User Reviews

For lovers of sensitive teen dramas centered around dysfunctional families...have I got a treat for you! THE HAMILTONS will take you back to your high school days of discovering books like CATCHER IN THE RYE, RUMBLEFISH and THE OUTSIDERS...only this has nothing to do with gangs. It does deal with a troubled young man, trying to find his place in the world, and also how he fits in with his VERY unique "family unit." Frances Hamilton (Cory Knauf), confused, withdrawn and in constant turmoil, documents his day-to-day life with his siblings, following them around with a camcorder as he records them and his thoughts in a video journal.

Older brother David (Samuel Child) carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, along with his role as 'man of the house', the legal guardian for everyone else since their parents died. The twins, volatile 'bad boy' Wendell (Joseph McKelheer) and Goth-obsessed Darlene (Mackenzie Firgens) aren't willing participants in the family, unless it involves being with each other. They're as close as a brother and sister can be...actually closer than what's considered appropriate.

The Hamiltons struggle to be good neighbors and put on the best face they can...when they're not shredding off someone else's. They do the best they can anywhere they live, until people start disappearing, and they have to move...AGAIN. Struggling with their murderous, nomadic existence and what it takes for them to survive, Frances is at a crossroads...should he pitch in and help them continue to do what they do, or should he tear the whole family apart in the hopes of finding a more "normal" way to live? If you enjoy 'family dramas with a twist' like George Romero's MARTIN, GINGER SNAPS or even the unconventional psycho-thriller MAY, THE HAMILTONS will definitely be your cup of blood. The Butcher Brothers have carefully fashioned a tale that will keep you engaged even if you figure out the 'family secret' well before the ending.

The actors turn in solid performances, but especially the ferocious effort by McKelheer and Firgens, and Rebekah Hoyle as Sam, the latest victim who may hold the last chance for Frances' most desperate wish.

I'm afraid that hard-core gorehounds seeking maximum carnage may feel cheated. When this film was part of HORRORFEST last year, it was sold as a 'slasher' film in the trailers, which is only half-true. Set your mood for something a little more nuanced and different, and you'll be ready to meet THE HAMILTONS.

The Hamiltons tells the story of the four Hamilton siblings, teenager Francis (Cory Knauf), twins Wendell (Joseph McKelheer) & Darlene (Mackenzie Firgens) & the eldest David (Samuel) who is now the surrogate parent in charge. The Hamilton's move house a lot, Franics is unsure why& is unhappy with the way things are. The fact that his brother's & sister kidnap, imprison & murder people in the basement doesn't help relax or calm Francis' nerves either. Francis know's something just isn't right & when he eventually finds out the truth things will never be the same again...

Co-written, co-produced & directed by Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores as The Butcher Brothers (who's only other film director's credit so far is the April Fool's Day (2008) remake, enough said) this was one of the 'Films to Die For' at the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest (or whatever it's called) & in keeping with pretty much all the other's I've seen I thought The Hamiltons was complete total & utter crap. I found the character's really poor, very unlikable & the slow moving story failed to capture my imagination or sustain my interest over it's 85 & a half minute too long 86 minute duration. The there's the awful twist at the end which had me laughing out loud, there's this really big sustained build up to what's inside a cupboard thing in the Hamiltons basement & it's eventually revealed to be a little boy with a teddy. Is that really supposed to scare us? Is that really supposed to shock us? Is that really something that is supposed to have us talking about it as the end credits roll? Is a harmless looking young boy the best 'twist' ending that the makers could come up with? The boring plot plods along, it's never made clear where the Hamiltons get all their money from to buy new houses since none of them seem to work (except David in a slaughterhouse & I doubt that pays much) or why they haven't been caught before now. The script tries to mix in every day drama with potent horror & it just does a terrible job of combining the two to the extent that neither aspect is memorable or effective. A really bad film that I am struggling to say anything good about.

Despite being written & directed by the extreme sounding Butcher Brothers there's no gore here, there's a bit of blood splatter & a few scenes of girls chained up in a basement but nothing you couldn't do at home yourself with a bottle of tomato ketchup & a camcorder. The film is neither scary & since it's got a very middle-class suburban setting there's zero atmosphere or mood. There's a lesbian & suggest incestuous kiss but The Hamiltons is low on the exploitation scale & there's not much here for the horror crowd.

Filmed in Petaluma in California this has that modern low budget look about it, it's not badly made but rather forgettable. The acting by an unknown (to me) cast is nothing to write home about & I can't say I ever felt anything for anyone.

The Hamiltons commits the cardinal sin of being both dull & boring from which it never recovers. Add to that an ultra thin story, no gore, a rubbish ending & character's who you don't give a toss about & you have a film that did not impress me at all.

