So a bunch of small-town teenage movie buffs find themselves on the business end of a killing spree caused by a ghostly video. Sound familiar? Well it should, because Playback is little more than a cut and shut slasher that swipes heavily from the likes of Scream, Halloween, The Ring and even Peeping Tom. Playing out like a love letter to the classics of the genre, writer/director Michael A. Nickles has focused so much on providing nods to other films that he’s overlooked giving his film any identity of its own. Which is a shame because with a wittier script and a more tongue-in-cheek approach to the gory murders, we could have been on to a decent little horror movie.
A group of high school students decide to film a documentary on a series of murders that happened some 15 years before. As they dig further into researching the grisly tale, they soon find they’re being hunted by a malevolent spirit that’s possessed one of their friends ever since he watched some old footage relating to the murders. It’s a simple enough premise that’s sadly not used effectively enough. Rather than leave it as a framework on which to hang some gruesome death scenes (Final Destination style), Nickles attempts to give the film’s evil baddie some gravitas courtesy of a backstory. Of course it’s all superfluous to the action as, when everyone’s getting horribly murdered anyway, the spirit’s villainy doesn’t need fleshing out in an effort to deliver more clout. It just sucks the pace out of a potentially leaner, meaner film that get’s more than a little dull and clichéd by the finale.
If it was 20 minutes shorter and took the piss out of its daftness just a little bit, then this could’ve been a fun, knockabout slice of blood-soaked fluff. Unfortunately efforts to make the film more than the sum of its borrowed parts result in a weak, scareless piece of straight-to-video tat. Even Christian Slater’s performance isn’t enough to prevent you wanting to hit ‘STOP’ on Playback. Shame.
Overall Verdict: In an attempt to show his love for the genre, director Michael A. Nickles has made a film that’s overly long and relies heavily on well-established clichés. Watch Cabin in the Woods instead.
Reviewer: Jordan Brown