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Fury (2006)



Fury

 

GMD Films and Leper Island Productions have created a DVD that had more potential than it delivered with the film Fury.   I have watched a lot of amateur made, no-budget films (in fact, Film Apocalypse focuses on this type of film) and I have some idea of the limitations you face when your cast and crew is working for free, but there are a lot of problems with Fury that seem to have less to do with a lack of budget than with a lack of experience.  The movie as a whole felt like a first attempt at  an entry level film class project that lasted too long.  The camera shots were often shaky, the zoom feature was overused, the audio quality within certain scenes was uneven to the point of being distracting, the music was very amateur and the dialog sounded like it was being read right off of the script for the first time as it was being recorded.  Freeze-frame images with narration over them may work well in some major budget movies, but they didn't work here and they were used frequently in this film.  Fortunately the film did also have some redeeming qualities; the idea behind the story was pretty good and there was plenty of nudity and gore to keep the movie interesting.


From looking at the credits, it's clear that this film was a two man project.  Paul Gorman and Steed Merrill wrote, produced and directed this film.  They are also credited with prop design and lighting design.  Paul Gorman is credited with editing and makeup effects.  Steed Merrill was the director of photography and the main camera operator.  The success or failure of this project rested on the shoulders of these two guys and, to their credit, they did complete the film, get it onto DVD and out the door.  That in itself is a lot tougher than people realize.

The story is about a lawyer named Laney McCoy (played by Marie Madison) who has an affair that she is emotionally unable to handle with a young guy (James Xavier).  She then goes crazy and starts violently killing people.  The idea for the story was pretty good and I can imagine that it probably sounded a lot better on paper than in the final film.  There was enough gore to satisfy a lot of horror fans, but you have to wait a relatively long time to get to that point in the movie.

Madison seemed new to acting.  Her character was supposed to be an intelligent lawyer, but her constant mispronunciation of unnecessarily big words made her sound more like someone trying a little too hard  to sound smart.  However, the fact that she was nude in numerous scenes helped me to overlook her acting.  Xavier fared better in his co-staring role as the young, handsome love interest.  His acting was convincing, but all of the cast suffered from awkward delivery of their lines throughout the film. 

SRS Cinema is scheduled to release this film second quarter of 2008.

 

Gore-o-meter rating: 3 out of 5 (Pretty good amount of blood and gore)

Skin-o-meter: 3 out of 5 (There are several scenes with the lead topless and nude from behind)