FORMAT: BLU-RAY (REWATCH)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(As posted on October 27th, 2022)
About ten minutes into Limbo, it became apparent that B-Movie Scream Queen-turned-first time director Tina Krause rented Jacob’s Ladder one night and decided to make her own loose remake using the crappiest home video equipment available. That probably wasn’t the worst idea in the world, but the problem is that there is barely any connective narrative tissue to hold the thing together. Because of that, it looks like one long, cheap, SOV music video.
A woman named Katherine goes to a bar where she is given an ominous warning by an unseen stranger. After Katherine picks up a cute waitress (Krause), things spiral into a lot of shaky-cam/let’s-use-every-filter-and-editing-trick-that-came-with-the-camera music video sequences. She returns to the bar the next night where she picks up another stranger and the cycle repeats itself until Katherine learns she’s actually dead and in limbo. (Hey, it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the title!)
This one was a tough sit. Although I enjoy seeing Krause in her low budget horror movies, this is by far the worst one I have seen. It was also by far the shortest flick I’ve watched this month (it’s only fifty-four minutes), but it sure as Hell felt like the longest.
It's not all terrible. If you can make it to the homestretch, there are a couple of decent gore effects (given the budget). We get a pretty good face ripping scene as well as a not-bad gut ripping sequence. However, that doesn’t make up for all the schizophrenic editing, incoherent storytelling (a vampire subplot is dropped into our laps in the late going), piss-poor camerawork, and piss-poorer sound.
I admire Krause’s ambition. More Scream Queens should take the cinematic reigns and direct their own movies. I just wish that Krause’s directorial effort was closer in spirit to her other low budget vehicles instead of an overlong, experimental, wannabe student film.
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