A woman wakes up in a funeral home with a case of amnesia which she tries to shake off while trying not to be the victim of a chrome-faced killer with a penchant for filming his stalkings.

Judging a Book by its Cover

It’s simple but I like it, a horror take on the “skull and crossbones.”

I wonder if it’s going to be bloody.

Directed by Robert Hall

Starring Bobbi Sue Luther, Kevin Gage, Lena Heady, Richard Lynch and Nick Principe

The movie begins rather quickly with our future heroine waking from unconsciousness inside a casket and trying to find her way around the funeral home.  She gets out and tries to call for help but doesn’t know where she is and can’t remember who she is.   She sees a man dressed in black aside from a mask made of chrome and a shoulder cam.  The killer catches her watching and stabs the owner of the funeral home while trying to get to her.  She escapes the room while accidentally stabbing the killer in one eye which really pisses him off and he’s on the hunt for revenge while killing anyone in his path.

The girl, later dubbed “Princess,” finds help in the kindness of strangers, but just how much help they give her is iffy at best.  Anyone standing in ChromeSkull’s way gets murdered and how!  Easily the highlight of this movie is the incredible level of blood and gore on display as the effects are top notch; watching a guy getting his face sawed off with a knife gave me goosebumps.  The blood flows freely as people get stabbed in the head, have intestines pouring out, a shotgun to the face and an interesting use of tire sealant.  This killer is unrelenting.

The story told is very simple.  Between the bulk of the runtime of stalking and killing, the film stops to allow some character and story development take place.  It’s not much — the movie doesn’t go out of its way to be something new in the slasher genre — but it doesn’t insult the viewers intelligence either.  Overall, the target viewer is the one looking for bloodshed and lots of it, thankfully the film delivers in buckets.

TL;DR

Story: 6 – The bulk of the film is about a masked killer chasing his victim and killing anyone helping her in his path.  It’s simple and it works.

Blood: 9 – Seriously, the effects guys are fantastic with what’s shown on screen.

Nudity: 1 – There’s some brief cleavage from a living girl and boobs shown by some very dead ones.

Overall: 8 – Laid to Rest is a film that constantly made me say “Wow” with the types of kills shown.  That’s the hook, that’s what you’re coming to enjoy so if you’re a gorehound, this should be on your list.

Trivia

The production employed creative methods to save money; for instance, Chromeskull’s on-camera vehicle was director Robert Hall’s daytime rental car, and the Jetta that Princess rides off in at the finish was owned by the production designer.