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James Binkley is a serial killer in Heartstopper.
From the instant the opening titles roll on Bob Keen’s Heartstopper, you can assume you are delving into what should be a terrible made-for-television flick that some fledgling cable network would only show after two in the morning. And, while most of that may actually be true, Heartstopper at least manages to be remotely entertaining for extended stretches during the 92 minute runtime.
James Binkley stars as Jonathan Chambers, a convicted serial killer on death row. After Sheriff Berger (Robert Englund) watches Chambers’ electrocution, and is pronounced dead, he is transported to the local hospital’s morgue. However, on the way to the hospital himself, Berger nearly kills suicidal teen Sara Wexler (Meredith Henderson) who had been sitting in the middle of the road with her back to oncoming traffic.
At the hospital, Chambers undergoes a routine autopsy, while Sara recovers from her non-fatal injuries (dislocated shoulder and broken leg). Unfortunately, Chambers magically comes back to life, seemingly powered by ripping the hearts out of his victims. The reasoning behind this is never really explained… and in all honesty, it’s probably better off that way.
Soon, the blood begins to flow as Chambers rips and tears his way through the hospital staff in search for Sara… with whom he has some sort of need for. Again, this is never fully fleshed out either. Sara, her hospital roommate Walter (Nathan Stephenson), and her nurse (Laura De Carteret) spend the rest of the film attempting to flee the hospital which conveniently has lost power in a freak storm.
Let me be perfectly blunt… this movie is not very good. Anytime you watch a film that has both a screenwriter and a screen re-writer, you know you are in for a wonderful tale. The story was slack, and really made no sense whatsoever. But I’m the kind of guy who is willing to let that slide in return for some top-notch acting and multi-dimensional characters.
Damn… there goes that theory right out the window. The acting here is sloppy B-movie caliber at its very best. I really didn’t care for anyone in the story… in fact I actually enjoyed the first half of the movie because it was basically senseless death after senseless death. We’re talking the epitome of expendable meat, folks: unlikable and one-dimensional.
The venerable Robert Englund cashes a paycheck here, as he is onscreen for only the film’s first half hour before he is brutally killed by Chambers. The sole purpose of his character was to put a known name and face on the cover of the DVD case. But hey, if that is what it takes to sell a film, more power to the marketing and casting department for snagging a perennial genre favorite!
So why bother watching this flick? Well, Heartstopper’s cinematography is actually above average. While the story is trash, you could put the television on mute and just watch the visuals of the film and feel a sense of dread and thrill. Plus, the gore effects do not look like those from a low budget movie. Gorehounds should enjoy the film’s messy work… though by the middle of the flick I actually tired of the constant heart-ripping scenes. But that is just a small price to pay.
Plus, the DVD case and DVD itself have some pretty cool artwork!
Being Halloween and all, I’ll give this the two-skull treatment for the sole fact that the film is mildly entertaining. It seems to be a good film to watch while consuming alcohol (21 and over of course). Just be sure to drink enough so that by the one hour mark you are inebriated enough to the point where you don’t care about the film anymore, because that is where Heartstopper lost me.
By the third or fourth repetition of the line, “Vengeance shall be mine. For they have sown the wind… and they shall reap the whirlwind,” I grew tired of the whole thing. What in the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway?!
Flick Figures: 12 dead bodies; 6 hearts ripped out; 1 cheesy opening title song; 1 very sexy body-ripping; maternal incineration; electrocutions; shoulders popping; faces melting; multiple gunshot wounds; multiple stabbings; lead pipe-fu; PSP-fu; vicious punch to the face avec keys; face slashed; scalpel to the eye; loads of expendable meat; and one cool Pac-Man shirt!
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