Like most of the festivals entries Hamiltons makes for an interesting watch a film thats all ideas and little execution. Although impressive for it's obvious low budget the film falters in it's final twist and becomes dreadfully long during it's drawn out and obvious conclusion. The film is about a family of murderous outcasts trying to survive after there parents have died. They kidnap people , drain the blood from them and feed something locked away in their basement. There's some nice darkly humorous performances from Mckellhar and Firgens and the rest are just so-so. The film never feels realistic or very disturbing for that matter. But for the first half taps into an oddly humorous and dark mixture which is a surprising accomplishment. The next half isn't so successful as it receeds into film oblivion with unrealistic twists into a ridiculously cocky finale that turns the entire film into utter crap. It's a shame though there is no doubt that some talent was involved with this production and although deeply flawed it remains original and creative. too bad that when it comes to the delivery it completely fails on every level.

**/5

I feel it is my duty as a lover of horror films to warm other people about this horrible and very very bad "horror" film. Don't waste your time or money on this film, the acting is bad, the story is just one of the worst i have come across and the script was just awful. Nothing about it was good, you end up thinking to yourself why am i watching this crap. The plot had so many holes in it and they never got cleared up in the end, it was just so bad, i don't know how a film so terrible could be made. As i said before i love horror films and i was so let down, it was an 18 but you see little blood and no scares or jumps at all. Also what annoyed me was how stupid things happened in the film that had no point to the plot at all like the brother and sister kissing, why? is all i can say. Just don't bother, there are far more great horror films out there, just don't waste your time life is too short.

As has been described elsewhere, THE HAMILTONS is sort of a mixture of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER and Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. A parent-less family of five, the Hamiltons kill and kidnap people, although we don't know exactly why until the end. The teenage boy, Francis, is the only one who seems to be having doubts about the family's exploits, which he documents with a camcorder.

There are several teen angst themes dealt with here: the lack of privacy, the frightening concept of one's place in the world, a first crush, longing for a better life, etc. The performances are all very good, too.

My biggest problem with the film, though is that a lot of the smaller sub-stories aren't tied up and left inconclusive. Oldest brother David is obviously struggling with his homosexuality. The twins begin challenging David's authority, even going so far as to hinting that they might kill him if he tries to restrain them. Wendell torments his brother Francis repeatedly. The twins kill with abandon and no care as to who the victims are and if their disappearances will start massive manhunts, and they don't! The main theme here seems to be that family blood is thicker than other people's blood, which is fine, but I wanted some conclusions to the story lines above, and I wasn't given any. This left me with an unsatisfied feeling of the film not being "finished", and as a result, prevented me from fully enjoying the movie as much as I might have.

You never really know what to expect from the debut horror movie brought on by a directors-duo that refer to themselves as "The Butcher Brothers". They very well could be a pair of ambitious young filmmakers with inventive new ideas and an aversion towards political correctness, OR … they could also be a couple of phony and untalented hacks that only want to cash in on the contemporary extremely popular horror genre. After seeing it, I can only conclude that "The Hamiltons" is a bit of a mixed bag. The main storyline, albeit seriously derivative of other horror franchises, has potential and features a handful of ingenious ideas, but still the overall elaboration of the screenplay is unsatisfying and the film definitely required the touch of an experienced director. The film opens with a grim, "Saw"-esque scene set in a filthy basement, where a terrified girl awakes and finds her friends dead. Something vile and aggressive prevents her from escaping, but we can't see what it is because the screen turns black and the girl's screams fade away. Although never really confirmed, I can only assume that the intro sequence took place in the basement of the Hamilton family's last home. The younger son Francis, always carrying around a video camera like the freak in "American Beauty", introduces his deranged siblings and explains how they moved houses six times already since their parents passed away two years earlier. They keep moving around because the oldest son David and the twins Wendell and Darlene are a strange breed of cannibals and they keep hitchhiking girls imprisoned in the cellar. There's more fishy stuff going on in this family, for example the incestuous tension between Wendell & Darlene and the mysterious fifth family member – named Lenny – who always remains locked up in a cage in the cellar. Francis has moral issues with his siblings' life styles, but he's too weak and too afraid to revolt against them. "The Hamiltons" occasionally benefices from an uncanny atmosphere and the morbid set pieces, but the pacing is too slow and the titular characters are too implausible to evoke disturbance. Also, in my humble opinion, The Butcher Brothers are unworthy of their cool name because the amount of gore and graphic bloodshed is sorely disappointing! Still I can't be exaggeratedly harsh, because it nevertheless remains an interesting & experimental new horror flick. The script brings homage to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (for example, the oldest son David works in an abattoir) and offers some effectively surprising twists near the climax, like Francis' eventual fate and the long-awaited confrontation with Larry. Worth a least one viewing, especially for tolerant horror fanatics.

"The Hamiltons" is a rather dull and weak barely horror film.

**SPOILERS**

Following their parents' death, the Hamilton family, Francis, (Cory Knauf) David, (Samuel Child) Wendell, (Joseph McKelheer) and Darlene, (Mackenzie Firgens) all move together to get reacquainted. As none of them really cares about any of the others, it always degenerates down into arguments. As they all manage to go out and pick up various strangers to kidnap and torture, some grow weary of the practice and try to do the opposite of the family. As it proves harder and harder to resist the temptations due to outside forces and their own feelings with each other, it becomes too much and they soon erupt into a flurry of violence, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake.

