2018 Directed by Anthony DiBlasi
A young woman with a severely troubled past signs up for an extreme haunt called Perdition. She believes that putting herself through Perdition's nightmarish trials will help her exorcise her internal traumas, but has no way of knowing just how shocking her ordeal will be-or what dark secrets buried in her psyche will emerge.
Chad Rook September D'Angelo Natalie Victoria J. LaRose Jeffrey Reddick Cam Damage Mark Kandborg Ashley Smith Chantal Perron Yoshihiro Nishimura Jen Znack Ami Tomite Angelique Berry Dana Christina Dylan Sloane Jill Maria Robinson Paul Braaten Kelsey Andries Tiggy Heitzler Nikki Rae Hallow Shena LaPierre Tiffany Shepis Felissa Rose Nick Principe Ricky Dean Logan Rebecca Swan
Way more brutal than I thought it would be and further assurance that I’ll not be attending an extreme haunt... like, ever. Several minutes in and I coudn’t help but feel like this would have made a bigger splash in 2008—that’s not meant as an insult either, this is some dingy grim haunt stuff with a colorful 2010’s sheen, probably DiBlasi’s best looking flick to date (I dig DiBlasi’s stuff) and even though this usually isn’t my cup of tea there was enough to keep me involved.
This was a decent Halloween watch! Definitely different, even from the slew of haunted attraction movies that have come out recently because it leans heavy into the psychological aspect of what makes people do stuff like this.
It’s kinda uneven and starts to unravel by the end, but it’s a pretty fun ride getting there at least! I really related to the main character basically being able to point out every way her father had just completely fucked her up and if I thought doing something like this would make me fully move past all that then I’d probably do it too but girl no lol that’s not how I think it works. Then again I dunno, that last encounter…
Interesting premise completely decimated by some of the most atrocious writing. Wasn’t surprised to see a crew of almost all men (minus one female producer and a female costume designer). A frequent descriptor of an important character is “shitty screenwriter”, which feels a tad too self aware. The most intriguing part of the entire film doesn’t arrive until the final 20 minutes. I think if the big twist had happened more around the 40 minute mark, the flow would have felt a bit more intriguing.
Our lead, Dana Christina, is one of the only true redeeming elements of the entire film, playing her role well with a rage that slowly builds into its explosive catharsis. In the same regard, the gore within the final 20 minutes is equally as impressive.
Extremity is both what I expected and not what I expected at all, but not necessarily in a way that could be categorized as good.
No denying that the setup had me hooked. Then the film goes down the shitter, literally right into a nasty toilet bowl. Characters keep mentioning bad screenplays in the film, and I think the screenwriters are self-aware in that regard. The script deserves credit for going in unexpected directions, yet most of these are regrettable. The most unsettling moment for me was when I realized I was watching a subpar Canadian flick from Alberta. Not sure if it was the forced representation of FNMI (apologies for the acronym) or the accents, or just the self-loathing contempt for mankind (sorry Justin T.) that bleeds from the screen. Somehow at this moment, that seems wholly Canadian. Extra half star for impressively gruesome practical f/x, spooky dark interiors and the variety of creepy masks. 4.6/10
Quick Review
Directed by Anthony DiBlasi from a script by David Bond and Rebecca Swan, Extremity concerns a young woman (Dana Christina) who willingly subjects herself to grueling torment inside an extreme haunt called Perdition in order to reconcile her fears with a certain childhood trauma. Contrary to what you might expect out of its title, Extremity is, well, more or less extreme in only parts of its psychological torture instead of the upsetting violence related to the New French. Indeed, save for the cathartic third act, the entirety of the movie plays out akin to a PG-13 feature more so than something like Haunt or Hell Fest. Therefore, I'll spare you your time if you're looking for heavy gore…
I’m a bit conflicted about how I feel about this film because it has all the pieces on the table, some sequences are memorable and you can tell it's made by people who love horror, but as a whole it is quite bland and forgettable. There is something with how it's put together and how many of the lines are delivered that puts me off. Also, how the focus shifts from one character to another is very unpleasant.
I hate extreme haunts and just assume everyone who runs them are perverts and creeps. I know, a huge generalization. Luckily I have no interest in exploring it further and learning if that's true (it's probably true).
So the idea of deconstructing one of these haunts sounds appealing. I liked the concept going in. Which is why I'm going to be kinder to it than I should be.
The movie focuses on Allison (Dana Christina). She is a woman with a past that includes a lot of buried trauma and believes that going to one of these haunts is the way to extract and face repressed memories. Christina is outstanding in the role. I was impressed to see a performance…
Cheap. Another lazy use of mental illness and trauma as the trigger for horrible events. Writing like this reinforces and relies on the stigma attached to mental illness. Retire this plot device.
Some cool visuals and effects though, and I’d totally attend that haunt. I know a dude who is the real life version of the mastermind of the haunt in this film.. similar enough I’m wondering if that character is based on him. That guy did some sick haunts that I loved being in.
Anthony DiBlasi has directed some amazing horror movies in Dread and Last Shift. Both movies feature shocking scenes, heightened suspense and memorable finales. I generally know what to expect when I see his name attached to a film but Extremity was just awful.
The script and plot focus a lot on trauma and the struggle to let go of the past. While it's admirable that the film was trying to do more than just horrify or thrill the audience, the fact of the matter is that it just isn't very good.
The film has the unfortunate luck to be released in close proximity to the vastly superior Haunt, a movie whose creators also helped to make A Quiet Place and…
An egregiously misguided attempt to crossbreed something humane with the always alluring promise of spooky masks, voice modulators and a dingy, middle-of-nowhere shithole setting. The way this splices past instances of Allison's *severely* traumatic childhood with literal torture in the present is kinda fucking abhorrent, and although this juxtaposition is just a means to an end for its batshit excuse of an, erm, "rehabilitative" end stretch twist given her and their initial aims, it's still fairly tactless. Loses nearly all momentum and potential following a too-early and particularly limp reveal despite desperate attempts to regain its footing with twisty, turny carpet yanking throughout what ensues.
Extremity feels like what I'd imagine Rob Zombie's idea of psychotherapy to be. The haunt equivalent of David Fincher's Seven. It's a brutal affair layered with scathing commentary that unflinchingly dives into the topic of physical and mental abuse. An effective story, one tailor fit for the horror genre.
A young woman obsessed with horror subjects herself to hours of grueling torment inside an extreme haunt in an attempt to confront her fears and conquer the tragic past that haunts her.
The film wastes no time getting right to it. After a brief introduction to lead character Allison (Dana Christina), we're thrown right into the lion's den alongside her. And as she traverses the themed halls of the haunt, she's…
This is probably the closest I’ve come to enjoying a DiBlasi feature but it was still pretty rough. The take on relatively new subject matter was an interesting angle but almost every decision felt underdeveloped. There were no real stakes because the characterization was essentially nonexistent and the motivation of those onscreen left me scratching my head. Don’t wanna be too much of a downer so I’ll leave it at that. Extremity just wasn’t for me.
