Twelve [XII] (2008) Review

twelve xii We’ve seen it countless times before. Small, dusty, remote Arizona town. Nothing much going on other than a bit of gossip at the local diner, some drinks being had at the local sleazy bar and linen being changed at the local motel. That is until a crazed psycho comes to town – obviously.

It really can’t help the tourist trade in these remote parts of America. I twelve xiiknow that I wouldn’t stop off anywhere like this for fear of something horrible happening.
Thankfully, in this case, the killer isn’t indiscriminate, he only wants to murder certain people – the members of the jury that had him convicted.
Whilst doing time for abusing small children, Leonard Karlson is attacked by the other prisoners, leaving him a very bitter man, and when he somehow escapes from jail he wastes no time in tracking down the people that he holds responsible.
And what better way to make someone pay thatn by cutting off their face before killing them?

Sadly, this pretty typical horror storyline, although sounding horrible, doesn’t quite work.
The film isn’t badly made, but somehow it’s as if the horror has been sucked out of it, leaving behind a mediocre bunch of actors, limited special effects and a long, predictable storyline.

The mass murderer hides his hideously disfigured face under a mask made from other people’s faces, and he does look pretty nasty. But the whole ‘disfigured face under a hideous mask’ thing has been done so much that it isn’t actually very scary anymore.
I mean, how many psycho’s don’t wear their victim’s skin nowadays right?

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The same goes for his technique of forcing his victims off the road using his big pick-up truck, and the fact that he uses household tools for his torturous murders – I mean, doesn’t every evil killer do that nowadays? I’m guessing that Stanley and Black and Decker are depending on these maniacs to stay in business.
No doubt these ideas are nasty, but they’re not original and are therefore, not very scary.

Of course, if you make a movie about a crazed killer and said killer isn’t scary, you have pretty much failed at the first hurdle.

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There is also way too much senseless dialogue between unnecessary characters, giving the impression that the makers really weren’t sure what they wanted this movie to be about. A killer who wants revenge – that’s it – and so very unexciting.

Oh, until you are shown people having their faces being torn off. That’s pretty horrible, but other than that, nothing.

A break from horror movies set in dusty Arizona towns is definitely in order.

Movie Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 

Trailer:

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Tom Atkinson

Tom is one of the editors at Love Horror. He has been watching horror for a worryingly long time, starting on the Universal Monsters and progressing through the Carpenter classics. He has a soft-spot for eighties horror.More

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