The Task (2011) User Reviews

I love a good mystery

[bowmanblue · 5/10 · 21 March 2015]

Yes, a good mystery keeps your mind going while you're watching a film. However, the main mystery about The Task is why a cast, made up of 99% British actors, were putting on American accents for the entire movie? The Task is about a reality TV show where the producers kidnap (yes, kidnap) six contestants (all supposedly American, but frequently use the term "torch" instead of "flashlight" and shout "Bl**dy hell!" when there's danger). Anyway, the producers (of which there are four of them - apparently you only need four people to stage a TV show - Big Brother must waste loads of money on runners and editors etc) lock these six English-American teenagers in an abandoned prison and tell them they'll get paid if they stay the night.

Well, you probably already know it's a horror film, so, guess what, they start getting picked off one by one. However, anyone hoping that this happens soon will be sorely disappointed. This film is the very definition of slooooow. The first hour and four minutes is made up of the six teens wandering round darkened corridors completing (completely non-lethal) tasks.

I guess the main trouble is that this is too much like real reality TV. By this I mean they've picked central characters who I really would like to see get murdered painfully (a viewpoint I also take when I accidentally tune into X-Factor, American Idol and that one in the jungle where people stop doing pantomime in order to eat bugs in front of Ant and Dec). I couldn't wait for the main characters to die - at least it meant they could stop pretending to be from the deep south of Arizona (as opposed to West Kensington).

It also says a lot about the movie when the person you recognise the most is 'Jack' from the eighties sit-com 'Bread' (now, Nellie Boswell - she was truly scary - The Task just isn't).

A horror-bull mistake

[perkypops · 3/10 · 10 March 2012]

The premise shows promise. Take a very spooky place where a bunch of game show participants choose to spend the night for major cash prizes, make a creepy TV reality show of it, and then introduce a couple of plot twists just when you are collecting your things together ready to leave. Had any single one of these things been done well then the others would not have mattered, but, regrettably, the whole film is poor.

It is not spooky, it is not scary, it is not even well done, and in places it is just plain silly. There are continuity problems, poor script, poor editing, and just poor acting, aside from the opening five minutes where there is at least some energy and verve. But once we are into that time when you just want it to lift off the film reveals that you have already seen the best it has to offer. And you hope that whatever twists there are to come they'll be signposted somewhere if you watch carefully. Unfortunately for this film its twists try to redeem a dying film when the kindest thing would have been to put it out of its misery.

Don't be sucked in!

[bstewart80 · 3/10 · 12 August 2011]

LOVED THE IDEA! Yes I know its been done before, but as a horror fan I live in hope a movie will deliver the jumps and scares like they used to when I was growing up in the 80's! This movie is without a doubt the worst 'attempted' horror I have seen in a long time. The acting is wooden, and thats being polite, the 'jump' factor is nil, and the general gore and story line? NON EXISTENT. Horror fans will love the idea of it, but believe me u will be disappointed. I am amazed that someone made this, looked back on it and though "Wow what a great horror film." Like many horror fans it takes a lot nowadays to scare people, this film wouldn't scare my 7 year old nephew.

Pretty painful

[HorrorOverEverything · 14 July 2011]

So basically this movie is a mix between the film "Are you scared" and an old MTV show called "Fear", and lets just say that mix doesn't work very well in this case.

The film is insanely slow, things really don't pick up until about an hour in, and even then its nothing special. The first hour is basically just a bunch of shots of the annoying main characters walking through dark hallways while they talk about how scared they are.

The gore is basically non existent so even the gore hounds won't find something to like in this one. Honestly this could have been a PG-13 horror film, not sure why it was given an R rating.

I do regret watching this flick because all in all it was a pretty big waste. The ending was very dumb and there wasn't really anything to take away from in this disaster. I gave it a 2 simply based on the fact that I do enjoy Reality show/Horror idea. 2/10 Skip it.

90 mins of pure hell

[dead_dewd · 1/10 · 11 March 2012]

The kind of film that makes you reel in horror after watching it because you could have been doing something better with your inane life, like punching yourself in the balls.

I can't believe that this film actually got through my eyeballs to my brain without my body throwing up.

