I'd never heard of the film KOLOBOS which is odd having been a horror film fan all my life as well as a video store owner well aware of even the most obscure horror films being released. And yet somehow this one missed my attention. Arrow Video is now giving me as well as other horror fans the opportunity to correct this mistake and trust me, it's well worth it. I found a new slasher film to love.

The film opens with a young woman running for her life, wounded and making her way down a rain soaked alley. When a couple comes across her the only thing she can say is "Kolobos". Fast forward a few days and the same woman is now in a hospital, treated for her wounds and under the care of Dr. Waldman (Kim Thomas) a psychiatrist there to find out what took place.

The film goes back three days prior and we find out the girl's name is Kyra (Amy Webber),a young down on her luck artists who has landed what appears to be a great job. She's to take part in an anthropology experiment where several young people will be gathered into a house to live and be filmed 24/7 to find out how they react to being there (Keep in mind this is well before shows like this were common place having been made in 1999).

Picked up by the others she meets them for the first time. Her roommate will be Tina (Promise DeMarco) an all too bubbly and energetic fast food worker who find the entire experiment and home beyond her wildest dreams. Also on hand are ex-college student Gary (John Fairlie) who considers himself an intellectual, wanna be professional comic Tom (Donny Terranova) and struggling actress Erica (Nichole Pelerine) who wants to be taken seriously.

They adjust to the house and begin to settle in with Erica suggesting they watch the series of movies she starred in, a series of horror slasher films made on what has to be a shoestring budget. Between movies Tina goes to get something from the kitchen only to find herself slashed open by a trap planted in the cabinet she opened. When the rest discover her they try and help but not before the doors bolt shut and are covered with sheets of metal along with the windows. They are now trapped with no hope of escape.

Erica calls out to the director of the film she's been in touch with only to receive no answer. At least at first. It isn't long before his body is literally dropped in on the group wrapped in saran wrap and leaking blood. Fearful that the entire house is booby trapped with good cause they survivors try and figure out who is behind this, why they're doing it and how they can escape. Is it someone they have yet to see or could it be one of them? Between blackouts and the drawings Kyra has drawn the group begins to think she is the killer. But is she?

The movie is a taut thriller made on as low a budget as the films that the character Erica starred in but uses every single dollar to put something new and interesting on the screen. It does so with stunning effect and the movie comes together perfectly. The acting is far better than one would expect in a film like this and the story is such that it keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. What was probably one of those faceless unheard of movies that lined the shelves of video stores across the country was actually a hidden treasure that horror fans now have a second chance to find.

And what a find it is. Arrow Video once more shows why they are perhaps the top company when it comes to releasing films of this sort. To begin with their releasing it in a 2k restoration from the original film negative. It's never looked this good before. In addition to that they've included a number of great extras as well including an audio commentary track with co-writers/co-directors Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk, "Real World Massacre: The Making of Kolobos" a new feature on the making of the film, "Face to Faceless" a new interview with Ilia Volok who plays "Faceless" in the film, "Slice & Dice: The Music of Kolobos" a new interview with composer William Kidd, a behind the scenes image gallery, "Super 8" short film by Daniel Liatowitsch with commentary and the original trailer for the film.

If like me you've never seen this movie then by all means make a point of seeking it out. Horror fans should insure that this film earns a place among their collection. It's nice to find a movie that delivers that you've never heard of before. KOLOBOS is one of those films.

A disappointing slasher movie rooted in the predictable "haunted/spooky house" setting, which became something of a low-budget cult hit when it arrived on the video shelves last year. This was largely due to the imposing - and, it has to be said, darn scary - box cover art (see above) which promised both a frightening and gory little horror film along the line of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, perhaps. The central conceit of a BIG BROTHER-style show gone terribly wrong with a murderer on the loose was just too tempting for me (oh, how I hate BIG BROTHER) so I had to rent KOLOBOS.

