Pinata: Survival Island (2002)

Plot Outline: A group of frat kids show up on an island for an annual treasure hunt in which the aim is to collect as much underwear before the end of the day. However the fun and games soon turn deadly when one of the group breaks open an ancient pinata, releasing an evil spirit which proceeds to destroy anyone in it's path.

The Review: The Hillenbrand's have created something in the genre which is pretty commonplace nowadays: the stale, completely unoriginal and timid teen horror flick. Pinata: Survival Island is just pretty bad from start to finish. Well, sorry, near the start. It actually begins quite promisingly with an interesting back story to tell us the originals of the evil pinata. But it quickly drifts into trash territory when the teens are introduced. For the next portion of the film, it's just basic stalk'n'kill stuff - the pinata could easily be substituted for a psycho in a mask. Then the finale of the film is just a mess as the heroes decide to fight back. There's that guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer trying to act like a tough action hero, Jaime Pressly looking well nice again but wearing far too much and a bunch of cut-outs whose sole purpose is to die. The pinata itself looks pretty menacing in it's solid state (i.e. the actual model when it's not moving) but as soon as it starts killing people with the aid of CGI, it gets ridiculous. The creature moves way too sleekly (common problem with CGI though) and seems to have little control over where it moves it's arms, legs and head at the same time. Looking like a cheap leftover from a Doom computer game, I'm surprised it's victims didn't stand and laugh before it killed them instead of screaming. On the positive side the film does contain it's fair gore quota and we get some decapitations, head smashings and in one disturbing moment, the pinata actually rips off a part of the male body that shouldn't really be ripped off!

Final Verdict: It's not every day you see a film about a killer pinata but if they're made as bad as Pinata: Survival Island was, then you know the reason why this is a pretty thin sub-genre.

Rating: