Not bad at all

A horror-movie version of Groundhog Day, shot on an tiny budget, this little film could never be regarded as a classic but it's good solid effort which should interest most genre buffs.

It's yet another one of those movies which spends all its time building and building to a big twist which, when it comes, doesn't surprise at all because you guessed what it was before the movie was half over. But even so the film holds your attention pretty well; the script is tight and doesn't cheat for the sake of drama and creepiness too much; the performances, especially from the lead, are more than adequate; and - unusually for a horror movie from any period as far as I'm concerned - the film is often genuinely scary. The Crook brothers make good use of parts of the frame being out of focus: you can never quite tell just what it is that's lurking there, but you see enough to know that you don't want to see any more!

But there's one big negative: the title. 'Gruesome' must be the lamest moniker for a horror film ever. It's like calling a comedy 'Funny' or a musical 'Tuneful'. The film isn't even especially gruesome! And the gore scenes it does have are entirely superfluous and don't make much sense with regards to the plot. In fairness, it's original title was 'Salvage' which, while nothing special itself, is at least relevant to the story and its main theme.