Starve (2014) User Reviews

Hard To Swallow

[shawnblackman · 5/10 · 24 September 2016]

A horror film where a man stalks and kidnaps people coming through the town only to put them in a desolate community centre. It is unclear how many people are here but they are put in their own cages and slowly over time starved. The story centres on a young couple who are investigating cannibal stories and are soon captured.

Not really a torture porn as the only torture is not giving them food. They are rationed water and sometimes a scrap of food if they earn it. The guy running the operation pits them against each other in fights till the death with a prize consisting of a plate of cold fries or a slice of pizza.

I felt guilty eating nachos while I watched these guys starve. Mediocre film at best. It doesn't really go anywhere we already haven't been. I doubt you'll eat it up.

Real potential...utterly WASTED...

[AndyVanScoyoc · 5/10 · 30 December 2016]

Yet another disappointing use of what was obviously a pretty well budgeted film.

Started out, great...then became juvenile, then went to just plain, bad.

It's bad when you actually want the people in the film, dead, because they were stupid, did exactly what they weren't supposed to do and then ultimately ended up getting what they deserved.

Harsh? Yep...but I can't begin to tell you how angry it makes me when a budget is so wasted...when it didn't need to be.

Potential wasted...story that could have been executed much better...and yeah...not even worth watching, unless you have nothing better to do.

MAKES FOR GREAT ENTERTAINMENT

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 30 October 2018]

Candice (Mariah Bonner), who does her pregnancy test in a public restroom, is traveling with her boyfriend Beck (Bobby Campo) and his brother Jiminey (Dave Davis) through the Florida Low country. They visit Freedom, Florida because they couldn't come up with cute symbolic names for the characters. Beck is composing a new graphic novel about feral cannibal children who live in sink holes. Warned not to stop and snoop, our threesome end up in a caged fight club where people starve, kill, eat, starve, kill, eat. If you have ever seen a captivity film, I mean like if a friend of yours once saw one and almost explained it to you, you know the formula.

The film opened with the lofty idea of eating the rich to solve world problems, but that had nothing to do with this film. Note it was night outside, but when Beck uses his cell phone on the roof, it was light out. Not the best in genre.

Guide: F-bomb, near rape, fake nude deformed breasts.

How far will you go?

[Krackoon · 2/10 · 11 August 2015]

When I read the plot to 'Starve,' I knew I was probably going to get 90 minutes of people starving to death, and doing whatever it takes to survive. Then halfway into the film, I started to think to myself - this is just going to be 90 minutes of watching people starve to death, doing whatever it takes to survive... and lost all interest. It's really not the writer/directors fault - I'm to blame.

I actually felt sorry for the antagonist here, because I only had to deal with this horrible film for 90 minutes, but this poor soul has been doing this his entire life. He called it 'entertainment,' though, so he obviously lost his mind long before boredom had a chance to set in. If I ever reach that mental state, I'll give 'Starve' another chance, since you obviously have to be borderline insane to enjoy anything this nonsense has to offer. I'll give you guys a quick rundown - bad guys catch and torture bad actors by starving them, forcing them to do bad things to each other, and whoever does the worst thing, they get some McDonalds or something. Fun stuff. Hell, I'd think feeding them fast food would be torture enough.

Random Ramblings of a Madman: I was eating during the film - and never once felt bad about it.

Interesting Plot... but that's about it.

[J_Brian · 2/10 · 27 July 2015]

*May contain spoilers* This movie wasn't as great as I'd hoped it would be. While the plot is pretty interesting, the movie actually sucked. And the reason behind the villain's purpose of subjecting victims to fight to the death for food is totally idiotic, and then he tells the 2 main characters about it as if it's some kind of bedtime story. Weak.

It takes place in an abandoned high school that the "mayor" has turned into an arena for his own pleasure.

The makeup effects are limited to that of a high school drama club.

