As you've probably surmised, 6 MINUTES of DEATH is a low budget indie set in Philadelphia, 1862, with props and costume design that are occasionally convincing but more often ludicrously otherwise.
The first 30 minutes are VERY tiresome, with the local kids coming down with a mysterious pox-plague, a bunch of parents and teachers screaming and moaning, and so on. As horrible as the following may sound, things start to pick up after all the kids die and transmigrate to a clearing in the nearby woods called "the Library," where some mundanely dressed angel fellows--all with heavy East Coast accents--explain that a mysterious "Book" from somewhere, sometime in the Dark Ages allows them to resume their prematurely interrupted lives in a place and person of their choice. An interesting concept, and it might have made for a nice afterlife fantasy if the film had continued in that direction. However, a maverick girl-and-boy duo walk off with the "Book" before the "angels" can assign their proper destinations, and they wind up in a dark Dante-esque forest bordering Hell (?), which actually looks more like rural Long Island. One of the guardian angel guys with pattern baldness goes after them, but, as the Book decrees, he has only six minutes before he'll be trapped forever in the underworld himself. . .
For the very most part, 6MD is SO amateurishly done that it's laughable, and many will find it to be a waste of their time and money as well as downright insulting to their intelligence. In scenes such as the angel dude kung-fu fighting with "demons" (lol!) dressed in black hoodies and white masks, it would appear that the actors and directors weren't even halfway trying for anything that should be taken seriously (even in a funny way). Moreover, the huge cast for such a short film is confusing, and probably because the directors and writers of the film didn't have a really clear idea themselves, it's hard to place who's supposed to be who in both Philadelphia and the Afterworld.
I do not exaggerate when I say that in terms of overall production, 6MD is one of, perhaps THE worst film that I've ever seen--It definitely makes the bottom 3. Still, it's so weird, with such an imaginative (though seriously underdeveloped) premise that I have to give it a little something above the minimum rating. In certain places, it succeeds at being spooky if not exactly frightening--The haunting instrumental soundtrack helps in that regard. The child actors did a nice job despite the lame script they were given, and the whole film would have been far better if there were more focus on the kids and less on the various adult bozos. There is also some briefly breathtaking scenery. Finally, it gets really, really interesting at the very end. . .and then it stops.
The first 30 minutes are VERY tiresome, with the local kids coming down with a mysterious pox-plague, a bunch of parents and teachers screaming and moaning, and so on. As horrible as the following may sound, things start to pick up after all the kids die and transmigrate to a clearing in the nearby woods called "the Library," where some mundanely dressed angel fellows--all with heavy East Coast accents--explain that a mysterious "Book" from somewhere, sometime in the Dark Ages allows them to resume their prematurely interrupted lives in a place and person of their choice. An interesting concept, and it might have made for a nice afterlife fantasy if the film had continued in that direction. However, a maverick girl-and-boy duo walk off with the "Book" before the "angels" can assign their proper destinations, and they wind up in a dark Dante-esque forest bordering Hell (?), which actually looks more like rural Long Island. One of the guardian angel guys with pattern baldness goes after them, but, as the Book decrees, he has only six minutes before he'll be trapped forever in the underworld himself. . .
For the very most part, 6MD is SO amateurishly done that it's laughable, and many will find it to be a waste of their time and money as well as downright insulting to their intelligence. In scenes such as the angel dude kung-fu fighting with "demons" (lol!) dressed in black hoodies and white masks, it would appear that the actors and directors weren't even halfway trying for anything that should be taken seriously (even in a funny way). Moreover, the huge cast for such a short film is confusing, and probably because the directors and writers of the film didn't have a really clear idea themselves, it's hard to place who's supposed to be who in both Philadelphia and the Afterworld.
I do not exaggerate when I say that in terms of overall production, 6MD is one of, perhaps THE worst film that I've ever seen--It definitely makes the bottom 3. Still, it's so weird, with such an imaginative (though seriously underdeveloped) premise that I have to give it a little something above the minimum rating. In certain places, it succeeds at being spooky if not exactly frightening--The haunting instrumental soundtrack helps in that regard. The child actors did a nice job despite the lame script they were given, and the whole film would have been far better if there were more focus on the kids and less on the various adult bozos. There is also some briefly breathtaking scenery. Finally, it gets really, really interesting at the very end. . .and then it stops.
