Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Blaironit Excellent film with a gripping story!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

MBunge Kolobos might have been a pretty good little horror flick if it had even a half-decent ending. It's got a talented cast, a script with a nice beginning and middle, above average gore effects and a distinctly 1970s vibe to the look and rhythm of the production that sets it apart from most of its low-budget kin. It does have too much annoyingly stereotypical "scary" music on its soundtrack, but I was able to put that out of mind after a while. Unfortunately, all of the quality work here is just build up for a big conclusion that falls flatter than western Nebraska. This movie has one of those finishes that leaves you saying out loud to the screen "Wait…that's it? Seriously?" It's the sort that leaves you so let down and disappointed, you almost forget everything you liked up to that point while being reminded of all the loose ends and holes in the plot. I don't know what these filmmakers thought they were doing with this ending. All they accomplish is betraying their otherwise admirable efforts.The story is about 5 people who agree to live in a house for some kind of ill-defined experimental film. No one ever references or even alludes to MTV's Real World or similar such reality television when talking about the project, which is part of the 1970s feel to Kolobos. There's little about this film, either culturally or in technique, that brands it as being from its particular era. If you'd told me it was made in 1978 instead of 1998, I would have absolutely believed it.In the house are Kyra (Amy Weber), a young artist with psychological problems; Tina (Promise LaMarco), a sassy kid with a zest for life; Erica (Nichole Pelerine), an ambitious and somewhat full of herself actress; Tom (Donny Terranova), an assertive but unfunny standup comic; and Gary (John Fairle), a pretentious college student. The tale is told in flashbacks as members of the group are killed off one by one while Kyra has hallucinations about disembodied voices and faceless figures. The flashbacks end with Kyra leaving the hospital after recovering from her ordeal, and that's when the wet fart of a conclusion kicks in.Now, maybe I'm missing something so I'll lay it out for you. Kyra is specifically and repeatedly described and portrayed as having serious mental health issues. She's tried to commit suicide, is generally skittish and emotionally shaky and constantly sees and hears things that aren't there. So, the mindblowing twist at the end of Kolobos is…wait for it…Kyra is crazy. No, I'm not leaving anything out. The crazy chick turns out to be crazy. That's it.I'm at a loss because the rest of the screenplay is rather well written, at least for this kind of thing. It's not high art but the characters are clearly established and their interactions are relatively believable. The scenes are solidly constructed and the direction, while clearly bound by financial limitations, is intelligent and sharp. The five main members of the cast all come off like folks who should be acting for a living, which is not something you can say about a lot of low-budget cinema. Promise LaMarco appears to be someone who could have a good career as "cute horror chick".Yet all that leads to closing scenes so awesomely lame that I almost lost the use of my legs through osmosis. Something else…hell, literally any other type of finale would have been better than we get. I went into Kolobos thinking it was going to suck. I'd never heard of it or any of the people in it before. The DVD had a lot of the signs indicating cheaply made gunk. When I popped it into my DVD player, it doesn't even have a menu with set up options or scene selections. It's just an image of Kyra and Tom, the title and the word "play". As I watched it, however, I grew more and more pleasantly surprised and interested. It seemed to be a hidden gem. Then the last 5 minutes left me thinking it should have never been unearthed.I can't call Kolobos bad but I also can't recommend something that falls down so severely at the end. Decide for yourself and don't come complaining to me afterwards.

JeanieDuncan84 Kolobos is a totally fun, unknown slasher film from the late 90's that somehow slipped by most people's radar. Made on what is obviously a shoestring budget, the film builds up great scares, tons of gore, and a cool plot that keeps you going from beginning to end.A group of strangers are holed up in a nice suburban home, all believing they are going to appear on a new reality TV show. Little do they know, the house is booby-trapped to make mincemeat of them when the time is right! Added into the mix is a deformed maniac, a supernatural snuff film, and wild, wacky LSD visions! Good stuff! This flicks should even impress those who has seen every slasher film out there, and its a damn sight better than most of the horror of the past decade. With shades of Argento (crazy lighting galore!) and tons of gore (yippie!), you can do a whole Hell of a lot worse! In this girl's opinion, Kolobos rocks.

Zombified_660 Kolobos attempts to set itself up as a disturbing 'reality' horror film like Blair Witch, Last Broadcast or My Little Eye. The unfortunate thing is that while all those films were made on similar budgets, Kolobos doesn't really do anything spectacularly inventive with said budget, instead opting for a visual style that thinks it's Argento but in reality is more budget rack at Tesco (or Wal-Mart if you're reading this in the states.). Imagine Puppet Master with coloured lighting and you pretty much have the look of the film.The lack of inventiveness doesn't stop there. The plot is very tired, though it is enough to keep your interest. Also, while I did understand the ending, I'd agree with those who say it's a bit of a cop-out to have a movie with multiple different levels of meaning and NOT choose just one for the ultimate conclusion. Was the house haunted? Did the house exist? Did Keera kill those people? Did Faceless exist? Who knows. Who cares.Despite this though, Kolobos was fun while it lasted. Largely.A lot of that fun came from the almost gleeful level of scariness and gore that came packaged with the dire plot and the lacklustre visuals. The movie works really well on a basic horror level, instilling a tense atmosphere and providing some shocking deaths (that said I hear most of said shocking death is missing from the US R Cut, so try the Unrated one or the UK edition) along with some chilling scenes. While not as creepy as recent flicks like 11:11 or as violent as Toolbox 2004, Dagon and the like, Kolobos is a scary, nasty (in a good way) horror flick, to the point where it scared the pants off some of my normally quite level headed mates. I hear one particular death is ripped straight out of Argento's Deep Red but since I haven't had the pleasure yet I'll have to take their word on it.In conclusion, the direction is somewhat disappointing, the plot is incoherent at times, but damn if they didn't make a fine thrill ride. If the creators of things like Cube Zero could make similar commitments to making a good solid movie like this does, then maybe I wouldn't have snored my way through all their movies. It definitely won't be for everyone, and it has some astonishingly obvious shortcomings, but I give Kolobos my wholehearted recommendation just for getting in there and making a butt-kicking horror flick despite it all.

J D Although the end of this film does manage to confuse, "Kolobos" shouldn't be viewed for the sum of its failures, but rather for the fun you'll have watching the madness. I had read somewhere that the directors of the film decided to add the ending on to this film several weeks after filming was complete, which was a bad idea but if it hadn't been there, the movie would have only been an hour long.I liked this film for several different reasons. It used the tired reality TV setup, long before reality TV was even catching on. It used the idea sparingly enough, however, and never made me feel like they were trying to cash in on some lame craze. The characters are annoying, but I honestly think you're supposed to hate them. It makes it much more fun to watch them get horribly murdered! And speaking of the murders - thats where this film shines. Once the killing starts, we're treated to extreme death scene after scene. We're not talking about any lame blood splatters on the wall accompanied by a scream either. We've got guts pouring out while people frantically try to push them back in, teeth bashed in against a porcelain sink, impalement, acid burns, and much more.Do "Kolobos" a favor and turn off your brain for a cool 80 minutes. Enjoy the gruesome fun, obviously put together by folks who love and respect the genre.