Simon Says – DVD Review
The Film:
Simon Says is the story of the ever-so-cliche group of horny teenagers going off into the woods for a little bit of camping, smoking pot, drinking alcohol, and “hooking-up” until they run into the psychotic whack-job that starts picking them off, one-by-one, until everyone dies a grisly death. But there is more to this Don’t Go in the Woods/Wrong Turn/Friday the 13th-style slaughter-fest because Crispin Glover (Willard, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) is in this film and he has a knack for playing some truly twisted characters and this performance is several notches above the rest of them, folks!
William Dear (Harry & the Hendersons) has directed and written a film that is B-grade as far as budgets go, but a fun gore-filled blood-soaked ride that had believable characters and an extremely high body-count with some very fun deaths. After all, a film that has a demented maniac running around taking victims down left and right should have some serious gore and carnage, both of which Simon Says certainly does not lack either of. Aside from a eerily spectacular acting job by Glover, the film is filled with some mystery and a plot that all falls into place at its conclusion. Throw in a dose of hot girls that show some skin, you have a recipe for a solid slasher film that has just the right mixture of body parts, blood, and babes.
Simon and Stanley, two twins that look exactly the same but one is mildly if not full retarded, are out camping with their mother and father and an “accident” occurs involving one twin smashing the other twins head into a pulp with a large rock while high as a kite, then continuing on slaughtering the rest of his family. Fast-forward into present day where are group of eager suburban campers roll up in their peace-loving hippie VW van smoking dope all the way to the campgrounds, asking the locals where to camp and are warned about the history of the woods. But of course these kids do not take heed to this warning and continue on, happening to camp at the exact site where the murders occurred.
This film was so enjoyable for me because Glover plays a great character that is truly disturbed and psychotic. I sometimes wonder if Glover has a twinge of that psychosis in himself because he always portrays characters that just seem so damn real. Aside from Glover’s performance, we had some great scenes of violence, some crude jokes and humor, and pretty good chemistry between Kate (Margo Harshman, Sorority Row), Zack (Greg Zipes, Club Dread), Vicky (Carrie Finklea, Elephant), Ashley (Kelly Vitz, Nancy Drew), and Riff (Artie Baxter, Gridiron Gang). The aforementioned characters all come with the typical stereotypes to make some funny banter between each other: the jock, the slut, the pothead, the high-maintenance and innocent “princess”, and the uber-hot, responsible, well-rounded gal that you know will make it to the end because she is the only one with half a clue. Simon Says is a slasher film at heart that does not disappoint with the amount of victims slashed and hacked to death. The film delivers on every level I expected from it, which may have not been too much for what I was watching, but lots of fun none-the-less.
The DVD:
Audio/Video: The audio in the movie was very crisp and clear, every bone crushed, flesh ripped, and organs slashed sounded excellent on this dvd. The video of the film was very good with vibrant reds and looked very sharp. The movie was filmed in 24p HD and it really looks like it was made with 35 mm film. Great looking film for such a low budget.
Director’s Commentary: Commentary with director William Dear and 2nd unit director Oliver Dear.The commentary was so-so, only having the director and 2nd unit director speaking is a fairly one-sided commentary and I usually enjoy it more if there is an actor or actress on hand to shed a different light on the whole film. It was not one of the more interesting commentaries that I have heard and was slightly bored during it, but there were highs and lows throughout it. I did find it interesting to hear that Bruce Glover, Crispin Glover’s father, was in the film for a short period of time as Crispin’s characters father. I was very interested to hear the parts about Glover’s methods and acting.
Behind the Scenes: Simon says Chopped, Chiseled, and Charred: Behind the Scenes was a decent segment that has director William Dear, Bryan Greenberg-Director of Photography, 2nd Unit Director/Production Designer Oliver Dear actors Crispin Glover,Greg Cipes, Artie Baxter, and actresses Margo Hashman, Kelly Vitz, and Carrie Finklea all talking about various scenesin the film and what their methods were for getting key scenes shot. All aspects of the film were discussed and this portion of the extras was by far the coolest offered on the dvd. This runs for almost 15 minutes.
Storyboard Comparisons: This portion takes five of the more gorier kill-scenes and does a storyboard comparison. It runs around 5 minutes.
Stills Gallery: Stills from movie and a few behind the scenes shots.
Conclusion: The film was a roller-coaster slasher ride that I was happy to have gotten on. I highly recommend seeing Simon Says for some low-budget slasher-fare that really looks big-budget on the screen. One of actor Crispin Glover’s finer performances and breathes new life into the slasher film genre.
The Film: Rating: 
The DVD: Rating:
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