Parasite/Review

Nowadays, the 3D gimmick has become popular again because many studios think that it can help prevent piracy. I'm not sure if that's really true or not, but one thing I know is the fact 3D movies aren't a new thing. There was a huge craze in 50's (like House of Wax) and early 80's. And speaking of the early 80's, I've seen some of the 3D movies from the time like Comin' At Ya (which is entertaining), Friday The 13th Pt 3 (which is mediocre), Jaws 3D (which is bad) and today's film Parasite. Most people don't remember much about Parasite since it was released independently and has a low budget. The only thing that most people know about it is that it has Demi Moore in her film debut, we'll talk about this soon.

Directed by Charles Band (the founder of Empire Pictures, Wizard Video, and Full Moon Features) the story takes place in a dystopian future of 1992 (Come on, don't laugh). Dr. Paul Dean, a scientist who creates a parasite for an organization called Merchants which runs the country, escapes to a small town in hopes to find a way to kill the monsters (one of them is in his body, by the way). Unfortunately, a local gang steals the container that has the parasite in it and a Merchants agent named Wolf is out hunting Paul. Okay, the story sounds really simple but you may find it confusing when you watch it for the first time because there's no voiceover or opening crawl to explain the backstory leading up to what's going on. Most of the important info is being exposed by the characters' dialogue and events in the film so you have to watch it pretty closely. I think this method of storytelling is pretty awesome and classier than most B-movies from the time. That doesn't mean that this film has no flaws, the problem is that there are moments when the pacing is much too slow and boring.

Remember when I said that Parasite was released in 3D? That's the reason why there are things flying towards the screen every five minutes. It may look cool when you watch it in 3D (especially in jump scare scenes which are really awesome), but if you watch it in the 2D version you may find it strange and really awkward. Also, do you remember what I said about Demi Moore? To be honest, her acting is pretty bad in this and isn't as memorable as her later movies. Although, to be fair, most of the acting (including Cherie Currie and Joanelle Romero) isn't very good. It's a B-movie for F- sake! Hell, most of characters in this film are basically one-dimensional. But who cares? The real highlight of this film is the soundtrack that builds tension and scares the viewer as well as the special effects which may look bad in other people's opinion, but I really like them since it's cheap and scary at the same time.

To sum up, the 3.3 score on iMDb is way too low for this movie. I know that it's not considered a masterpiece of horror, but it's a fun movie to watch and enjoy....the kind Charles Band always gives us.

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Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.