Stag Night (2010)

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Four men out on a STAG NIGHT in New York prematurely exit an underground train after the soon-to-be-best-man begins to hassle two women. Trapped at a deserted station these six adults become the target of a gruesome manhunt when a secret gang of cannibal dwellers, living in the tunnels discovers them. Tensions will rise as they fight to make it through the night with all their limbs attached.I am almost ashamed that I waited this long to see "Stag Night". For some reason I just never got around to watching it until two nights ago. Wow. This film was furious and stressful to watch. In a good way. I first thought it was going to be lame because of the set up. A group of guys out for a bachelor party thing. Thinking it would be another rich kids on wrong side of town flick I flippantly sat down to this film and began having my nerves shot and my mind knotted.First off the film is shot in a very gritty and visually dark manner similar to "Mimic". The golden shadowy glow that makes me think of candle light for some reason. Anyway. It becomes more like an urban legend on steroids. The concept of a whole barbaric and viscous world under the city were what comes down gets eaten is raised to a high energy fright train of a ride for this group of guys who along the subway ride meet up with a couple of girls and things don't go as planned.The film kinda starts a little slow at first but as soon as they step off the train and release their error this little flick does not let up until the very last second of the film. The action is fast paced and intense. The drama is in your face and truthful to the experience if it really could happen. You would actually feel this is how you would act. Well me I would have worked like a motherf*cker on that d*mn chain and lock on the abandoned station doorway until it f*cking broke and got my sorry a$$ up and out.One by one the characters are chased down and brutalized in a flat out gore rich pounding from psycho hyper-disturbed cannibal homeless clan. This is fear of the tunnel people amplified. Use to be rats, gangs, regular subway homeless and the occasional C.H.U.D. was all you had to worry about but now you have blood thirsty amped up cannibals ready to run you down and gut you like a pig.The story was great. Little dialog other than necessary to convey terror and heavy on the action and violence. The cast made you believe every gut wrenching moment of there nightmare tunnel trip. This film is a great horror tale spun from urban legend that I am truly ashamed to say I missed when it first came out. Glad I took the time to sit down and watch this flick.

Yes, Stag Night is derivative of those movies from the past where victims find themselves in the wrong place, unaware of the menace that lives within the environs they are trapped and unfamiliar. The menaces are hideous, grotesque underground subway dwellers, more than likely spawns of incest due to their inability to speak and obvious physical deformities. Five buddies (Kip Pardue and Breckin Meyer, familiar faces among them) are celebrating bachelor's night in NYC, getting kicked out of a club. They decide to hitch a ride (illegally without paying the toll) on a subway, meeting two girls (one, Vinessa Shaw, the Aja remake of The Hills Have Eyes, perhaps what horror fans will know her from), all getting off when the train stops momentarily, left accidentally by the conductor. They trek throughout the foreboding tunnels of the underground subway system, seeing the aforementioned psycho killers butchering a security guard warning them to quit fooling around with a snack machine. The killers carry home-made machete swords and spears, wearing scraggly clothes, their hygiene worse for wear. Most of the film has these human monsters chasing down and slaughtering members of the group, feeding the body parts to their blood-thirsty mutts. What this does have going for it (which isn't originality or a very steady camera) is its willingness to not give any member of the hunted cast a break; all are lambs to the slaughter. All are at one point or another stabbed and put through the ringer. The hunters all look like Rob Zombie from his White Zombie days, and they live for the kill. Pardue is the star with Shaw his aide as Meyer serves as the tag-along buddy always reminding them that they are certain to perish, never to make it out alive. The other guys and girl serve as bloody meat to be skewered and filleted. Lots of prosthetics, limbs and especially severed heads, are used in abundance. Constant running and fear, with the ever-present threat of gross inbred bums wielding blades always lurking around. I think the film's greatest asset is how it establishes a way of life underneath the city, that a whole community exists, including the wackos who have a shack they keep a female mannequin(!) watching television and their barking human-meat eating dogs chained. This will be appreciated by those who love their subway horror because the setting is presented as a labyrinth with few (if any) exits; what is scary is not only becoming lost underground but pursued by those who call it their home.

This was one of those movies you're immediately not surprised went straight to video. The plot is essentially the same as Judgement Night, only replacing Dennis Lery and crew with the Geico cavemen. Even looking at the lovely Vinessa Shaw doesn't make this movie tolerable. If you miss this one, you're life will be better for it. A group of friends out for a bachelor party team up with a couple of strippers, get off at the wrong station on the subway and end up being stalked by a trio of bloodthirsty hobos who bear a striking resemblance to the guitarist from Soundgarden. Think The Hills Have Eyes, in a subway and with less originality or acting. Bad effects, lots of fake blood and no logical explanation why or how these rabid hobos suddenly decided to go all Manson family leave you wondering how such a generic waste of film could have attracted Breckinridge Meyer or Vinessa Shaw, who both have somewhat respectable film careers (until now). I won't spoil the ending for you, only because there's really nothing to spoil. The entire film left me wondering why I didn't just change the channel.

I never intended to watch Stag night – not this one anyway. I read on IMDb about a British film that was more or less a wannabe Shaun of the Dead entitled 'Stag Night of the Dead'. It was supposed to be reasonably amusing and with the action transpiring on a Stag Night you can't help but guess that a certain number of strippers might've been involved… I wasn't actively hunting SNotD but as things tend to do the title lodged itself in my subconscious. A few weeks later at the video shop I spy the cover for Stag Night and my mind does a quick double-take; was that supposed to be good and if so why?, as it was on the weekly shelf I threw caution to the wind and slapped down the $1 required to borrow Stag Night for an entire 7 day period.Stag Night has no 'of the dead', no laughs and only a brief moment of nudity… But it isn't terrible.Here's why; Predictably enough the movie is set during a Stag Night. Not a glamorous or large scale affair, just four guys having some beers in the city. When we meet the four guys they are being kicked out of a strip club and discussing whether to call it a night or kick on.Kicking on wins.Shortly after they are aboard the subway heading to the next destination with two of the strippers from the club who are done for the night. After some obnoxiousness from one of the quartet leads to mace being released, a door is forced open (somehow) and all 6 exit the train in a dark section of subway tunnel at 4 AM.Let's fast forward only a few minutes: SUBWAY TUNNEL CANNIBALS!!! Yep it's that kinda film. The ensuing hour has the usual chaos, stupid decisions and unlikely events as the 6 mostly unlikable anti-heroes stumble about in the dark.There is liberal use of F-Bombs even well before the Rob Zombie looking cannibals show up to slice and dice. The film has one good kill scene that is more entertaining than it is inexplicable – and it is quite inexplicable – and an hour of running from bad guys in a film most aptly described as Mimic Vs Wrong Turn.I didn't hate Stag Night. It's just too reminiscent of so many other better movies to stand out from the pack. I like the fact that they played it straight and never winked to camera or made things too unbelievable… what am I saying? SUBWAY TUNNEL CANNIBALS!!! I'd like that last remark stricken from the record.Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. If you want lotsa gore and minimal thought all wrapped up in a familiar package Stag Night isn't bad, how good Stag Night of the Dead is remains to be seen.One last thing: How many movies feature monsters/killers or creatures that have apparently been prying their deadly trade for some time without anyone ever realising. Fine I can believe that they have a 100% kill rate once they target their prey, as unrealistic as that is. But no-one ever seems to ask about the missing or looks too hard into things.And when cops do they are invariably killed… but who looks for them? (I know, I know. Just a movie.)