Bad cast, bad script, bad plot, bad dog.

Should be advertised with the warning of 'slightly less mildly perilous than "Finding Nemo"'

Don't watch this unless you're on Mescaline. And there is a goat writing alternative subtitles for you.

I'd probably only watch it again if you paid me, five English pounds.

I'm a cheap date.

Silly Screenplay with Unbelievable Plot Point

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 5 May 2012]

Seven youngsters are abducted on the streets and brought to an abandoned prison in a van. They learn that they have been selected to participate in a reality show promoted by the ambitious TV producer Connie Salomon (Alexandra Staden). One of them gives up, but the gay Randall (Marc Pickering); the nerd Toni (Amara Karan); the blonde Shoe (Ashley Mulheron); the strong Dixon (Texas Battle); and the siblings Stanton (Tom Payne) and Angel (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) accept the invitation expecting to receive US$ 20,000.00 each.

The six contestants also learn that the former warden had killed eighty-five inmates many years ago, and they are assigned to accomplish with tasks that explore the fear of each one of them that they had confessed in the interview. However, the warden attacks them along the night. Connie is following the contestants through the cameras and feels that something is wrong; but her team believes that the warden is a joke from the senior management of the show. Is it?

"The Task" is a horror film with a good acting but a silly screenplay, with an unbelievable plot point. The idea of the warden attacking the contestants is OK, but the first twist with Connie lured is not convincing. After this scene, the conclusion is totally predictable. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Reality da Morte" ("Reality of the Death")

a few big failures in editing

[trashgang · 4/10 · 17 October 2011]

This is Alex Orwell's first attempt to deliver a horror. And being noticed by After Dark it should mean that you made something special. For me it wasn't anything special. The acting was a bit mediocre to me and sometimes unbelievable and in fact it took a while before the movie really started. But it's so strange that it was noticed by After Dark because it contains a few editing mistakes. There is a shot were a body is sitting in a chair in a gas chamber presumably dead but when we see a close up you see her chest moving due breathing. That's for me a failure. But it goes even further. When one body is hanging upside down and his throat is being slashed they make a close-up of the blood dripping on the ground, a few shots further the blood has gone and in one shot the killer do has blood of the victim on him, next shot when the mutants arrive it's gone. Man, these are really blunders made into the genre.

It isn't scary or even bloody or messy, it's a bit to tame for that. Only the twist at the end makes it worth watching because you can't see that one coming.

it's so strange that I didn't get into the characters because the actors aren't unknown in the genre, Ashley Mulheron for example played in The Lesbian Vampire Killers and I enjoyed that one a lot.

I'm intending to see all 8 flicks out there in the After Dark series but this was the worst so far and I have seen 4 of them so far.

The "task" is making it to the end of this stinker

[chiownknee60 · 3/10 · 28 July 2011]

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)

-

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."

Fairly entertaining

[keeronv · 7/10 · 25 February 2012]

The Task is like Halloween : Resurrection but ten times better and the film is on a low budget where as Halloween : Resurrection had $15,000,000 (estimated) budget.

I was really surprised by how good the ending was.!!

I agree with most of the reviews, this films has a good concept and good ideas, but not executed as well as they could of been, yet saying this I still enjoyed the film.

Its not the best film I've seen but its worth the watch and I suggest horror fans to watch this,put it this way its like Halloween x

Its not as corny as you would expect, this film could of been a lot better by editing certain parts of the film and editing some dialogue and removing it out of the film to make it less corny.

Overall I think it is worth the watch, some films I watch for 15 minutes and turn straight off, if this movie wasn't worth watching i would of turned it off lol..

And I give the film extra credit for been on a low budget..

Peace From The U.K

Pretty decent Horror Movie.

[Gothamite1 · 5/10 · 25 October 2019]

Low budget, but with a solid cast building everything up. Would have given more for a better ending without the twists before the end. But otherwise pretty solid and worth watching.

Cliché but enjoyable haunted locale opus

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 22 January 2013]

When a group of reality show contestants arrive to participate in a horror reality show at an abandoned prison, a series of gruesome accidents has them believing that the site's resident ghosts might be the ones responsible and not the show's fear-based antics.