The writing is terrible. It's almost as if the screenwriter found this old school house and thought "Hmmm, I wonder if I can write a movie we can make there". I'm pretty convinced this was made from the first draft of a very thin script to begin with.

Plus, there are several characters who are also caged victims that come along that really have no point nor drive the story along. Such as the black girl who is free from her cage and seems to use the lockers as a way to move undetected throughout the building. At one point, she even approaches one of the lead characters at her cage and says her dad is close to escaping and he'll get help, or something. But then she gets captured and has to fight some nutty cannibal. We never know anything about her dad from then on. Who the hell was he? And if she could escape so easily from her cage, why the hell did she never try to escape the building?

Another character that comes along for no reason is this dumb woman who comes around after the 2 leads have been missing for a month and asks if anyone has seen them. She mentions possibly getting the police involved, blah blah blah if she doesn't get any cooperation. So, the "mayor" takes her to the school where he captures her and forces her to fight some dude to the death so HE can finally eat. And he kills her in the most retarded way ever... by shoving a curling iron down her throat! ACTUALLY, ABOUT 2 INCHES INTO HER MOUTH! And it wasn't even plugged in. My fiancé cracked up at this scene and said "Wow, death by lack of gag reflex". It turns out that this dumb woman was actually a cop, because when she's captured the "mayor" finds a revolver in her ankle holster and later he runs down one of the characters with her unmarked police car with the lights flashing. So, why didn't this police woman calling her location or call for backup when the "mayor" took her to the school? How could she be bested so easily by this guy who was obviously starved and should have been too weak to overpower such a healthy person? And didn't she learn any self defense in police school? Stupid writing.

It also took the filmmakers long enough to tell us how long the lead characters had been missing. Just when I thought it was only a couple of days (since the lead guy's facial hair never grew any longer and his girlfriend looked fairly fresh) we learn from the useless, dumb cop lady that they've been gone for over a month. Where the hell have these people been shitting is what I want to know? There are no piles of poop anywhere.

Then, the lead character who gets run down by the "mayor' in the police car, actually is able to get up and walk around as if nothing happened? WTF!!!??? It was a brutal hit, too. She should have at least come away with a broken leg or something.

Several times, we get the idea that there are multiple people caged up in this school - because we can see them all around - but in the end, when the lead characters have killed the bad guy and escape, they leave everyone behind. ASSHOLES!

And then, in the end, the two lead characters drive away into the sunset with big smiles while police and emergency vehicles rush to the school. WHAT!?? You are both in very obvious need of medical attention and you just drive away?

Oh, and there's some kind of pointless tag midway through the end credits that, I guess, is supposed to allude to a sequel. Whatever. I accidentally stumbled upon it because I got up to use the bathroom after the movie and left it playing. I came back just in time to catch this wannabe Marvel-movie setup.

Who writes this sh*t?!

And what f*cking investors in their right minds finance it? I'd seriously like to know because I'm a filmmaker and I'd like to dig into your pockets to make a couple of movies that actually have some very good scripts with Hollywood notable actors attached... nothing like this garbage.

I gave this a 2 for the comedic value

Horrible

[JCKeiter3-2 · 1/10 · 4 August 2015]

I'd give it 0 stars, but the lowest I can go is 1. Don't believe these "reviews" that are giving it 8 and 9 stars. They are people from the filming, it's obvious. Just look at Mike Koskie who was the first to review it and he's also listed as the production assistant. What kind of production assistant has to give his own films 8 stars, just to build it up? Pathetic, it makes me not want to watch any film he's involved in, just for that alone. I decided to give it a try because there was nothing else on. The plot is OK, but the acting is horrible. The music choice sucked. It's more funny than scary. It shouldn't be listed as horror, it should be comedy. The move made no sense. It was suppose to be about an urban legend about feral cannibal kids, but only 1 kid was in the whole movie, and that was some black girl that ended up getting killed and eaten by an adult man. This was about as scary as Barney, and more boring. I kept getting on my computer because I was so bored with this group of actors and I'm being generous calling them that. If you haven't seen it, don't waste your time. You'll be mad you waste 2 hours of your time. I've seen better acting on Jersey Shore. I was very disappointed with this movie, because it could have been a decent movie, with better actors, better directing and was produced better. It was gory enough, that was the only bright spot.