As the movie opens, my hopes were high. An atmospheric street scene, splattering blood. Indications were good. Then the movie shifts to a hospital…well, it's supposed to be a hospital, but to be honest it really doesn't look much like one. More like a SINGLE ROOM made up to look like a hospital ward with some terribly stiff supporting actors and actresses pretending to be doctors. My spirits sank as the rest of the predictably teenage cast were introduced. Yep, the usual clichéd quota of characters are here. The shy/weird girl who turns out to be the only one strong enough to fight the killer. The loud, obnoxious girl who wants to be the centre of attention. The vain beauty model. The caring, sharing boy-next-door. The annoying comedian. Things look promising with the appearance of Linnea Quigley but our hopes are cruelly dashed when it quickly transpires that she's there for one scene only.

As soon as the initial set-up is out of the way, things move into a luxury house and stay there for the rest of the film. As far as movie houses go, it's a pretty spacious and neat-looking one, with lots of rooms and places to explore. The expected post-modern referencing is done here, with the characters themselves watching a cheap horror movie on the television and commenting on it. The first murder takes place in the kitchen, leaving the obnoxious girl with a gaping stomach wound through which we see her intestines…lovely. For some reason spinning discs come out of the drawers - the kitchen is booby-trapped. Shades of CUBE perhaps?

Another victim turns up wrapped in plastic. Events begin to get much weirder, so lots of power surges and shortages are to be expected. We see strange glimpses of a man peeling off his rubbery face and mysterious figures lurking. A girl has her eyes impaled on deer antlers in a seeming homage to ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS. A guy is burnt by acid from the shower (!). The usual gory deaths, except they're not nearly as gory as the box would have you believe. In fact they're kind of cheap-looking and hardly what I would class as disturbing. Still… The bizarre twist ending is a real let-down to the movie. Without a doubt the guys who made this amateurish movie are fans of Italian horror, as any fool can spot the opening theme music as being influenced by SUSPIRIA, or the numerous strange camera angles in the style of Argento. The scare factor? Highly limited; some of the more surreal visions work but tend to provoke the reaction "what?!" rather than "eek!". There are some "running around in the dark" scenes but they don't work very well. Nice try guys, but it doesn't cut it. Try for a little bit more originality next time and not just a typical slasher film with a surreal edge. An arty slasher? I'm afraid the idea just doesn't work

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought that the installation of deadly booby traps into the next Big Brother house would be an interesting idea: it would certainly help the show's falling ratings if Davina's irritating, fame-hungry contestants died horribly live on TV (hey, maybe they're going to do that for the final series next year... y'know, go out in style).

Well, in Kolobos, that's exactly what happens—a group of young hopefuls enter a plush, Big Brother style house to take part in an experimental film, but become trapped and meet gruesome fates as they accidentally activate spring loaded circular saw blades, acid showers, and ankle mangling pincers, before being finished off by a mysterious killer known as Kolobos. At first it seems as though the director of the project has tricked the house-mates into becoming the unwitting stars of a snuff film, but when he also meets a sticky fate, suspicion falls on contestant Kyra (Amy Weber),a mentally disturbed 'artist' (I use quote-marks because her drawings are crap!) who sketches twisted images, and suffers from terrifying visions.

For the most part, this is an entertaining affair which reminds me a little of the British horror movie My Little Eye; the trouble is that Kolobos decides to get a little clever for its own good, adding a large dose of psychological/split identity guff (ala John Cusack thriller Identity) and becoming all too confusing in the process. By the end of the film, I was unsure as to who the killer was or whether the events shown had ever actually happened.

Was there really a faceless monster named Kolobos stalking the house? Was Kyra the murderer? Or had she conjured the whole thing up in her mind as a test run for the Real McCoy? And whilst I'm raising awkward questions, how the hell does someone go about converting a large, suburban property into an escape proof, metal clad prison without someone questioning your motives? And am I the only one who reckons that the film's music rips-off Suspiria's soundtrack?

Anyway, despite all of the unanswered questions, general confusion, and ambiguity, I still had a reasonably good time with this film: the girls are cute (Weber has the beautiful weirdo thing down pat, and Promise LaMarco, as ditzy Tina, is blessed with a lovely set of dimples); the gore is impressively nasty; and directors Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk manage to deliver enough effective scares and creepy atmosphere to make it fun while it lasts.