Cradle of Fear (2001)

Wow! Such a good movie.

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

To the short: The effects are lazy and even funny, the acting are awful (reminded me of those Mexican soup-operas), the script is the worse... not even Dani Filth saved the screen.The only and one thing that COULD have been interesting was the fourth part, the one about the snuff website. I think the whole movie could have been about it, of course with decent acting and effect and WITHOUT Dani Flth (is not even a good singer, and it is worse as a actor).The plot of the snuff-site is good and the conclusion of it is very obvious but still interesting. With some treatment like the movies "Hostel" it would kick-ass.

Kemper (David McEwen) is a convicted killer sitting in an asylum. He has a satanic avenger known as The Man (Filth) on the outside carrying out revenge on those who put him there. This is the wraparound to this four part British anthology film. Mel (Booth) is a Goth girl who picks up The Man at a club. She has sex with him and gives birth to a creature the next morning fatally. The second story has Emma (Emma Rice) and Sophie (Rebecca Eden) breaking into a blind man's home in the dead of night after a large stash of cash they believe is hidden there. They kill the tenant (Al Stokes) and then Sophie back stabs Emma and kills her. She thinks she has gotten away with it until their ghosts return for revenge. The third story is of Nick (Louie Brownsell) who has the lower half of his leg missing. Wanting to be whole for his girlfriend Natalie (Daly) he kills an acquaintance and slices off his leg and has it graphed on to his. This backfires of course. Detective Neilson (Dehn) is investigating all the cases until he finds out Kemper has targeted his son Richard (Stuart Laing) for his last victim. Richard is sucked into a forbidden internet site called 'The Sick Room' where the voyeur can watch and pick how his victim is to be abused. Writer/Director Alex Chandon makes this shot on video sickie look like a bad TV show being broad casted on the net. Yes it's gory and disgusting and stars the lead singer of hardcore band Cradle of Filth but none of this is scary. The stories range from average (the first and second) to poor (the final two). Another problem the film has not including an annoying soundtrack, is that every character in this film is a f***ing A**hole. Thieves, murderers, drug addicts, Satanists, sadists are just some of the personality traits of these characters. Almost every line by all the characters starts with the word F***. There is no one to identify with or want to see come out on top. There are some cheesy digital effects of a car out of control that will make you laugh at how bad it looks. With no scares or suspense to speak of, the filmmakers make this gory bore last two hours on top of it.

hey, OK first of all i'm rating this movie 8/10 because it's so much overlooked and despised, it's painful. i'm a huge fan of horror movies, and this one has a special place in my heart. i won't deny that i'm a cradle of filth groupie but the movie went so much far beyond my expectation. i can't reasonably consider it an extended music video, the horror here is social; when I first watched it, I was expecting a black metal imagery exhibition, but it's so much more than that... it's so much more than even a classic horror flick. it s a movie depicting every cardinal sins in a Edgar Poe novel way, but it surpasses this statement. you get the classical greed moral point of view, actually you ll get all you would have expected from a grand Guignol show, but the thing is this movie contains great, like awesome moments of acting, spontaneous gore, no one's feeling safe all around and it achieves it's goal; which at some point is delivering a Polansky like atmospheric level mixed with the joy of the first Peter Jackson movies - and not in the way you would have expected but in a book of shorts stories way. the more you get into the stories, the more you get sucked up into this introspective contemporary social horror. You re actually looking at one of the best reflective horror flicks of all time. OK, i know that i'm repetitive and kind of exited, but in my opinion Alex Chandon would have deserved at least more attentive viewers. i'm disappointed that most of the negative critics came from the cradle of filth fans, cause if satanic worshipers had a figurehead in cinema it would've been this one, in terms of ambiguous morals, screenplay troves, effectives special effects, aggressive story telling. f**k, watch this film, enjoy it, and pay some respects to this director. he deserves it way more than many others. it appears to be a B movie but is in fact a horrific deep journey into the human soul.

Empire called it "the best British gore film since Hellraiser". Allan Bryce said "i have seen the future of horror and his name is Alex Chandon". With praise like that it was bound to disappoint some. Cradle of fear is a low-budget horror anthology. Whether you will enjoy the film will depend on whether you can get past the low-budget video look, several bad performances and the at times laughable effects. However overall the most surprising thing about this film is how good it is. Alex Chgandon brings a level of directing style not usually associated with this budget, in particular in the excellent opening sequence. The gore is excellent and some off the effects are very good though at times the over the top nature off the violence is at odds with the tone off the film. In general the acting is good with Stuart Laing in the films high point the sick room segment being of special mention. Dani Filth is alright in a role that requires him to do little but kill and act cool. The actor who played Kemper was suitably deranged. Though the high point is the sick room segment , there are great moments throughout in particular the finale. Is it good as Hellraiser? No, but then not a lot of horror films are. It does however show that with a bigger budget and more time Alex Chandon could make one off THE horror films off the decade, and therefore really does introduce a new voice previously known only in underground circles. This however is not his masterpiece.