Playback

Plot synopsis:
On October 21, 1994, Harlan Diehl (Luke Bonczyk) murders his family at their farmhouse and he is shot by the police, as he kills his sister. The tragedy leaves behind video footage (which he had taped) and his sister's baby, who lives. Fifteen years later in Marshall, Michigan, an ambitious high school student Julian Miller (Johnny Pacar), is tasked with completing a film assignment on forgotten local stories for journalism class. Choosing the Harlan Diehl case, though it goes against the wishes of his mother, Anne Miller (Lisa Jane Todd), he selects his girlfriend, Riley (Ambyr Childers), to be his project partner, and borrows camera equipment and archive footage from his reserved former coworker at a video store, Quinn (Toby Hemingway), who has since become a news station cataloger. He also recruits his fun-loving friends, DeeDee Baker (Jennifer Missoni), Nate (Jonathan Keltz), and Brianna Baker (Alessandra Torresani) to re-enact the murder scene, allowing him to produce a gory slasher movie.
One night, Quinn watches footage from the aftermath of the tragedy, where Harlan is taken away after having been shot. Still alive, Harlan awakes as the video intercuts, leading to the spiritual possession of Quinn's body by way of video playback transmission. Besides cataloging footage, Quinn is paid by a perverted cop, Officer Frank Lyons (Christian Slater), to set up spy cameras to privately record teenage girls, using this chance to initially possess Brianna, who finds and looks into the camera. He begins to kill people, starting with a coworker at his news station. Meanwhile, Julian and Riley discover that Harlan, whose parents died when he was four, bounced around from foster home to foster home until he was adopted by the Diehls, and that he is the descendant of Louis Le Prince, the inventor of cinematography. They locate the Diehl house to record footage, in the process finding out that there was a baby in the family, omitted from the reports.
At work, Julian's disabled coworker, Wylie (Daryl Mitchell), tells him about an ancient legend involving Louis Le Prince, who is believed to have invented a way to steal souls, taking the soul of his own son, Adolphe, and replacing it with his own demonic spirit simply by filming him in the motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene. The evil spirit would then possess each child in the bloodline from father to son, from generation to generation, which explains the Diehl family case. Some time later, Nate is killed by Brianna, who has become possessed. As Frank is assigned to investigate Nate's disappearance, Quinn kills Brianna, and DeeDee is possessed by Quinn through a spy camera that she finds. Next, Quinn kidnaps Riley and kills Frank and DeeDee, while Julian asks a retired newscaster, Chris Safford (Mark Metcalf), about the Diehl case. He learns Harlan raped his adoptive sister and together they conceived a baby. Their parents planned to put the baby up for adoption in order to cover up the incident, but Harlan objected and killed them. Afterwards, the baby was adopted by Julian's police officer mother, Anne, meaning that Julian is Harlan's child. Having acquired tapes from Frank, Quinn discovers this by watching police-owned footage showing Anne taking the baby.
Quinn kidnaps Julian, and restrains Julian and Riley in the Diehl home. Before Quinn can possess Julian, the electricity goes out. Quinn heads upstairs from the basement to fix the issue and buying Riley time to free herself from the restraints and rescue Julian from the other room before they flee. On their way out, they stumble across Nate's dead body. They hide until Julian's armed mother Anne arrives, suspecting trouble after trying to contact Julian. Quinn shoots her with his gun and this forces Julian and Riley out to save her. They fight Quinn, though he subdues them and prepares to use his phone to film and possess Julian, as an injured Anne, wearing armor, shoots down Quinn. The next day, Anne is hospitalized and Julian and Riley see the police report about the recent murders. Shortly after, Julian receives a video message and Quinn uses it to possess Julian.

Tags: paranormal, murder, flashback

Review:
Ill start off by saying,if your the kind of person that's always looking for connections in movies(Most people on IMDb who think their intelligent, but just young) then you may not like this one, but if your old school like me and have seen everything already and don't care too much if movies draw slim similarities to others as long as they're good then I would say have at it.
There's some great gore, naked girls, and a twisted little story line that doesn't steal 'too' much from other movies, but taking just enough to get the troll's panties in a bunch.
This makes even more stupid people run around saying, "Oh yeah I heard that movie sucked!" Well, I actually SAW this last night, I was expecting nothing good after reading reviews here.
We have Christian Slater playing an "interesting" part to say the least along with a creepy kid who likes to go through old film in his spare time.
Nothing too great, but not bad at all either..I gave it 7 out of 10 because of the sh%*storm of idiots who will undoubtedly ruin the rating/reviews of this movie(as they do to so many) all because one person left a good review before everyone else did so everyone assumes there part of the crew and its their duty to make 3 accounts and post fake reviews..how sad peoples lives must be.
Another thing, don't run out and buy this, wait till its on cable or Netflix.Its worth a watch when you put it up against the crap that true Horror fans have to sift through to get a decent watch, but its not a must see..
