Moviecut—The Hexecutioners

source: The Hexecutioners

A film that you would think would be asking questions on the morality of euthanasia, as this is the employment of the main characters, but no, it doesn't. It does start off doing so when we hear the brooding sermonising of Walter Bardon as the bible bellowing Mr Poole. Once Malison's out of the way we soon realise this becomes just a ghost story set around the ending of an old mans life by euthansia. Nothing really wrong with the opening scenes where we are introduced to the main characters: Liv Collins as Malison, a poverty stricken, conscientious novice who fouls up on her debut assignment in her new employment. And Sarah Power as Olivier, a professionally detatched, tough, badd-ass with 3 years service who gets partnered up with Malison on her next assignment to get her over her inept start. The competant acting arises some optimism for the rest of the film, but sadly this soon disolves when the ghosts start appearing and disappearing without doing much else but appear then disappear. This is where counting candles may become a suitable alternative to watching the lack of any worthwile action. In fact the most creepy creep around is the house steward, the son of the doomed owner, another well acted role. The final scenes, the expected demise of the owner of the house, rise to something which we would have hoped would have been the norm for the middle part. It is right out of Edgar Allan Poe territory, before the film loses it's way with a couple of more deaths, one not surprising but gruesome, and one surprising but less gruesome. The film rounds off with a rather pointless ending.

This movie starts like any other cheap, akward and clumsy b-horror movie could. Things move along and then after some time the people making this film apparently start taking drugs and everything goes weird. All reason and sense are thrown out of the window and you start asking questions - like "What the hell was that?" Or "Who is that and where did he come from?" Or even "Did somebody change the channel, this doesn't seem like the same movie anymore?". Well yes, it's artsy and strange - a little bit boring. But is it any good? That's a difficult question. I'd say it's pretty well made, acting is ok. But what is it, it's clearly not a simple horror movie but more of an art movie - and for one of those I'd say it's decent. But I didn't start watching a freaking art movie, so I'm not happy.

Got round to watching this a few days ago but wasn't blown away after watching it. The film is about 2 women who provide euthanasia service. One day they are tasked to go to a remote location where their next client is. But have no idea of how sinister this next job will be...! The film wasn't great. It dragged & dragged until it got somewhere. But even then the pay off wasn't all that. The gore was little to nothing & the premise wasn't at all interesting or even remotely memorable. Overall 3/10

The story centres on two young women recruited into a euthanasia company; Malison, (Liv Collins) a timid girl who does it because she needs the money; and Olivia, a cynical street-wise woman who, well, just does it. The job in hand just happens to be at the usual creepy Gothic mansion, overseen by the usual creepy keeper, Edgar, (Tim Burd) who instructs the women that the death must be carried out to a strict ritual. It should be said that there is no problem with the acting which is superb, even by the minor characters, but some of the CGI is not so good and then there is the supernatural element when faceless figures appear and then there is the little girl. Also, some things do not add up. For instance, rooms which are pitch black suddenly have lots of lit candles - how does that happen? The ending, for me anyway, did not make much sense, but by then I was losing interest. A pity because it could have been different.

I am not sure if anyone mentioned this but the lead's name was the first thing I picked up on... Malison, some might think its a combination of Melissa and Allison or Malory and Allison, but it comes from old latin (as if it could be anything else) Maledicere meaning to speak badly of a man or a male figure. However in the 13th century after Malison became gender neutral, and was being used more often, it took on a new meaning, in today's webster, the word Malison means CURSE, TO CURSE or CURSED. So using it as a First Name, was creatively a good idea, I can see how it might have been overlooked by the audience, specially since Malison is not something one hears in a day to day conversation, besides it has largely been supplanted by its younger cousin MALEDICTION.

A murky horror picture in which two young women are despatched to a remote, creepy old house to assist its occupant in a mercy killing. Once there, they find that things are not quite what they seem. Weak and unfocused, with a very slow build to a confusing climax. The lead character will lose most viewers' sympathies early on when she abandons her pet cat in the countryside.

Reserved, nervous, quiet, and prudish Malison McCourt (Liv Collins) recently got a job with Life Source Closure, a home assisted suicide company. She had difficultly with her first assignment so they team her up with a veteran Olivia Bletcher (Sarah Power) who appears to enjoy her work, however they stopped short of creating an enjoyable over-the-top character which this film so desperately needed. The girls get assigned to a special case in a rural area where the man wants to undergo a killing involving a ritualistic knife and feeding him to the birds in a sky altar ceremony. The roles become reversed as Olivia balks at the idea while Malison seems possessed citing the company manual on customer satisfaction. The film is your average horror with a euthanasia twist. They could have done better with the characters. Guide: F-word. Nudity (Sarah Power)

Malison McCourt is a hypersensitive young woman who, it is fair to say, has a lot on her plate. Living alone in a run-down apartment with her cat, the job she needs involves working for a euthanasia company. Her deeply superstitious landlord disapproves of this and makes her homeless. For all the unpleasant things that happen in this film, I don't mind admitting the moment I 'teared up' is when she abandoned her cat in the wilderness. Malison is teamed up with Olivia Bletcha: sexy, confident and every bit as lonely as Malison. Together they travel to a remote castle for the latest 'closure' (the company word for euthanasia). This interesting premise is diluted by the arrival of Edgar (Tim Burd) who is the heavily clichéd creepy host, complete with emaciated gait and growling whisper. Naturally, there is a somewhat eccentric ritual to accompany this latest passing. Sadly, moments of interest become more and more isolated as the ominous ruminations of a typical haunted house are further rolled out, including sinister whisperings from a 'ghostly' little girl which are delivered with all the disinterest you would expect from a bored 8 year old drama student. Malison becomes possessed by the evil - we know this because she suddenly starts using profanities. The demonic host looks not unlike a white-haired Kiwi Kingston from 1962's 'Evil of Frankenstein'. Events continue to spiral, becoming very visually impressive, but sadly the drama becomes increasingly disjointed and less and less easy to relate to. It is a shame things become so patchy because so much is well done here - rich direction from Jesse Thomas Cook, excellent locations, good production values and mostly very competent performances.