What is the "Reeker?": a DVD Review

The movie starts out like a billion other horror movies. For some reason a bunch of young people want to head out into the desert in a rickety car for no foreseeable or justifiable reason. Thus begins the movie "Reeker" which will soon be released through Paramount Pictures on DVD.

This is a movie full of gore and frightening special effects. The main characters are suitably attractive and they all do the requisite things that they are supposed to do in a movie like this. The problem with this movie is that you can feel it is trying to be different. It is bending over backwards to be something new and different. Weird things keep happening and you can't help but say to yourself, "This is all going to mean some big thing at the end."

There are five this time. They meet up on a college campus and they are heading into the desert to visit some kind of club called Area 52. One of them, a guy named Trip, has stolen a bunch of Ecstasy tablets from a drug dealer who makes them in his room. Another is a hippie girl named Cookie. The driver is Gretchen who was born in South Africa. Then there's Nelson and the blind guy named Jack.

They head off into the desert in a woody car that looks like a movie prop meant to break down at a moment's notice. They see a strange accident on the side of the road. They experience a strange earthquake at one point. Then they lose the radio stations and they start seeing eerie things on the side of the road. The diner and motel that they passed earlier is suddenly deserted and spooky when they go back. Then their car breaks down for good and they are, of course, forced to spend the night there.

Strange things keep happening. These things are genuinely scary and genuinely gory and creepy. I have to admit that several times i was on the edge of my seat, afraid to see what was going to jump out at you. There's just one problem.

Of course, you know that at some point some kind of killer or monster is going to show up to start offing these characters. If it isn't mutants living in mine shafts, then it is going to be an unstoppable serial killer. In this movie, it's a creature that smells really bad. Yes, even in the making-of featurette that comes with this movie, the director admitted he wanted to make a horror movie where "smell" was a component. That may be great if you are filming in smell-o-vision, but it hardly makes things scary when people are coughing and crinkling up their noses.

Essentially, I found the monster here to be profoundly lame. He moves in such a way that you never get a good look at him. His power and abilities seem strange and random. He just didn't seem as scary as something like a Michael Meyers or even a Jason.

Then comes the ending. The ending comes at you and attempts to be wildly clever and a total "gotcha!' moment. It doesn't quite work that way. It kind of made me groan. There is a lot of time spent going back and showing you previous scenes as if saying, "look! See how clever I was! I gave you all of these hints and you still missed it!" Then, suddenly, the monster itself makes even less sense than it did before. If what has happened has really happened, then what the hell was that thing?

So, can I recommend "Reeker?" Well, some hard core horror fans that are particularly fond of the gore might like this one. Arielle Kebbel is very attractive as Cookie and she has a scene in an outhouse that will have everyone thinking twice about ever going into one again.

This movie was released in 2005. I have no idea where. It was produced with help from Showtime, so maybe it was shown only there. Why it has taken so long to come out on DVD is unclear. I just know that when a movie kind of sits on a shelf for a long time like that, there is often a good reason.

Essentially, I have to say no to "Reeker." I love a good horror movie, but this one just doesn't quite hold up the way a good one should. It's too clever by far than it needs to be.