Fat ladies are frequently depicted as crazy and murderous psychos. Or maybe they're not, but in any case it's a stereotype I believe exists and so it must exist in some other film, beside this one. Maybe you guys can help me do some research on that, I don't have the time because I have a 14 month old who's diaper I have to change. A look at this film's poster promises a wild, campy massacre similar to the collected works of the Polonia brothers. However, what we get is an atmospheric creeper that is unfortunately dull and lame.

The film begins when crazy Evelyn, just released from a mental hospital, kills her daughter by accidentally flinging her sickle around in anger when she stumbles upon her daughter's underground animal farm and creepy altar to her late father. The cops come and she makes believe the girl died accidentally in the kitchen. She retreats to her lair, the Mountaintop Motel, a rundown collection of shacks way too deep in the woods to be convenient for travelers, but then this is supposed to be a horror movie, so forget it. Well, people start showing up to spend the night and Evelyn starts hearing the disembodied voice of her daughter, tormenting her. She figures the best thing to do is to get some kind of revenge or something on her guests. Your guess is as good as mine, but she is disturbed so we can sort of buy that she's decided to mess with these people.

This is when you'd expect the massacre to start, but no, that doesn't really start until the hour mark. Evelyn's brilliant (read stupid and lame) plan is really to annoy her guests. The first thing she does is drop a poisonous snake in a newlywed's cabin, and when the husband gets bit on the face you expect him to die violently, but no, he just kind of languishes on the bed for the whole movie with his face slightly swollen. Not really damage, just an annoyance. In another cabin, she lets some rats loose, and you expect them to gnaw the chubby preacher in there to death, but they just crawl around and he gets mad. No gnawing, merely a pebble in the shoe. Then she pulls her most dastardly trick yet and lets loose some roaches in the token black guy's room, and you think that maybe they'll crawl in his nose and mouth and suffocate him, but no, they just crawl on his face and he gets upset. Yeah it's kind of gross, but really just a fly in the ointment. The movie was thick with atmosphere and dread so the setup for an epic kill fest was there, but nothing really got going and pretty soon boredom set in. I was beginning to wonder when the hell this movie was going to offer up it's promised "massacre" when the voice of Evelyn's daughter pipes in again and instructs her mom to kill them all.

Okay, finally! Evelyn grabs her sickle and proceeds to slaughter her customers. The gore is minimal and the violence is usually portrayed off screen, so don't expect this film to get more exciting. Al, a business man who picked up the girls with the wet t-shirts, and Crenshaw, the token black guy, team up to track her down and stop her once and for all. They find trap doors in their rooms that lead to the underground crawl space that once belonged to Evelyn's daughter and they climb down to stop her. The sheriff shows up and is shown the way into the tunnel by the surviving wet t-shirt gal, Tanya. The end battle between an enraged Evelyn and the sheriff was apparently filmed without sound so a cheesy halloween fx soundtrack is laid on in place of an actual, realistic soundtrack. It might have worked for the film, but by this point I was so bored I could care less.

First thing's first, this film is stunningly photographed. Cinematographer Joseph M. Wilcots' use of lighting and color are amazingly detailed and miles above the lame material the film is trying to pass off as a plot. The film is slick and polished looking, probably much more professional looking than the name and poster would have you believe. But the plotting is the lead weight lump that drags the film down. The acting is below average for most of the cast, and we don't care a lick about any of them. Evelyn is ridiculously underdeveloped to the point that we don't understand her motives or even care what she does. This is not the massacre you've all been waiting for, but if this is your first horror film, it isn't a bad place to start because it looks good and the violence is minimal, allowing you a chance to work your way up to hearty fare. FYI, the lady on the poster isn't even the real Evelyn!

- Jose Prendes