The adding of Christian Slater's character just cheapened the entire film, when is the last time one of his movies hit the big screen?
This is a VERY generous 5/10 Just to be fair, movies I watch on the net I add a extra point to just to put things in the right prospective..
First pet peeve with movies like this is 30 year olds playing teenagers.
Majority of the time i found myself looking away from screen and just wondering how the directors can get away with releasing movie like this.
In the present days, the teenager Julian Miller (Johnny Pacar) borrows a camera, tripod and other equipment from his friend Quinn (Toby Hemingway) that works in a TV studio to make an amateurish film about the infamous Harlan Diehl with his girlfriend Riley (Ambyr Childers) and their classmates DeeDee Baker (Jennifer Missoni), Nate (Jonathan Keltz) and Brianna Baker (Alessandra Torresani).Quinn sells footages of DeeDee and Brianna in the change room in the high school to the sick police officer Frank Lyons (Christian Slater).
When Julian inadvertently unleashes evil through the playback of videotapes, Quinn is possessed by Harlan Diehl and begins a violent crime spree."Playback" is a noisy, lame and messy horror movie recently released straight on DVD in Brazil.
In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say his work in this film might be the most realistic, believable acting job in recent history, far surpassing Christian's former costar, Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight.My only beef about the film was that it was sometimes hard to follow the intricate movements of the actor's index fingers, although I suppose its not fair to deduct points for something that I assume is a rare fetish that is only shared by complete sociopaths and a large percentage of field mice..
I had to throw the screen in the trash, such was the damage incurred.The synopsis for this movie at the top of this page is all wrong.The cop, played by Christian Slater, isn't investigating anything at all.
When a group of film students attempt to document the brutal history of their town's past, they unleash the evil spirit which inspired the rampage and must stop it's current rampage before it exposes the secret behind it's existence.This is overall a pretty lame and barely worthwhile effort.
The only true sense of credit that this one really has is it's plot line about the body-hopping spirit that can only be transfered through video, which is pretty creepy and doesn't get used often-enough as a concept since it generates some really impressive moments here and there of the possessed beings out and about with their unknowing victims.
Otherwise, this here is a gory, low-budget boring mess that seems to fling itself around in ten different directions without any sort of inner compass to determine what it wants to do, a low-budget feel that never lets it's full scope become apparent despite the feel it's going for and a laid-back pace that rarely lets on it's a horror film and never really goes for any sort of excitement or enjoyability.
But it's fun, it made me jump a couple times, and the gore doesn't look ridiculously fake like most B movies!Will I watch it again?
First thing first I still cannot believe that Christian Slater will take a role of pedophile in a C graded movie.
For a start, Christian Slater's part in this film is little more than an extended cameo and it seems to be a blatant attempt by the studio/promoters to do their best at cashing in on the one and only (semi) big name attached to the project.The film is actually about a group of teenagers who are trying to make their own horror film when they stumble on a particularly nasty supernatural force that links back to their town's past.
In many ways, Playback is little more than a (supernatural) slasher film that loosely borrows from superior works like The Ring.
You may even forget that Christian Slater is in the film because his character has so little to do.Playback is okay.
Most of the budget had to have been used for the soundtrack, because there were some decent songs used throughout the film (Awolnation's "Sail" was excitingly in here) and the rest probably went to pay Christian Slater for his less-than-memorable performance.
I understand it's hard to write teenage dialogue, especially at the beginning of a "horror" film, but you'd think someone would have spruced it up a bit after the initial draft.
It gets a little better later on, after the movie tries and fails to introduce the characters, but it's enough to make you blush a bit for the producers.
That might be because I'm a Horror freak and have watched many Horror and Thriller films, but I can't help but expect more.The second thing, which was really sad for me, was Christian Slater's roll.
The effects and cinematography were very impressive, the original indie-rock soundtrack was great and is in my opinion good enough to purchase if available, and the way some of the scenes shot by the kids in the movie end up realized by the killer was very nice.
But the best thing about this film is for sure Toby Hemingway's acting (and a great job by the make-up department).
Hemingway was superb, and I look forward to seeing him in other films!All in all, like I've mentioned, Playback wasn't the best film ever, nor the worst.
After watching The Dark Knight Rises this year, I did not expect any other movie to top it.
Boy, was i wrong.This movies stars Christian Bale as the protagonist, who played the main character in The Dark Knight trilogy and American Phsyco.
In fact, all the characters in this movie does the best acting I've seen in years.I won't write about the plot, because I don't want to spoil it.
What I came away from the viewing experience with was that yes, it does take some of its moments away from other movies in the horror genre but it has enough of its own bends and twists to make it an alright experience should you choose to watch it.
I often hear people writing about characters and plots and all the other rubbish associated with movies.
Yeah, I know, it may be a bit deep but if you look at in that way then you might just be shocked at how "real" the characters in the movie really can be.
