Horror movies, more than most genre films, seems to follow the trends of society. The 50's and 60's saw a glut of films where technology had gone wrong, creating giant ants or killer rabbits. During the 70's and 80's with the fear of serial killers, the slasher film was born with an unstoppable villain and a cadre of innocent victims. As we moved into the 90s, technology was once again the culprit but we were haunted by virtual demons like the Lawnmower Man or video games that sucked you into their world.
These are broad strokes, of course. The sci-fi menace still stalked films for decades, and the supernatural serial killer as well. But these trends are recognizable, even more so after the fact. So watching "Cruel World," reminded me of the "Reality Horror" trend that appeared for a few years in the early 2000s. Even franchise favorites got into the act with "Halloween: Resurrection." Was it because American society was anxious of the direction reality shows were going, or was it simply cheaper to shoot a film where you can be sloppy with handheld cameras and claim you're just trying to make it look real?
"Cruel World" stars Edward Furlong as former reality show contestant who was burned on national television. During a "Bachelorette"-style program at the last minute he is rejected for the hunk (I think it might have been a show with a "twist," as in the hunk was brought in near the end of the season after the nerd thought he had won the girl's heart, but honestly I'm not sure.) He predictably goes ape shit, which honestly I'm surprised doesn't happen more often given the embarrassment these contestants go through.
Our luckless contestant ends up deciding to stage his own reality show, and takes over a house, invites over a bevy of babes and hunks, and tells them if they win the show they get a million dollars. These kids don't know there isn't a million dollars. They don't know that if they get voted off, they die.
The question is, would it matter?
"Cruel World" is actually a good movie. The trailer makes it look like B-grade schlock but I watched this movie twice. I watched it years ago when it came out and I remembered a few of the challenges, especially this one:
I didn't remember for sure I had seen it before until maybe 15 minutes in re watching it all these years later, but it didn't diminish it for me. A good film is a good film. And terror, well, that's hard to pull off.
"Cruel World" is an indictment of reality shows: When the characters are going around introducing themselves (the brave one, the smart one, etc.) one girl says "Well I guess I'm the shy one" and another character announces "I'm the shy one. You're the Asian." The idea that white people have the character traits and the minorities are the minorities; that's an interesting subtext in a straight to DVD slasher flick.
It's an indictment of fame: How far would you go to be famous? To be remembered and acknowledged and talked about by people who have never met you? While I doubt the answer is "I want to be famous so bad I would pull out cow guts with my bare hands and eat them raw," that was the entire conceit of the show "Fear Factor." Of course, because "Cruel World" is a horror movie the "cow" meat is actually disguised human meat, it begs the question: How do we know those are really dog testicles contestants are slurping down on "Fear Factor."
The movie does have its downsides: the straight to DVD soundtrack detracts from the movie, the mentally challenged lunk seems a little overdone (although the fireman sequence is top notch), but overall "Cruel World" gets an A for effort and execution. Check this one out.
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