bad characters, a boring plot, boring gore and a completely laughable attempt at being clever bring it down; and just to add icing to the cake, the twist at the end is almost as predictable as the 'lead character being dead all along' thing. Avoid this at all costs.