Final Cut Samhain!

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

As some of you might know SAMHAIN

(Read my review of the rough-cut here) has
been a plagued film since its inception in 2002. The legal tangles involved
in this production would make Tony Montana from Scarface look like a Boy Scout.

With that said Samhain is set to FINALLY be released on October 24 2005
in England (where I hear it will be more cut down than this final cut), Ireland, Scotland and the Malta islands while hitting North
America in January 2006. Well I got to see the re-cut and
re-shot version yesterday (Which was made with no input from
writer/director Christian Viel) called EVIL BREED
THE LEGEND OF SAMHAIN. It’s the cut that you will all see and
sadly I have some bad news. IT SUCKS ASS!

First of all, no matter what anybody says, the
gore was considerably slimmed down in this final cut. The Chasey Lain
scene was snipped heavily, the Richard Grieco fight with the creature
was totally cut out, the Jenna Jameson kill was watered down
(although we still see her snatch) while pretty much every gruesome gag was
snipped or ruined by not having a punch line (Why did they remove the blood
splat after Gillian Leigh’s death? MORONS!)

Then there was the warped sense of humor
which was so prevalent in the rough cut; well say goodbye to that. They’re
playing it straight in this version for worse and for worse (How can
anybody take this film seriously?). As-is, the only scene that still managed
to get some giggles out of me was the intestines ripped out of one’s ass
bit; and even that one was fuller and much funnier in the rough cut.

They did the
same snip-snip jive with the nudity with
the worse of all being the once “show it all” and “funny” Gillian Leigh
shower scene butchered to a now swift, humorless and sexless bore. And I
won’t even mention the dumb-ass filler flashcuts
(flash to random images/characters for no reason) that they inserted into
the film in the name of padding the 88 minutes clock time. Well…I guess I
just mentioned it.

But the more severe sin this re-cut version had to offer was its new
tacked on ending which must have
been written and shot by baboons in lack of heat. Not only was I able to play
“spot the film equipment in the background” during that scene, it also
was the stupidest freaking ending I’ve ever seen in my life. I mean it made
ZERO sense whatsoever in terms of the film I just watched and insulted my
minute intelligence like nobody’s business. I hadn’t groaned that much since
I saw my last MasterCard bill. NOTE:
(You can read the initially planned Samhain ending here; it was never shot)

On a positive note the gruesome Taylor Hayes “fetus bit” found
in the rough cut made it into this final cut (they keep that in but not a
blood splat, talk about inconsistent editing) and seeing the film with sound
and a decent rock soundtrack, was appreciated but with that said; LESS
GORE, LESS NUDITY, LESS LAUGHS, AWFUL ENDING. Pretty much all of the
reasons to see SAMHAIN were nixed out in this new cut. What were they
thinking??? SHEESH! I’m done.