Customer Rating:
Summary: 0.25 STARS: It's "Ugly" alright. "The Stupid" might be a better name though.
Comment: "The Ugly" is a so-called horror movie about a serial killer who is confined in an outrageous mental institution. Enter a highly publicized psychiatrist who comes onto the scene to presumably provide a second opinion on our sympathetic serial killer. As such, the audience is then subjected to the dreaded flashback mode of film making in which the killer recalls his past deeds. In the process, "The Ugly" tries to be cute and clever by throwing in illogical and outrageously ridiculous scenes to throw the viewer into blow-your-mind world. The result is ugly. Hence the name of this film, "The Ugly" or just "The Stupid".

Movies that attempt the flashback method often make for a frustrating viewing experience, (not that the method cannot be successfully done, see "Godfather II"). Just take "The Stupid", I'm sorry, "The Ugly", which uses this method in an attempt to be clever, but the movie just never gets off the ground. While horror movies certainly do not have to be realistic per se, they do need to be convincing, and this, among other areas, is where "The Ugly" completely fails. Aside from its questionable method of cinematic procession and complete lack of theatrical structure, "The Ugly" is also plagued by bad acting, an over the top and boring script, poor execution of a unimaginative plot and an unconvincing portrait of a serial killer. Indeed, "The Ugly" tries to be clever, but perhaps it attempts to be too cute for its own good.

While style over substance can work in horror cinema, it takes an especially talented director to make it happen. Just take a look at Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" for a perfect example of how to do a style over substance horror flick. However, just because a movie tries to be different does not make it good in and of itself, and that is what we unfortunately get in "The Ugly", an ugly and boring movie watching experience completely lacking in the ability to provide any degree of horror in the audience.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating horror- movie
Comment: This movie is fascinating, in a strange, intriguing manner. It combines some very gory (not exagerated!) moments with the sinister, hidden truth. One is drawn into a world, which is terrible under a surface, which only seems to be normal. The end is truly horrifying!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Type of Cunning that sometimes leads to Cutting
Comment: Simon Cartwright is many things, and sane wouldn't exactly be one of those mentioned. According to the beginning of the movie he has done unspeakable things and is the interest of many people because of it, with lots of prolific minds hoping to crack that hardest to read "nut." And why not? A career can be made overnight by publications on the "why" and "wherefore" that drives individuals to do horrific things, and the APA is always looking for some new insight into the minds of our most noted maniacs. Added to this is Cartwright himself; when you see him he seems almost a victim of some terrible mix-up, like a lamb amongst wolves, and when he speaks he seems forthright and honest when it comes everything he says. That doesn't seem to follow in the footsteps of most prolific bipedal terrors, almost making him approachable, and a certain Dr. Karen Schumaker sees such a chance in all of this to try to understand just what makes someone so terrible such a fright.
The thing is that Simon Cartwright isn't just a killer and, for the good Dr. Schumaker, this becomes evident rather quickly.

When I watched The Ugly the first time, I found it somewhat confusing and somewhat disorienting but I let my mind wander it anyhow. After a second visitation to Cartwright's mindset I found myself less pressed for explanations and rather impressed by the movie as a whole because it opted for a different approach to understanding the error behind things. It didn't try to dish out oceans of blood or intimidate the audience with a blacklist of crimes miles deep; it instead began with little tricks that played on the mind and continued to get deeper the more the movie continued on. This meant using somewhat surreal moments to play with the viewer's sense all the stroll through, essentially throwing them to those proverbial wolves in a visual sense of the word, delving all-the-while into a game that Mr. Cartwright allowed to grow deeper and deeper as the story itself grew deeper and deeper.
Personally, I enjoyed the experience of really having to keep track of what was happening and the sense of distortion that came with falling into the footsteps of a psychotic.

Another enjoyable portion of The Ugly was that the story presented about Simon Cartwright really played worked in bulks of images and soft-spoken wording. You have this tale that Cartwright concocts to play with the emotions of those listening, and then you have the true story of the person and "the Ugly" that dance around the spectator all the movie through. I found this especially interesting because so many movies are linear now, going from front to back without really trying. The Ugly does quite the opposite, taking a person's compassion and the things that they are willing to accept and using that against them.
It seemed like the adage of a "dog eat dog world" really coming to life here.

The movie isn't for everyone, granted, and some people might not like the way the movie is delivered. Still, for fans of horror that want to try out something a tad different, The Ugly is an interesting road to traverse.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE MOVIE!! BORING, Stupid
Comment: I think this is one of the worst movies I ever seen, that's my opinion. I thought it was terrible. Stupid. Not only was it badly acted, but they couldn't get the main special effect correct--the blood really looked like old motor oil. Come on, I'm no special effects person whatsoever, but corn syrup and red food dye would have been better. BLOOD IS NOT COLORED BLACK. Why would they use black blood?? Enquiring minds wanna know!

I had no idea what the movie was getting at. Disjointed. And in the end, I'm still wondering what it was about. I OWNED IT, BUT NO MORE--I THREW IT IN THE TRASH. Seriously, I did. It was that bad.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: OK, I Give Up
Comment: I just finished watching this film, and must say that it was pretty good. But the ending just made no sense. From the comments posted here, I think there is supposed to be some solution here that I'm obviously not getting. Any overall theories explaining the ending would be appreciated. And hey, if you haven't seen the movie yet don't read the replies to this post if you want to avoid spoilers.

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