Sometime ago, a publicist for the fright flick Somebody Help Me sent me a copy of the film and asked me to write a review. Though I try to avoid writing reviews in our blogsphere, I gave the movie a look and wrote this review; an edited version of one I wrote for CinemATL:
Somebody Help Me features a principally African-American cast lead by R&B songsters Marques Houston and Omari Grandberry. You’ve seen the tale before: twentysomethings Brendan (Houston) and Darryl (Grandberry) invite their friends up to a remote mountain cabin for some partying. Then one by one, the friends start to disappear, including their girlfriends. Brendan and Darryl decide to try to find them before calling in authorities. Along the way, they encounter a mysterious and creepy loner/voyeur and a mysterious and creepy little girl who perplex them with their mysterious and creepy ways. Meanwhile, the abductor is treating the abductees to a little unnecessary surgery sans anesthesia, and is working his way down to Brendan’s girl.
I haven’t seen and don’t know a lot of horror films, but I have a feeling that Somebody Help Me borrows its plot lines from several different horror movies: It’s a hodge-podge homage to writer/director Chris Stokes’ DVD collection. But Stokes (House Party 4, You Got Served) doesn’t seem to have bothered with making his story cohesive, plausible or logical. He’s more concerned with getting his characters into near encounters with the masked kidnapper and other “scary” moments, usually by way of contrived scenes and weakly stilted dialogue. The script leaves many plot points unexplained and disconnected, as if the “scary” moments would distract from the fact. Stokes likes to play around with shadows and darkness and editing and optical tricks in an attempt to build suspense; it only creates confusion.
Houston, Grandberry and the rest of the cast stumble about the movie, strait-jacketed by bad dialogue and motivations that make you roll your eyes and say, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Stokes establishes some relationship issues between Darryl and his girl (played by Kim Fields’ little sister Alexis) early on, as if he would delve into some character development. But this is soon forgotten in favor of the movie’s attempts to be scary.
Somebody Help Me won’t find its way onto my list of favorite horror movies (and it’s a very short list), but it manages to stay off of my list of worst movies. True horror fans will probably disagree with me; they might see some things that make it a good horror movie besides its failings in story. It’s a movie best enjoyed by gathering a group of friends, having some snacks and laughing at the weak points of the movie. (Hopefully, your friends will make it home without vanishing!)
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Somebody Help Me is available on DVD for sale or rental. Find more information at the Codeblack Entertainment website.
