Crazy Eights didn't do a heck of a lot for me. It's got an okay premise: A group of childhood friends reunite after one of them dies - a la It - and of course they have a shared secret. Maybe even a supernatural one! And we know the secret has to do with "experimental facilities in the South" where children were basically bought from their parents, because the title card tells us so. While the whole "medical experiments on kids" angle is kind of cool, it's dealt with rather awkwardly and not in a satisfying way. I almost wonder if the information got on a title card because they didn't bother explaining it well in the film? It's treated in Crazy Eights like a slow unveiling, and usually you don't have a title card spoil a reveal...so whatever. The important thing is that there's a ghost, and it kills people.
My Synopsis: Pretty much what I said up there. Six friends, most of them damaged in some way, are led to a weird old house by the will of a seventh dead friend. But what about the Crazy *Eight*, you may ask? That Eight, as you can guess, is a ghost that kills them off in spooky ways.
Elaborate Genre: Ghost / Haunted House "Mystery"
Overall: There are a couple of okay gory bits and it's got a game and kind of recognizable cast, but it lacks oomph. It's not bad, it's just kind of there.
Crazy Eights was released under the After Dark Horrorfest label, and it looks a little more polished than other films of it's ilk. But on the flipside: it's lit better, and the sets aren't quite a dilapidated as you are used to seeing. It just didn't feel like the setting was utilized for tension as well as it could be. It's probably one of the only films of this type that I've seen where there is a lot of sunlight coming in the windows, you know?
Amongst the cast of friends, you've got Traci Lords, Gabrielle Anwar, and Frank Whaley (I didn't know his name but instantly recognized him). The script is fine when it comes to the small scale individual interactions, and everyone does a good job with what they are given (Whaley's character is a little much of an overblown asshole though). Where Crazy Eights kind of falters is the big picture - like the question of what is going on and why?
Looking over some imdb stuff, some of the discussions are saying that maybe there's no ghost at all - it's all just our six friends, psychologically scarred and guilt-ridden about their past. But I didn't really get that from the film, and wouldn't have considered it at all if I wasn't doing "research" for writing about it here. In some ways, it makes sense - there's very little ghost action that you see (frustratingly little, in fact), and guilt is a big theme in some of the dialogue. But the film just isn't interesting enough to make you pay attention to those little bits, and the ending isn't very conclusive one way or the other. And I'm not saying that I need a conclusion clearly spelled out for me. I just think if you are going to be vague you at least need something else going on in your movie like style / atmosphere / gore / humor / etc. Crazy Eights just doesn't have it. But I guess if you are going to see it, watching it with a more psychologically-based theory in mind wouldn't hurt.
Gore-wise? Nothing too crazy here. Much of the violence is implied, and you don't really see much until after the fact. Other than one notably good bit (I have trouble with tooth/jaw-based horror), I think a compound fracture was the thing that made me wince the most.
So - in hindsight, Crazy Eights may have more going on than I originally gave it credit for. But as for my thoughts while actually watching it? Not a total drag, but not all that good either.
I would probably not recommend this film.
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