Plot
Mass murderer Jonathan Chambers is executed by
the electric chair and his body taken to a local hospital for the autopsy.
However the electricity didn't kill him and he awakens in the hospital to
begin looking for a new body to host his murderous soul, killing anyone who
stands in his way.
Review
I had reasonable hopes for Heartstopper. You can't
really go wrong with a serial killer who rips out people's hearts and, given
that it was rated 18 in the UK, I knew that those moments were going to be shown in all of
their
glory. Throw in genre legend Robert Englund to beef up the cast and set it in a hospital
(full of places to play hide and seek with a serial killer)
and you're set. Well not quite. Heartstopper features a terribly unscary
killer, some lousy dialogue and as much sense as walking across a motorway
at rush hour.
I'll go on record in saying that a decent slasher film needs a decent
killer. You need either a decent character (someone like Freddy Kruger who
seemed quite complex and interesting in the first one before his "gameshow
host" persona took over in the sequels) ) or
just an unstoppable monster who doesn't say anything (Jason Vorhees
destroying teenagers is the simplest form of slasher entertainment). Here
we're given a combination of both and it doesn't work. Chambers has got the mouth of a rambling priest
and this is combined with a pretty huge, imposing frame but the two don't go hand in hand. Most of
his victims would probably drop down in boredom before he killed them
because he prattles on and on. His preaching gets tiresome very quickly and
you'll be screaming at him to shut up and kill his victim to get it over
with. The problem is that because he talks so much, you don't get the same
sense of fear and dread as you should do, say if he was just smashing down
doors or breaking through windows. There's no element of mystery or surprise
to the character because we know too much about him. It's not the problem of the actor, James
Binkley, as he seems to have a decent screen presence. It's just a pity that
the script has him saying things like "sometimes you have to do a lot
of bad to get a little good" and turning him into some modern day
prophet. As I
said earlier, Robert Englund has a small role here. It's nice to see him
still getting work but I'm getting a little worried that he's turning into
the next Lance Henriksen and just pimping himself out to any frat boy with a
video camera and bucket of blood. His role as the sheriff makes a nice
change of pace from the usual villain he plays and it's a shame he's not
around for too long (the UK DVD cover kind of spoils his demise). The two
young lead roles don't too badly either but again the script doesn't have
them doing anything interesting except for running and hiding around a lot.
If it has one major positive, Heartstopper is at
least gory. Hearts get ripped out of bodies quite often and in one scene, a
guy has his entire chest ripped open. You can hear the pressure of the blood
spurting out of the bodies as the showers of blood soak whoever is standing
by nearby! Unfortunately the scenes of ripped out hearts
are then followed by the said victim staying alive for numerous moments
whilst Chambers gloats and spouts off some lame Biblical-esque dialogue. The
gore doesn't manage to paper over the cracks with the script and this is the
film's underlying problem. It clearly has intentions on being more than your
typical slasher and thus the killer is given some supernatural slant which
means he can survive a little more damage than most other guys. The
finale involves all manner of religious weirdness including a "holy tornado"
but the poor special effects means the whole thing comes off more laughable
than anything else. When all is said and done, you are never fully told what
the deal with Chambers is. Although if it meant he would be back on screen
talking, I don't think I want to know.
Verdict
Heartstopper is a pretty dire
slasher film which had a lot of promise (come on, a serial killer who rips
out hearts with his bare hands has to be a win-win for a horror fan) but is
completely ruined by the killer. Shut him the hell up, give him a bit more
mystery and presence and maybe we've got a different film. The decent gore
effects are so wasted in this film.
