Nudity: 0 out of 10 (nothing even close to a female disrobing in this one)
Gore: 1.5 out of 10 (this movie could have been rated PG-13)
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Six young adults have been hand-selected to participate in a reality television show.
1) Shoe (the luscious Ashley Mulheron who was part of the 2009 effort, "Lesbian Vampire Killers"): The ambitious, ditsy one of the bunch.
2) Dixon (Texas Battle who was an expendable character in Final Destination 3): The muscular, masculine presence in the film. As he notes early on, "people used to say" that he looked like Will Smith, "but now they say Barack Obama." (Yes, he actually says that).
3) Toni (Amara Karan): The cerebral one who is given embarrassing lines such as, "I have the IQ of Stephen Hawking and Einstein... put together."
4) Angel (Antonia Campbell-Hughes): Younger sister of Stanton. Fearless, money-driven. A Brit.
5) Stanton (Tom Payne): Older brother of Angel. The substance of his character is that he was dropped on his head when he was two. Also a Brit.
6) Randall (Marc Pickering): Self-professed "off-the-hook gay" man whose favorite book is OK Magazine. As the doors open to the prison early in the movie, he affirms, "And I thought coming out of the closet was scary..."
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These six characters, in exchange for $20,000, agree to spend the night in an abandoned prison. A number of atrocities were committed there in the past by a deranged warden. It looks like an untoward place.
Once inside, each of the six characters has to perform a task or two that is revealed by a barbed wire-wrapped television set.
If they make it through the night, the cash is theirs.
But is the warden still around to "welcome" his visitors?
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"The Task" is an odd duck.
In January of 2011, when the After Dark original movies hit the theaters, this one was curiously left off the roster. Why the long delay? Did it need more work? Or was it a stinker? We can safely assume that it was the latter.
A few of the movie's virtues: It has a decent set design. A handful of eyebrow-raising ideas. And it sometimes carries a campy feel (in a nostalgic, good way). The best directorial decision of all was having Alexandra Staden on the screen, front-and-center, for a good portion of the movie. Admittedly though, her top was cut a little high for my tastes.
Sadly, just about all of the fun of the movie is vacuumed out by the hideous dialogue, lumbering pace, Alexandra Staden and Ashley Mulheron's unremoved clothes, and the unforgivably lame kills. The darkest elements of the movie are only hinted at (like what the warden did to his female prisoners), but they are never explored.
If you've seen the execrable Halloween Resurrection, you know the drill. Killer in the building appears to be picking off the contestants. Viewers watch the murders on television, but can't decide if it is real or all part of the show. How far are the viewers willing to let it go?
To its credit, "The Task" does try to shake things up a little bit at the end. But it is hurried and unsatisfying.
This one is only for After Dark diehards. Otherwise, it is unessential viewing.
A similar and far superior low budget movie is Marc Evans' "My Little Eye."
Gore: 1.5 out of 10 (this movie could have been rated PG-13)
-
Six young adults have been hand-selected to participate in a reality television show.
1) Shoe (the luscious Ashley Mulheron who was part of the 2009 effort, "Lesbian Vampire Killers"): The ambitious, ditsy one of the bunch.
2) Dixon (Texas Battle who was an expendable character in Final Destination 3): The muscular, masculine presence in the film. As he notes early on, "people used to say" that he looked like Will Smith, "but now they say Barack Obama." (Yes, he actually says that).
3) Toni (Amara Karan): The cerebral one who is given embarrassing lines such as, "I have the IQ of Stephen Hawking and Einstein... put together."
4) Angel (Antonia Campbell-Hughes): Younger sister of Stanton. Fearless, money-driven. A Brit.
5) Stanton (Tom Payne): Older brother of Angel. The substance of his character is that he was dropped on his head when he was two. Also a Brit.
6) Randall (Marc Pickering): Self-professed "off-the-hook gay" man whose favorite book is OK Magazine. As the doors open to the prison early in the movie, he affirms, "And I thought coming out of the closet was scary..."
-
These six characters, in exchange for $20,000, agree to spend the night in an abandoned prison. A number of atrocities were committed there in the past by a deranged warden. It looks like an untoward place.
Once inside, each of the six characters has to perform a task or two that is revealed by a barbed wire-wrapped television set.
If they make it through the night, the cash is theirs.
But is the warden still around to "welcome" his visitors?
-
"The Task" is an odd duck.
In January of 2011, when the After Dark original movies hit the theaters, this one was curiously left off the roster. Why the long delay? Did it need more work? Or was it a stinker? We can safely assume that it was the latter.
A few of the movie's virtues: It has a decent set design. A handful of eyebrow-raising ideas. And it sometimes carries a campy feel (in a nostalgic, good way). The best directorial decision of all was having Alexandra Staden on the screen, front-and-center, for a good portion of the movie. Admittedly though, her top was cut a little high for my tastes.
Sadly, just about all of the fun of the movie is vacuumed out by the hideous dialogue, lumbering pace, Alexandra Staden and Ashley Mulheron's unremoved clothes, and the unforgivably lame kills. The darkest elements of the movie are only hinted at (like what the warden did to his female prisoners), but they are never explored.
If you've seen the execrable Halloween Resurrection, you know the drill. Killer in the building appears to be picking off the contestants. Viewers watch the murders on television, but can't decide if it is real or all part of the show. How far are the viewers willing to let it go?
To its credit, "The Task" does try to shake things up a little bit at the end. But it is hurried and unsatisfying.
This one is only for After Dark diehards. Otherwise, it is unessential viewing.
A similar and far superior low budget movie is Marc Evans' "My Little Eye."