The Good News: There isn't a whole lot to this one. This one does have some nice torture scenes that are pretty disturbing at times. There is a real brutal quality to them that is nicely appreciated. By making them not necessarily graphic but still squirm-inducing is a good step, since it makes it uncomfortable while still getting the point across without going overboard. That is ably demonstrated in the first one, as it displays both qualities in real spades. That it all takes place in a dark, dirty basement gives it a really good creep factor that plays out nicely. Another one is the opening segment, which is dark, disturbing and pretty creepy, and that makes it a real joy as well. The only other scene that works is the delightfully sleazy Dare game played. It starts off nice and innocent, and seen delves into really kinky realms that are really nice to see in such a film. Otherwise, these are all that work for the film.

The Bad News: This is a woefully underwhelming effort. The fact that this is so much like a family drama rather than a horror film is the greatest flaw. This one is incredibly concerned with the family, and rarely takes time to cover them in detail, and that exposes several flaws. The first one is that none of that is all that interesting. It isn't interesting and never once does anything to remedy that. It's also quite boring as it's mostly done through the eyes of a video-taping camera with a voice-over during the whole thing. That nothing at all happens in here is another problem. Beyond the few exceptions, this one doesn't do anything new with this plot and this is hardly all that important in getting any action in the film. That is a really big flaw in the film, since it just goes on and on without ever doing anything but a few select scenes. The film's last big flaw is that this one here doesn't have much of a terrifying premise to it. The actions speak well, but this one doesn't really have a whole lot that can be construed as a horror film. With the family drama coming in a possible source, it drains the film of much-needed horror scenes that instead don't do much of anything for building up scares or suspense. This, along with the others, lowers this one down a lot.

The Final Verdict: This is a thoroughly disappointing and really weak horror film that doesn't do a whole lot right with a lot of flaws. This one here should really only be for those who enjoyed the others in the series, while as a whole it should be taken with extreme caution for those who might find the flaws off-putting.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity

This is the first film of the Horrorfest I have watched and after Im almost thinking I don't need to see any of the others. I was told its a "thinking mans horror movie" and have to say that if this was supposed to make me think I shutter to think what the splatter/gore films in the collection will be like. Don't get me wrong not even the gore in this film is worth sitting through.

The plot is very washed out with way too much art for arts sake. The camera effects and music are out of place most of the time and the characters are banal to say the least. Several characters and scenes seem worthless in the end when they start to reveal some of the hooks of "The Hamiltons". I figured out who Lenny was about half hour in when I figured out the movie. I was so visually under whelmed and confused by the Lenny reveal that I completely felt ripped off. I expected what I got but they could have gone so much further, in fact all the gore falls completely flat. With movies out there like "Hostel" and "Saw" you need to come a little better for a film that is "considered to graphic or too disturbing for general audiences".

Barely deserving to be classified as a horror, this lame attempt at combining teen angst with slasher fare fails on all counts. The storyline has young Francis Hamilton (Cory Knauf) and his siblings constantly moving home because they suffer from a disease that compels them to kill. I believe this is supposed to be some kind of stunning revelation, but anyone with half a brain – a criteria that would automatically dispel this stupid clan – will figure out what's going on long before the end credits mercifully roll.

Early on, the hell-raising brother, Wendell (Joseph McKelheer), abducts a couple of female hitchhikers and stashes them in the basement where a 'mysterious' creature called Lenny lives in a box. After that, nothing happens. Nothing. A hapless teen friend of Francis's goth sister gets herself killed by the Hamilton's, as do a number of homosexuals by David (Samuel Childs) the buttoned-down nerdish oldest brother, and the surviving hitchhiker keeps beseeching Francis to set her free, but other than that – nothing. The story goes nowhere; it just hangs there like one of those hitchhikers. When, in the final ten minutes, the Butcher Brothers decide they have strung-out this plot less mess as long as they can, they attempt to inject a little suspense as Francis makes off with the hitchhiker, but fail completely. It's a shame, because the idea of monsters having to come to terms and accept what they are is one worth exploring by a skilled writer/filmmaker.

Poor script, bad storyline with holes you could drive a steamroller through, mediocre acting, a lack of any real gore or horror, no suspense, this trash really has hardly anything going for it – other than a couple of neatly composed shots. Give it a miss. Please. Then send me a PM telling me you have so that I won't feel I've wasted my time writing this review

...that seem to be fooling people into seeing qualities in this film that are just not there.

Near Dark covered the same territory but with much more class, and action.

why the script kept their 'big secret' so long was a total mystery to me - I guessed it at the breakfast scene at the start of the film. By the time it was revealed to the viewer it was just a case of 'big deal, tell me something I don't know.'

I found this to be pointless movie that may have challenged the genre conventions, unfortunately those conventions are that horror films are tense and packed with genuine sense of horror. This was woeful