Hora (2009) Reviews

• A waste of time - utter bull-crap!

  berencamlost2010-02-06

  This film should be banned. It's a copy of "I spit on your grave", with elements from "Last house on the left" cut into the mix. It takes plagiarism to a new level. I really hope whoever owns the rights to the films mentioned above sues Mr. Kiil for all he's worth, and then some... As if this is not enough, the entire film is poorly lit, shot on what appears to be hand-held DV cam, and some cheesy black and white "8mm"-filter has been applied here and there. The visual effects are less than awful, I've seen better on Sesame Street. The acting is non-existent, and the audio is muffled and poor. To make things worse (for those Scandinavians unfortunate enough to see this film) the actors speak a charming mix of Norwegian, Swedish, danish and bullshit. DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!

• Painful for all the wrong reasons!

  user-655-7700492010-02-17

  First of all let me point out that this movie is made by people who says they love making movies, and have watched these types of films all their life. But as we all know one don't have to be a good filmmaker for having seen a lot of film. And I truly believe that this is the best example of that I have ever seen. People who make movies for fun can get a huge thrill out of showing they're product to friends and family. This is always a good laugh. And that should have been the case with "HORA". Instead it hit the stores in Norway a couple of weeks ago. The lowest of low of short films on you tube have better quality than this vicious attempt of "making" a movie. It seriously look like fifteen year old that have discovered daddy's old VHS camera in the attic. But seriously people! Sometimes that camera should be left alone. "HORA" is a mix of bad camera-work, shitty lighting, if any. Sound was lousy, editing was painful and let me just say that the acting is so horrible it almost ripped me a new one. Poor Isabel Vibe. She should seriously stick to making porn. But also, she doesn't even strike me as a porn-actress either. And the lead bad-guy is so weak that I can't find the right words to explain it. It was written in the DVD-booklet that he has worked as an actor for many years. LOL! Calling yourself an actor these days doesn't mean a lot. And these are just two of them. They're also bragging about having the great Norwegian actor Jørgen Langhelle in the movie. He is seen on a television set in the beginning for a few seconds. This is a great example of false advertisement to get some attention around what the makers hopefully see is crap for themselves. But I think not. I usually love bad exploitation-films. We watch them at parties accompanied with loads of drinks and laugh at the screen. "HORA" however is the biggest party-killer i have ever experienced. I think we went home after seeing it. "HORA" has gone way beyond that limit were film is so bad it's funny. It's just extremely poorly made, and boring as h**l. For an exploitation movie it's not even shocking. The rape scenes looks bad and tame. Maybe that's because of the horrible way they are shot? Maybe in fact it is shocking, but the quality of the whole thing is so low that i lost focus on what I was watching? I was mostly gasping through the whole thing. I never expected it. If these "filmmakers" actually made this film so bad on purpose, fair enough. But really bad choice. Things like these don't go away. And if these "filmmakers" actually are filmmakers they should seriously consider changing their line of work. Because if people and companies find out about their involvement, they'll never see any work in the business again. I see that someone has written a review that the film doesn't look like "I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE" Please! The director obviously has great admiration for it, and has no creativity on his own. So why not do the easiest. "I spit.."really knocked my socks off. Shocking and disgusting. Exactly what these films are about. If Kiil would have pushed the boundaries in "HORA" a bit more it might have been a little memorable. At least for the right reasons. I never urge people not to go see movies if they stink. More the opposite. I want them to see it so we can talk about it after-wards. So by all means people. Go out, buy, rent or in this case I strongly recommend downloading. I read that the film took ten days to shoot, with a budget of 200 000 NOK.(Norwegian funds) Although this is extremely low even for a low-budget, I can't imagine what they spent it on. It couldn't be the crew, because they all lack quality. Not decent equipment either, cause this is completely absent in "HORA". It looks like old VHS-camera quality. So I have no idea what this money was spent on. Probably food. The Norwegian horror scene has really risen in the last decade. "VILLMARK", "FRITT VILT I & 2", "ROVDYR", "DØD SNØ", "SNARVEIEN" and now coming "FRITT VILT 3" proves that we know horror. Although "HORA" is not a "horrormovie", most people think of it as one. And it gives the genre a really, really bad name. Kudos! The cover art (which by the way is so ripped off from "ROVDYR") also tells us that the film has been nominated at several festivals, and even won an award at one called "but". I'm trying to picture what kinda festival this is, since "HORA" won best picture. I'm seeing a dark basement with projector, cigarette smoke and bottled beers. And also plastic food-hall-chairs to sit on. And who's in the jury of this thing? Are they deaf AND blind? And slow? I would love to experience a festival like this just to see what other films they screen there. Troma is probably Oscar-material compared to it. But I'm gonna end this comment with something positive. To all of you out there with a dream of making a movie? Just do it. It could never be as bad as "HORA" even if you try to fail. And you'll also see nationwide DVD-release ☺

• good Norwegian horror

  wvisser-leusden2012-02-05

  I bought 'Hora' (= Norwegian for 'whore') because I was anxious to know what a Norwegian grind-house film looks like. As we all know, Norway doesn't have a great film tradition, and the texts on my DVD-box did not encourage a purchase either: "the very bad in bad, bad taste", as well as "low budget". All issued by "Sodementecinema". So starting out from a zero expectation, I was pleasantly surprised by 'Hora's contents. We are presented with a coherent story, and anybody familiar with Norway easily recognizes its very Norwegian setting. Tense is built up well throughout, and all key-scenes are as they should be: gruesome. 'Hora's picturing convincingly invites you to participate, the more so as at times its color is replaced by black and white. On top of that, the fluently passing by of its pictures is interrupted at times, allowing you a few seconds to recover. 'Hora' surely makes a good watch, keeping you on your seat from beginning to end.

• Attractive no budget Scandinavian slasher film; obviously not for everyone

  Andy-2962010-03-08

  A solid slasher film from Norway. The argument is taken from many US exploitation movies, and is not terribly original. Nevertheless, it is competently made (despite its almost zero budget) and it held my attention for an hour and a half despite seeing it late at night, when I was ready to go to bed. The plot: A young woman returns to her rural hometown for an unspecified reason; soon she is harassed in the remote house where she stays by two young men she knew from her childhood (there are some issues about something that happened in the past between them, but I never made sense of them and I honestly don't think they are that important). Eventually, these men (the Norwegian equivalent of rednecks) enter her house and brutally rape her. Her even more brutal revenge on them is the movie's final act. Featuring a hand held camera, editing tricks and amateurish acting (the main actress, reportedly a famous porn star in Norway, is quite effective in her role) is a good example of a slasher film, not particularly original but very effective.

• A mediocre MUST experience...

  Hitmanofnorway2011-12-04

  This film is made on a shoelace budget, here we can see that it's taken a lot of inspiration from other rape and revenge films such as I Spit On Your Grave and Last House on the Left. And many people may see this as pure plagiarism. But this is a film made by a director with a heart for Grindhouse films and has spent every penny to get his debut completed. There are a lot of things that could have been better (Audio/Acting), but this movie is something any exploitation film fan should experience. Watch this film, as the first Norwegian grindhouse film come to life. Pesonaly I can't wait for the sequel. That's where The Whore really begins.