Sometimes unintentionally funny

[shinsrevenge · 7/10 · 21 August 2016]

It starts as a promising horror movie with some potential, but after about half an hour it drifts of into horror-comedy, featuring some silly situations and funny lines. It's still entertaining, I guess. But in a different way. Instead of tension and suspense you get laughter. The amount of violence is not over the edge. There are some brutal scenes. They are violent enough to be interesting for fans of the genre and short/forgettable enough to be tolerable for the everyone else. A good compromise, if you ask me.

However, the funny parts don't last forever and after that the story gets darker again. I mean, they have a child killed and eaten. That's some tough stuff. Not anyone would dare to show it. But for the same reason it feels kind of innovative and "fresh" - so to speak.

Sometimes it's the small things and details that make a movie special and I discovered quite a few of them. Like the one time when they stopped at a diner. The woman went to the toilet and laid some paper on the seat before she sat down. You don't see that everyday. So yes, "Starve" felt quite original.

The story has some interesting aspects. It's basically about how to break the willpower of people and make them do things to survive. In this case a man catches bypassers on their way through a ghost town, imprisons them and threatens to let them starve unless they kill each other for food.

I felt well entertained for most of the time. But since it also had some weak parts in the story and in general lacked tension, I give it 7/10.

Utter tripe.

[iamtherobotman · 1/10 · 20 June 2016]

OK, so the actual premise of this was OK and thats where the positives end i'm afraid. From the moment their car got a brick dropped through the Windscreen this thing sank faster than the Titanic. Once they were captured and locked up there was nothing to suggest any kind of Timeframe. I honestly thought they'd only been locked up for a day and they were ready to eat anything. Then all of a sudden the perpetrator goes to the cafe and low and behold here's an investigator looking for our missing Teens and we're then informed they went missing a MONTH ago. No signs were given that any time had passed, it always seemed to be Daylight, never was it dark. The main protagonist must have the slowest growing stubble in the history of Mankind as his growth NEVER got any longer. The only sign that time passed at all was their clothes getting a bit more grubby and her hair becoming slightly more tangled. The acting was comical, the plot had more holes than a sieve, the script was unbelievably awful. I realise this was made on a budget - they probably got paid in burgers ironically but that is really no excuse for any film being so rancidly bad as this. One character who was portrayed as the champion as he'd killed so many people looked as though he'd last eaten 2 minutes ago as opposed to being starved to near death for God knows how many Months. In fact the only one who looked near starvation was the female lead, though she looked so from scene one and never at any point looked any more so. I must say, i found it impressive their energy levels considering they'd been starved. This is awful on so many levels. It's worth a watch if you can't find any decent comedies, other than that, don't bother.

Hungry..... for a decent B-movie?

[hubbard-51836 · 6/10 · 19 August 2020]

While Starve had several flaws, what it didn't lack was a group of entertaining actors and a story that, with a little bit of tweaking, could have been very good. I liked the twists they put in it. There were several opportunities missed (could have spent more time on the fight scenes) but overall I enjoyed the movie.

Bloody Awful

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 25 July 2015]

Firstly. As I write this, my review is the ONLY real review for this movie. You'll note that the 5 reviews on IMDb are all from people who worked on the film! It's the only review any of them ever write!

The Plot While researching an urban legend on feral children, three friends find themselves trapped in an abandoned high school, where they are confronted with an evil more sinister than the legend itself.

Not so original, right? Right. It's stupid actually. The film is very poorly and cheaply made.

The female lead looks like she has a mustache! All of them are already emaciated as the film begins so where's the drama of "starving?"

The entire script is derivative and uninteresting.

It's starts boring and doesn't get better. The music is horrible.

