Movie Review: Lovers Lane (2000)
Synopsis: Thirteen years after being imprisoned in a mental institution for murdering Harriet Anderson and Ward Lamson with his hook hand while they were apparently having an affair at Lovers Lane, Ray Hennessey escapes and starts a killing spree. Ray's original victims' spouses, Sheriff Tom Anderson and Principal Penny Lamson believe he is going after their kids, Mandy and Michael. Only, there is a lot more to the story than they realize.
Who's in it? The movie stars Erin J. Dean, Riley Smith, Matt Riedy, Suzanne Bouchard and Anna Faris.
Review: I came across Lovers Lane a few days ago and since it had been a while since my wife and I last watched a slasher film, I added it to my library. While my expectations for a film I previously had forgotten existed weren't very high, the movie still failed to meet them.
There are a couple things wrong with this film. One of the main ones is it take a long time for anything to happen and, even then, there are long gaps between action scenes. You can get away with that with some movies if the characters are interesting enough but that wasn't the case with this one. They were about as stereotypical as you could get, and the film didn't even bother filling in some of the backstories, such as why Mandy (Dean) was so unliked.
It was also an extremely predictable movie. I predicted the film's "surprise" twist about 15 minutes in and then spotted the second "surprise" twist the second it was thrown in. Frankly, it was so obvious, the only reason some of the victims died was pure stupidity on their part. At minimum, predictability and lack of action do not make for an entertaining horror film.
Oh, and in that regard, one other thing I found I wasn't a fan of was how the filmmakers seemed to be a bit undecisive about whether this was supposed to be a horror film or a horror/comedy. I'm all for some comic relief to keep things from getting too dark but the comedy was coming at somewhat inappropriate times and wasn't overly funny. It was a little ironic considering Anna Faris would go on to stare in one of the best horror movie spoofs (Scary Movie) later the same year.
Final Opinion: The plot had potential, but the execution and script were lacking. It was dull at times and hard to take seriously at others and I can understand why I didn't remember it existed.
My Grade: D
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2000:
Movie Review: Leprechaun 5: In the Hood (2000)
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