This one here manages to become somewhat watchable as there are several really good points on display. As is usually necessary in such situations, the film's best elements are found with the atmosphere and location which are just incredible, giving off such a foreboding sense of suspense and creepiness that by doing nothing, it still gives off a rather tense vibe, especially when it starts with the guidelines of the show being filmed. The opening walk-through here is perfect for that as the utterly dark hall-ways hearing only the sounds of their footsteps echoing off the walls that sets up the big chase through the facility with the howling dog sounds which set this off really nicely, while the rest of the big suspense comes from the cleaver and admittedly chilling show premise. Several of them are rather freaky and definitely enjoyable, especially the first one in the chapel as the activity required here to raise the spirit inside the utter darkness is truly chilling, the later player being forced into the tank of sludge that signals the first of the ghostly activities and the team trapped in the gas chamber are incredibly fun scenes that utilize the prison's layout effectively while being extra creepy for how they're woven into the game, and the biggest part here is the finale where he's finally been uncovered and allowed to really focus on the ghostly figure running loose interfering with the show as these are really fun moments. The last plus here is the concept of the show and how it deals with fear, since it tends to skip over some when it comes to going wrong so that there's a lot of anticipation as to when it'll go sour, which is a great feeling and keeps it interesting. These here make it good enough to hold out its flaws, which aren't bad but are noticeable. The biggest factor here is the last half, which is where the film gets a little off-track since it tends to pile on twist after twist in attempt to try something new, but gets way too overblown thinking there's a rather big reveal to its twists. That leads into the other problem, as it may start off as being somewhat clichéd and rather familiar being a haunted prison film with still-alive ghosts haunting it, which is rather uninspired and not all that original. While it's still really enjoyable these flaws do stick out enough to hold it down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

The Flask

[BakuryuuTyranno · 5/10 · 11 March 2012]

"The Task" seemed at first like a good movie, albeit somewhat formulaic - the characters seemed played and written quite enthusiastically, although they still were archetypal characters.

Unfortunately although there's some sense of fun during scenes focusing on the contestants and crew members, the horror aspect is handled somewhat poorly - it has slow pacing without the atmosphere or suspense that makes slow burn horror effective.

There's also not much here that would satisfy gorehounds - partially because little happens plot-wise for large portions of runtime, but also because these kills aren't very imaginative - generally stabbings and such.

It's still not terrible, its just lacking strength in any particular area that would make the film worthwhile. However, for anyone who's the obscure "School of Horror", "The Task" should be quite familiar, yet more subtle.

Its almost Afterdark's best movie this year but falls short.

Moderately entertaining

[krystinapilkington · 9 September 2011]

The concept of this film is mildly promising, but the execution leaves a little to be desired. It just takes a little too long to get going, however when it does can be moderately entertaining.

This film is definitely not going to win any awards. Nonetheless, it does manage to just about hold your attention long enough to see the twist near the end, which surprisingly wasn't as predictable as is standard with these cheap horror films.

I wouldn't rush out to buy/watch this one, but if you have a spare hour and a half and a group of friends that fancy a laugh it is worth a go. Just don't expect anything spectacular and you won't be disappointed.

For 2011 I'd place it right in the middle of the 'After Dark Originals' bunch.

[Hellmant · 5/10 · 10 November 2011]

'THE TASK': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

An 'After Dark Original' about a reality TV show staged at a prison with a dark past where six students must survive the night accomplishing random spooky tasks. The film stars a group of mostly unknown attractive young wannabe stars, playing mostly attractive young wannabe stars (or at least the want to be rich). It was written by Kenny Yakkel and directed by first time director Alex Orwell. This one has slightly higher productions values than most of the other 2011 'After Dark Original' entries and is some what amusing but there's definitely nothing too special or memorable here.

The story begins with six students being kidnapped off the streets, stuffed in a van and driven to a prison out in the middle of nowhere. Once released from the van they're handcuffed together and told they've been chosen to participate in a reality TV show filmed at the prison behind them. They have the option of participating and winning $20,000 by surviving the night in the prison or leaving in a taxi that we'll drive them home. The catch is that the prison used to be the home of an insane warden that butchered a bunch of inmates there several years ago and is believed to be haunted by his ghost. The students must then take part in terrifying tasks assigned to them by the TV show while mysterious things continue to happen all around them, it's just never quite clear whether it's part of the show or something else.