I cannot underscore how completely bad this movie is. It's a waste of your time to watch it. I wasted my time for you. One hour and 42 minutes wasted.

BTW, one of the phony reviews says there is a lot of blood. I didn't see it. Another lie to get you to rent, buy, whatever. Don't. Stay away.

Unintentionally hilarious! WATCH IT!

[choiseburgerz · 9/10 · 16 February 2019]

I'm sure you know by now, but this movie isn't a good horror movie. That being said, do yourself a favor and WATCH IT! I created an account just to review this new favorite of mine.

In this C-rated horror/thriller, we have 3 friends who are visiting a mostly abandoned town ironically called Freedom Florida in order to get material and inspiration for the main male characters graphic novel. Once they arrive, they make a seemingly unending series of the worst choices possible, and end up kidnapped. They are then locked in an abandoned high school, starved, and forced into mortal combat with the other captives in order to eat. Oh, and the bad choices don't end after they're captured either.

It's the closest thing you will see to a college freshmans first filmography project. It's exciting enough, but the thing about this movie you need to know is that it's actually pretty hilarious, and that wasn't the intention. The special effects are laughably bad, the acting is (for the most part) bad, and the mannerisms of every character including the "principal" and his toxic avenger-esqe wrangler are just great. You get to see one of the captives dodge a pair of scissors like Neo from The Matrix and that part almost killed me. There were several times during this film where I actually was laughing my ass off, and several more where I was yelling "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU SERIOUS??"

If you're looking for a good isolation horror flick like Saw or Hunger, then you should check this one out. It's a fun movie. But if you LOVE horror movies that are funny because they're so bad like I do, then this is going to be one of your favorites. I'm glad I watched it without reading the reviews. Give it a try! Worst case scenario is you get some good laughs and a few fight scenes. I'm rating it a 9/10 for the comedy alone. If I didn't enjoy bad movies, it would get a 3 at most.

Not bad 🤔

[jadedknox · 7/10 · 5 October 2018]

So after reading the reviews I wasn't sure if I should even bother with this movie but actually wasn't that bad! It kept my attention the whole time and all those the acting locked at times most the time it was decent enough. Cool story, likable characters. It does seem like an older movie though then 1994.

No part of this movie is any good.

[aarnold-89747 · 1/10 · 20 March 2016]

There is nothing good about this movie at all. Even in the worst movies, I try to find something positive in it, so here it is... the BEST thing I can say about this movie is this: The writing is so terrible, it's hard to tell if the acting is that bad. And disregard the fake reviews from the people that obviously either worked on the movie, or are getting paid for a positive review. I really wish IMDb could come up with some sort of filtering process for that.

I understand that sometimes in movies, they have to make characters make stupid decisions or act stupid to push the story in the direction they want. I hate it when they do that, but I understand they do that sometimes. That is all this movie does. At no point does anyone make a logical decision and at no point does anything make sense. I mean, the one gimp's primary weapon is a CO2 fire extinguisher!? And I don't mean it hits people with it. It just sprays people with it and they just go down. I promise, if you watch this TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE movie, you will just spend the entire time thinking none of this makes any sense. It's terrible and quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever watched.

Wasted time...

[rosecalifornia · 1/10 · 23 November 2020]

If the shaky-cam were anymore shaky...it would be off the Richter scale.

The acting is poor, and it's really obvious this movie is using wives, family and/or girlfriends.

The storyline is flat as a pancake. Even stage setting was haphazardly done....no one took the time to understand, eyewear reflects stage lighting.

Choose anything else.

Everyone involved in making this turd should starve...

[greg-29535 · 1/10 · 15 March 2021]

Stupid idea, bad writing, bad acting and bad direction. The only thing that even made me remotely happy is when the female lead went into "Matrix" mode to dodge a projectile. I was like... 'what the actual f#$%k am I watching? The "surprise" ending lol.

Cool premise that doesn't fully deliver.

