Party of DIE

Title:  The Hamiltons

Actors/Director/Anything Worth Mentioning Right Away:  This movie is directed by The Butcher Brothers and contains primarily unknown actors.   I was drawn to it because it is one of the 8 Films to Die For.   Along with Wicked Little Things, this marks my second review from the first year of 8F2D4.

Introduction:  I bought this on eBay for an undisclosed sum.   Totally worth it, by the way.

Location:  It takes place in one small town, but is mostly inside different rooms of the same house.  Oh sure, there are other locations, but not for a great length of time.

Plot:  This movie centers around a family of three brothers (Well, four, but we’ll get to that later) and a sister who seem to move around a lot.   They’re kind of like how I’d imagine Party of Five to be except they have some sort of legal problems, what with all the killing.    You kind of get the sense something is off with them, even from the previews, but it leaves you wondering throughout the entire movie whether or not they’ll get away with it and more importantly it leaves you guessing as to what exactly their deal is.

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WARNING:  Stop reading this review now if you haven’t seen this movie and do not wish to have it spoiled for you.   Trust me, it worth watching without being spoiled.  If you’ve watched the movie already, please proceed.

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                The family has what can only be thought of at first as a pet named Lenny.    They have to feed Lenny, and he apparently eats something that involves human death.   My initial theory- and the one I maintained throughout- was that they were going to be a family of cannibals and Lenny was just going to be far too inbred and crazy looking to actually be allowed out of his cage and into normal society.   Yes, I was expecting a big payoff with some grotesque looking figure appearing in the end, though I wasn’t disappointed by the results.    My other theory- which I felt was a copout- was that maybe the family was somewhat fine and normal and their dirty little secret really was just Lenny, which again would turn into some sort of monster scenario.   The reality of it all though is that they are actually a family of vampires.   Lenny looks like a normal little kid and the youngest son was going through his change throughout the entire movie and is now officially part of the family.   It was a nice twist, because while vampires are all the rage right now, I didn’t expect them to go with that.   I had my mind set on cannibals.   (Zombies was a close second) 

Acting:  Based on the fact that I really don’t know who anyone is and the sister wants to be Rose McGowan, I’d say they all did very well.   Why did the one brother’s hair always stick up in the back though?  That kind of annoyed me.

Production:  It looked like it might have been in theaters, but not having a huge budget.  It really reminded me of watching Automaton Transfusion or Shaun of the Dead for some reason, based purely on production value.

Sex/Nudity:  There is a scene in a truck involving sex and later on there is a scene involving two girls making out, but these are all done prior to the kill.   As most anyone can tell you with vampires, it’s always about the sex before the kill.   (See: Interview with a Vampire)

Special Effects:  There was a lot of blood and it looked great.

Overall Verdict:  At the end of this movie, the family known as The Hamiltons has to move, naturally, and then enters a new neighborhood under the guise of The Thompsons.   I felt that this was a clever way to end things, this just being one of the cycles shown while this is continuously happening, over and over, for this family.   I was quite surprised- and pleased- to read after the fact that there is a sequel (called The Thompsons) in the works.   I very much look forward to that and now all the other work of the Butcher Brothers that I can track down to watch.