The movie is stylishly shot and edited and like I said the actors all look good and so does the scenery. The problem is that the movie is never really that spooky, until the end but it takes way too long to get there. For too long were kept in the dark on what is really happening and the characters never really seem like they're in that much danger. Horror fans do get what they want and expect closer to the end but by then it's just a little too little too late. Still it's not nearly as atrocious as the other 'After Dark' films I've watched recently. For 2011 I'd place it right in the middle of the bunch; it's an average horror film that gives us something but nothing worth getting too excited about.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQaTxuL7SQ

Garbage I wouldn't waste your time.

[random_geezer_the_rd · 1/10 · 5 February 2021]

Flatters to decieve for an 18 zero gore and shocking acting. Third act got turned off

Porn Sets have more staff on set than this "Reality Show"

[tyler2658-220-234988 · 2/10 · 1 January 2022]

This has to be one of the worst horror films I have seen to date.

This movie has acting that makes you wonder who gave these people jobs to begin with. When you watch a horror film you can get past bad acting, but the people who are running the "reality show" 4 of them. Yes 4 people have to have no clue what a reaction is. Frustrating to watch overall. Idea could of been worked with much better but the cast and writing with bad editing makes this a bore. Little gore, not scary also. Enter at your own risk.

Hmmm

[Bezenby · 4/10 · 18 November 2015]

Although at first this film seems almost well made and also as if it is going to lead somewhere, I'm afraid you're going to be well disappointed as The Task lines up a lot of punches and pulls every single one of them.

Note: This film does have that scouse guy from Bread in it, so that's good. Apart from that, what you have is a film that involving some fuds that have signed up for some reality TV show and are 'kidnapped' and taken to an abandoned prison, where they are set some tasks and etc.

You know the drill, some guy keeps showing up on the TV folks footage, people get killed, blah blah. Be prepared to sit through a lot only for the film to kick you in the nuts. It's not worth your time.

I paid about 30p for this one so that didn't hurt too much. If you like horror without any actual horror, this is the film for you.

Rip off...

[rebeccakatielouisexo · 3/10 · 9 December 2014]

So I went into watching this film, thinking it'll be a great original horror film. I was wrong. It's not an original concept, it's like a saw/fear rip off. It did have a few scares in and was original in the sense of the flesh eating vampire/cannibals. It was well written to an extent. The cast's acting complimented each other, and the characters fit together like a glove. The location looked great with the film, I's love to visit there myself! All in all, you should watch it yourself, to get your own opinion, you might like it. I think it's the kind of film, which would only be watched the once, not several times. @RebeccaKLxo

I Really Enjoyed It

[RandomFox · 10/10 · 10 August 2011]

I don't understand why this movie got so many poor reviews, outside of the fact possibly that the genre of horror has become a pretty abysmal thing (and so many people think that's what horror is really meant to be.) This movie was done to the stage of classic horror -- if you enjoy Vincent Price and Alfred Hitchcock; who didn't use senseless gore or torture or muzak (music altered to get a psychological effect from someone where something otherwise may not be scary) to get the point across; then you will enjoy this.

This movie is almost entirely a rip off of Vincent Price's house on haunted hill, everywhere down to certain twists that occur. This is refreshing, because the remake of this classic film was nothing but gratuitous violence. The remake frightened me, true, but Vincent Price's version intrigued me. It made me enjoy myself, and it was worth the watch.

While I couldn't compare this film as a great classic like Beethoven, if I were to compare it to music, I could certainly compare modern horror (and many modern movies) to modern music -- which is talentless, relies almost wholly on machines, and for the better part soul-less. This movie wasn't on the level of Vincent Price or Alfred Hitchcock, but it was certainly a step in the right direction our movies need to be going in.

TL;DR: If you enjoy reading, you'll enjoy this movie. If you can't read, you'll enjoy other modern horrors.

Just for Specific Audience

[qyzenreviews · 6/10 · 28 May 2021]

It was a mix bag of drama-horror-gore, the premise was interesting but the acting was something to be questioned about.