[distantrevalation · 5/10 · 27 February 2020]

I really enjoyed the premise of this movie. The acting isn't awful and it's shot fairly well. Makes a great smoke and chill movie.

retarded version of a rob zombie movie

[raven-51972 · 6/10 · 10 February 2018]

As someone that absolutely loves House of a Thousand Corpses and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, I had to watch this movie as soon as I saw it on Amazon Prime. I have no idea how a month passed out of nowhere and they are living off so little each week for long periods of a time but if you can ignore these things its a decent enough movie to watch.

People expect all media to be absolutely amazing beyond belief from what I've seen over the years on the internet. Those same people will pick apart and hate watch shows like Star Trek:Discovery. Its beyond me but this movie, Starve, was pretty cool and it could have done with more fights or at least hint that there was a lot more going on.

This movie will give you indigestion

[bronzeplayer · 1/10 · 17 July 2021]

I'll give it one star for the horror disgust factor. Otherwise, forget it and go out to your local McDonald's and enjoy a Big Mac and fries.

Enjoyable film w/ a decent plot and execution.

[Mike_T-Little_Mtn_Sound_Archive · 7/10 · 9 February 2019]

I'll keep this short and sweet, offering a few comments on the production and content, opposed to a review of the film.

I really enjoyed the entire concept of this movie. It's somewhat unusual to see new(er) horror films that don't use recycled plots, or re-imaginings of old stories. The story has bits and pieces that might remind the viewer of other films, but on the whole, this is a fresh plot, or at worst, not common. Definitely nice to see a fresh plot, even if the overall storyline is a bit easy to telegraph.

While definitely a B-movie from a budgeting perspective, the actors do what I would call an average to above average job in their performances. Their characters do not feel forced, which makes relating to them much easier than those which are either over the top or just flat out bad. The script is also decent. In fact, there are a few lines in the film which felt "very normal," where other writers might have chosen to utilize fancy words or invoke forced dialog. This is appreciated, as it allows the viewer an opportunity to see how s/he might feel and react, opposed to a beautiful movie star regurgitating forced lines in attempt to make a point. This lends credibility to the director's performance as well, as the flow benefitted greatly from such smooth and natural dialog.

That said, the editing absolutely stinks, with some scenes ending in "fade-to-blacks." There are also a few issues with transitions between scenes, but it feels like nitpicking small examples opposed to gaping issues in production. The special fx are also not consistent. There are some live action effects, which look quite good, but they are often followed with stylized blood the very next scene. This stylized cgi blood is hokey looking, but the very next scene follows with live action blood. The inconsistency is more problematic than either use, and could have easily been solved by utilizing a single tactic through the film's entirety.

For viewers interested in content, the film could be described as:

• very, and often, violent
• containing a fair amount of blood, including a few examples of actual gore (though not over the top disgusting) and the sounds one might expect to hear from acts producing said gore.
• some slightly disturbing scenes, largely from the perspective of their realistic nature - ie "holy crap that looks like it hurt" kind of thing.
• some demented and sidistic acts, including an (almost) rape

All in all, I found this well above average than the majority of what I see coming from independent horror cinema. Nothing prophetic, and it likely wouldn't make any "favorites" lists, but a decent watch that doesn't require the viewer to make too many leaps of faith. It likely will not be enjoyed by viewers with queesy stomachs or who are not fans of blood, violence, and disturbing images. We're not talking "Cannibal Holocaust" here, but it should provide even the most ardent blood and gore hounds with basic satisfaction.

Boring and the fights are lame

[ayameofazuma · 1/10 · 8 March 2022]

I couldn't even sit through this garbage. The story is boring and the fights are just so lame. After the first fight I just fast forward through most of it, because I really just wanted to see if they escaped or not at the end... But a lot of these stupid torture movies have such poor writing that they never explain anything or give a back story to why anything happened. Also, who takes a pregnancy test in a dirty gas station restroom while on a road trip?

Very good!

