Marked

Diella (Tara Carroll), her skeptical brother Mitch (Samuel Child) and their friends Marcus (Sam Sarpong), Danny "D" (Rafael Rios) and Amanda (Samantha Alarcon) are ghost-hunters seeking evidences of existence of ghosts using sophisticated apparatuses. Diella is haunted by the death of her father six years ago and is encouraged by her college professor Dr. Frederickson (Mark Colson) to continue her research. When they visit the house of Amelia Gershom (Pepper Jay) that is haunted by her deceased husband, they get involved in an evil ancient cult of resurrection.

"Marked" is a pointless and silly horror tale. The plot is inconsistent and there is no explanation why the group invests lots of time and money searching ghosts, especially Mitch that does not believe in ghosts. Further, the story is confused and the ancient cult using the Apocrypha is sort of ridiculous. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "A Marca da Morte" ("The Mark of the Death")

After having been reasonably well entertained by "Marked", I found its 2.7 overall rating unfair. Fortunately, slaym666's review IS fair. I'd add that Mark Colson gives a fine performance in his rather crucial role as Dr. Frederickson, that Tara Carroll rather good as Diella, and that none of the other actors are really poor. As other positive negatives, the f-word isn't used very often and there is neither nudity nor semi- nudity, nor any simulations of fornication at all. Yes, the plot is confused and confusing, but it never really drags. Its score is good. Its references to the Apocrypha can be confusing to those familiar with actual Biblical literature, but even these fit a non- standard sense of the word that's briefly mentioned in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocrypha. I found the scenery beautiful and appropriately ominous; many of the gore effects appealing to my unsavory tastes, and the white makeup on the ghostly gentleman splendid. I wish that I could smile as he does. I watched "Marked" in 20-30-minute segments as relaxation from doing work on my laptop. It could be that is the best way to watch it.

If you were a regular renter of B movies in the 1980s, no doubt you remember that there were some B movie directors who had the gall to make B movies that were shot on videotape. Almost all of them were terrible. "Marked" is kind of an update on that disreputable genre. It's not shot on videotape, but it has that same cheap look and feel as those 1980s movies. Actually, that is not the main problem I had with the movie. The biggest problem with the movie is that it moves at a snail's pace, and contains almost no real shocks or jolts. The no name cast shows signs of talent, but for the most part they don't seem very enthusiastic, maybe sensing that they are in a real turkey. I would only recommend this movie to independent filmmakers who want to make a horror movie - as a lesson on what to avoid when they get around to making their efforts.

I'm rating this one two out of ten because unlike a certain other Night Light production it's not insufferable, but there's still no reason you should watch it.

For example, do you appreciate horror movies with characters who aren't stock archetypes? Characters you actually care about? Look elsewhere.

Intelligent storyline? Nope.

Suspense? Actual scares? No.

Perhaps you'd simply prefer a lot of gore? Maybe inventive kills? Actually no; despite this being a slasher movie the killer kills in the same way repeatedly and it's one we've seen before.

Maybe you're such a sucker for out-of-nowhere plot twists, it doesn't even bother you when, as is becoming increasingly common, they make no sense in context? Well, there's one such silly plot twist in this movie, but it has so little to do with what happens afterward I don't know why they included it.

I have actually seen worse movies than Marked, but I really have to agree with the previous reviewers that it is really difficult to sit through. To start with, it does look incredibly cheap to look at. The photography are editing are so haphazard that it is not always easy to decipher what is going on, while the film is often too dark in its lighting and the effects are slapdash at best. I too thought that the house was too small and nowhere near creepy enough to be convincing. I would have forgiven Marked for this if the story and script were anything worthwhile. But that was not to be. The script feels as though it was improvised on the spot, I actually want to hear dialogue that actually gives some kind of credibility to the characters and the situations instead of having something that sounds like an extended episode of Ghost Hunters(or something like that. The story is never exciting or suspenseful, it moves along at a snail's pace and because the haunts were so predictable and the ancient cult idea so ridiculously executed has nothing unsettling or shocking about it. The characters are annoying and very cold to the viewers, some like Mitch just disappear just like that with no explanation. The acting is pretty much non-existent, and can someone explain to me the significance of the title. So all in all, it really is a test for your endurance. 2/10, because I'm feeling generous and it didn't make me angry enough for me to warrant it a 1. Bethany Cox