It starts off slow and cheesy dialogues makes it look so cheap and modest like a TV movie.

The acting as mentioned is not up to the par, but they had a half[-baked amusing plot with overhasty direction and that is the sole reason why this film wasn't made so well.

The cinematography was acceptable and the location was spooky.

Overall, it was fun in the end a low budget piece notwithstanding, it is simply average go for me.

There are no Horror Elements in this movie yet I Enjoyed it,

[atinder · 5/10 · 28 April 2012]

I was excepting this movie to be really poor.

I found the start a little odd, people are being kidnapped, only to be told they going to be spending the day in abandoned prison.

They did not seem to care that were kidnapped expect for one of them, who soon leaves.

I found move really entertaining and did not find it boring at all, nothing much really happens and people in this movie did not annoy me at all.

There also had just hint of descent atmosphere, if they tried a little hard, it could have made this movie creepy.

As this movie was not scary or creepy and it wasn't even that bloody, yet I still enjoyed it!

I was shocked with that twist, , I had no idea that would happen, I think it worked really well with the rest of the movie. after that twist. it's easy to predict what happens for rest of the movie.

I going to give this movie 5 out of 10 descent horror movie

Surprisingly Watchable

[d-legg304 · 17 July 2011]

I was weary of watching this because I wasn't familiar with many of the actors or the companies that had produced the movie. I watched it anyway and 20 minutes into it I was pleased to see classy visual fanfare and decent acting. The premise is actually somewhat original, considering that it is virtually impossible to create something that is truly original at this point in cinema history (unless it is something bizarre) so I was pleased with the way it was done. Capitalizing on the intensity and increased realism of hand-held cams and surveillance video, it was tastefully executed.

There is a lot of trash constantly being released out there, but this does not file under the trash category in my opinion. The producers might have overestimated their capabilities due to budget, but they did an excellent job with what they had to work with. I was impressed that they didn't rely a lot of the gore-factor for shock value. The movie was genuinely frightening without excessive blood and brutality. With a better budget, I could see this being a huge hit.

Good idea... terrible execution...

[destroyerwod · 5/10 · 8 February 2013]

The idea was looking interesting, but sadly the movie has almost nothing in term of scare factors... I tried to set it up the best i could, me alone in my basement at night(3am) with every lights closed an yet i didn't even jump scared once... You would think for a movie set up in an abandoned prison, it would, but no. I blame mostly the "Ghost" of the movie which is just a random bald dude(same guy that plays Markov of Undisputed 2&3) with nothing that look remotely scary. Also he is supposed to be a ghost in the movie, yet totally act like a "slasher movie killer".

In any case i had good hope it would be a bit scary, it wasn't at all, another movie for the pawnshop pile.

Still enjoyable on the 5 viewing.

[sicklittlebunny · 8/10 · 28 December 2022]

It's a group of twenty-somethings on a horror reality show, I don't know what people were expecting.

It's got a House on Haunted Hill (the remake) vibe, and I like that.

The show they're competing on isn't supposed to be some genius original idea, it's low budget trash tv. The characters aren't supposed to be deep, they're basically Big Brother rejects, eg. When asked their greatest fear, one answered eating meat because she's vegetarian.

It's just a bit of fun. The whole debate over what's real and what's just a set up for the viewers of the show is entertaining and that's good enough for me.

A refreshment

[teachyouparking · 24 July 2011]

I really do not understand why other reviewers made so harsh reviews on this movie compared to the so "exciting" Transformers or Marvel's school of "learn how to make a movie".

The movie doesn't shine that much (unlike the TOP BEST since 2000, it doesn't throw money on effects or advertising) but it surely helps you get refreshed from the boring movies that are produced the last couple of years.

Why I liked it? It lacks all those annoying issues with which the movies today are trying to ruin your vision and melt your brain with questions: 1. A constantly shaking camera during fight scenes 2. Undeveloped plot 3. Appearance of personages whose presence doesn't make any sense. 4. Fast pasted plot 5. Exaggerated effects

This is a movie that doesn't fight for a best award but it surely isn't something that has to be missed.

Anyways, regards to beautiful Bulgaria. :)