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The Helpers DVD review

Seven friends are on a road trip to Las Vegas, but along the way they get a flat tyre. Staying the night at the local motel (whilst their van is fixed) the group decide to have a party to pass the time. But they wake up to realise they have all been tied up and are going to be subjected to horrific ordeals at the hands of their helpers

The Helpers is marketed as another found footage horror, but actually only part of it is shot on hand-held camera. The rest seems to have been shot on a high definition cinematic camera, which gives the feel of a proper film. The actual story is nothing we haven’t seen many times before (Saw, Hostel) and this becomes boring after about fifteen minutes. There are no real brutal or shocking moments in the movie because the death scenes have all been done several years ago (especially in the Saw franchise) and don’t make this unique or standout in any way.

The Helpers also has some of the worst dialogue – every conversation between the couples begins by one of the saying “babe”, which becomes vastly annoying as they continue to use that term – “Babe, want a drink?” “Babe, wanna have sex?” “Babe, I think he’s dead” “Babe, they have an axe”.

All of these lines are delivered by incredibly slim, handsome (and mainly naked) young people who we didn’t care about at all, thus completely sucking the life out of any real acting in the film and our enjoyment as an audience.

The Helpers is a “found-footage” film that shouldn’t really claim that, with less than half the film shot on hand-held camera. The cast seem to have lost the ability to act, along with one of the worst scripts we’ve seen in awhile. We fully expect this to be in the top ten worst films of 2013.

 

Mark Searby
Mark Searby
Film critic for BBC Local Radio. Author of Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man. Addict of The Wire. Long-suffering supporter of NFFC.

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