[Dave_douell · 9/10 · 22 February 2019]

I can't believe the rating is so low for this movie. Good story, good actors, good camera and audio. Most all the actions of the characters were appropriate to the situation without doing all the stupid stuff they do in most movies. Sure, the story has been done in many ways before but this is one of the better ones. Well worth watching!

When Pushed To The Brink We Lose Our Humanity

[buckikris · 7/10 · 30 August 2015]

I red boxed this movie yesterday, and was surprised it actually had a decent plot. I also realized that 20 minutes into the movie, I do remember watching some of it on the sci-fi channel. I never got to watch it because I was working or something that day. The movie is about three friends who take a road trip into BFE Florida to investigate reports on an urban legend. Once they draw near somebody tosses a rock from an overpass, and it hits there windshield. They stop at this gas station/ eatery and ask about the legend to others, They explain to them nobody lives around those parts anymore due to the sinkholes, but they have heard of the feral children legend. The three friends snoop around , and get more than they bargained for. They get captured and realize they are in an abandoned school. They soon realize that other people who either got lost or whatever are locked up with them. The three at first are unaware in order to survive, they have to fight others to the death. This movie surprised me, for a straight to video it had a plot, and the ending will surprise you.

I don't know what to think

[imashark-60803 · 3/10 · 1 January 2021]

The plot was really good. The execution? Not so much.

Lame, but brutal Torture Film

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 3/10 · 24 August 2015]

Traveling through central Florida for research, a man and his friends find themselves abducted by a psychotic tenant and forced to undergo extreme starvation then fighting other prisoners for their entertainment, forcing them into an extreme test to survive.

Overall this one was another disappointing and frankly unimpressive Torture Film without too many positives. As is usual in these types of films, the main purpose of this one is the fact that so much of this one is undone by the rationale of logic and common sense that it becomes merely laughable to continue to sit there in such situations that ultimately become dull and lame. The fact that a large majority of this comes from the fact that so much of the film is simply sitting around their cages waiting for the fighting to occur does seem to keep that rationale held off so late into the film regardless of where it occurred there's nothing here that makes this seem like what's going on has any relevance to what they're dealing with motivations. There's just way too much of that throughout here, and it's not only taxing to get through but to then get through it with that for their logic and reasoning is only more frustrating than before with it really going for the lamest motive possible. Likewise, it's nearly impossible to get into so many other sections of the film here as there's just so much of the film that's not really fun to get into, from the lame rescue attempt that comes up short, the group holding them hostage that aren't scary at all but only remain so because of the condition they're held in or the rather clumsy way this brings them around to being captured by the group makes this incredibly lame, dull and padded out really for much longer than it needs to be. Where this one really works, and about the only point for it, is the savageness of the kills and fights throughout here, going for an animalistic way of fighting that's brutal and designed to kill more than anything else. There's a great sense of urgency and seriousness to these, and coupled with the savage gore for them really makes these quite worthwhile and the only part of this to really be enjoyable through the heavy set of flaws. Those are just too much for this one to overcome.

Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language, Extreme Graphic Violence and Nudity.

Terrible

[thrax-23316 · 2/10 · 14 June 2020]

Interesting idea, but rotten execution. Incredibly predictable towards the end.

A few scenes particularly rubbed me the wrong way. In one, Candice gets full-on hit by a car then a few minutes later, she's up and walking around like nothing happened. (And for a bunch of starving people, folks are awfully energetic.) Then the final scene with the survivors driving away -- there is literally no part of that scene that I liked -- the way it was filmed, the dialogue, the whole premise of the scene. Mariah Bonner and/or the director may have been trying to channel the spirit of Juliette Lewis there, but it just did not work for me at all.

I liked Cooper Huckabee, but that's about the only thing I did like about the film. The rest of it is just simply awful. Runyan and Ezrin's origin story is so beyond ridiculous -- who knew that exposure to methane turned you into a giant suppurating raisin?!

Geez, the more I write, the more I think about this film, the more annoyed I get! Just don't watch it.