Curse of Alcatraz (2007)

Saturday, 02 August 2008 00:00

Reviewed by Carol Sullivan

Genre: Horror
Released: September 25, 2007
Rating: R

Director: Daniel Zirilli
Starring: Joe Jones, Jessie Camacho, Candise Lakota, Jose Solano, Alex Quinn
Studio: Lionsgate

DVD FEATURES
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Commentary W/ Director Daniel Zirilli and Writer D. Glase Lomond

Pitch Black: A Night on Alcatraz

In First Person: Cast and Crew

Trailer

Also From Lionsgate

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"The Shappa Indians called this place the 'Island of Madness'" - Alyssa

Filmed on location at the infamous prison, Curse of Alcatraz is a luke-warm horror flick with an surprisingly interesting storyline. While the movie does end up being rather disappointing, having the history of the Alcatraz prison, and surrounding area, woven into the film kept me watching.

After a construction crew unearths some ancient remains in the basement of Alcatraz, one of the park rangers, Ranger Greyson (Willima Van Noland), begins to poke around in the bones. When he pricks his finger on one of the skeleton's teeth, he soon becomes ill and has strange visions.

Soon after, a team of scientists from the local University is called in to exhume the historical remains. When the ferry back to the main-land breaks down, the team is forced to spend the night on the run-down cell-block.

It seems that the skeleton that they have found is from a local Native American tribe that had been wiped out a couple of centuries ago by a nasty virus; one that drove them to madness and murder. Preparing to take the skeleton off of the island, the illness begins to spread amongst the Rangers and scientists. With some of them going insane and killing each other, the survivors must figure out how to see that this ancient disease never leaves The Rock.

While the Curse of Alcatraz has an interesting premise and story line, the movie is painfully low-budget. The sound recording is terrible and all of the dialog is dubbed-in and terribly out of sync. The cast had a good script to work with, but their acting feels very forced and unrehearsed. Too bad, as the movie had a good idea, they just executed it poorly.

But I would recommend steering clear of Curse of Alcatraz and instead, check your local library for an interesting book on the history of Alcatraz prison.

Overall Rating: 1 1/2

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Last Updated ( Friday, 27 March 2009 16:00 )