Just think about that girl you see on the street or that cop that just drove past you while you were out walking and think about how every person you pass by in the course of your day might have some deep, dark desire or passion or obsession that they secretly act upon when the eyes of civilized society aren't watching.
Well, it's slow, only one true jump moment, very little killing, poor storyline, weird random storyline involving Christian Slater and generally bad acting.
He was possessed." While a group of high school students are making a movie for a class they begin to uncover a dark secret involving the town's past.
As for the fallen angel Christian Slater I must say that he still looks like years before and he still can act.
I can understand that a lot of people will have problems with Quinn (Toby Hemingway) as nothing is really explained why his face do looks like some kind of zombie.
Years later some high school kids work on a film project for class recreating the killings.
Of course Quinn will flip out and attack Julian and his girl.Playback goes beyond most movies of its kind.
Seriously I knew how the movie was going to end when they started doing investigation.And they changed the camera angles from some shots when they showed them a second time, you'll see what I mean towards the end.
There is actually one part on the movie that he is supposed to be filming with his phone and the screen turns black and he just keeps going.The only good thing about this movie is the girls that's why I gave it a 2/10.
I took a step back after watching this movie to really appreciate the cinematography and dialogue that this film contains.
The whole time watching this movie, I was wondering how they got Christian Slater is take part of this.
The plot sounds like it came straight from a Japanese horror film, the only problem is that this film doesn't even bother to attempt to elicit any scares.
Playback drags on for far too long, so that by the time you actually get to the interesting part, you feel like the movie should have ended a long time ago.I'd put the characters under the "nice try" category: they're far too flat--cliché high school students whom I had no desire to relate to, much less feel sorry for.
The special effects were laughable for the most part, which should have been attended to more considering this is a horror film.The only reason I watched Playback all the way to the end was because of the main storyline--which was actually quite good.
Christian Slaters performance in this film was far from bad.
I really liked the opening scenes in this movie, it kinds grabs you really fast but it shame next 20 minutes which I thought the movies was moving a little slow at times.
The acting was not all great from most cast then were some decent well know actors in this movie.I going to give this movie 4 out of 10 Worth watching!.
Now the main event : this movie mentions Louis Le Prince as the originator of film.
"Playback" is a horror film that crams in all the current popular subgenres, namely dead teenagers, technology, demonic possession, and found footage, with just a hint of historical fiction thrown in for good measure.
Through a combination of an omniscient camera and hand-held footage, we watch as a teenager named Harlan Diehl (Luke Bonczyk) wanders through his house in the middle of the night holding a camcorder.
He's one of those creepy kids that wears all black, resists long-winded conversations, avoids most people, and gets high by sniffing a rag soaked with what I think is paint thinner.Julian asks Quinn if he could hook him up with news tapes related to the Harlan Diehl murders.
One is a completely unnecessary subplot starring Christian Slater as a perverted cop who pays Quinn to set up spy cameras in the girls' locker room and in the bedrooms of two of Julian's friends, who are hot sisters.
That should be enough of a review as their are no redeeming features to this mess.The worst thing of all is how it's marketed to suck you in to see it in the first place, I mean IMDb's description 'A cop investigates the case of a missing local teen.....' is very misleading - yes a cop does investigate - for about 5 minutes of the movie.
In fact the only reason this description is used is because the cop in question is played by Christian Slater, and of course it's Slater's name that carries the movie, the only reason why you might want to watch this.That being said, Slater's role is very minimal, he basically plays a sick pervert cop for a very brief part of the movie - yup, not the impression the description would have you believe.The story is predictable from the start, contains only 'jump' scares and well.........nothing more to say really, this really is crap.
Even for a B-grade movie this is as awful as they come.The Plot was predictable, the special effects were atrocious and the characters were stale.
Any fans wanting to see a decent gory-horror flick should look elsewhere, there is literally nothing to like about this movie.10/10.
There are some murders, some pointless sexuality and Christian Slater completely wasted in a role as a porn-addicted cop buying covert footage from inside the girls locker school from the pre-possessed filmmaker.
The only other recognizable name is Alessandra Torresani ("An American Horror Movie"), but she's barely given anything to do before her character is killed off.
The story line a man who we get to know very little about in the early part of the 20th century made a cameo film so he could steal the souls of the people in the footage.Then jump forward to I think 1994 and deranged Harlan Diehl (Luke Bonczyk) kills his family in their farm and only a baby survives.
We then get to the present day and a group of replaceable teenager Americans who look more middle to late twenties than teenagers (Toby Hemingway,Jonahtan Keltz, Johnny Pacar, Jennifer Missoni, Luke Bonczyk, Alessandra Torresani and Ambyr Childer) All hell breaks out murder a bit of flesh and a bit of gore.Now how far must your career sink when appearing in this mess seems like a good idea?
Christian Slater wanders bored as a porn-addicted cop buying covert footage from inside the girls locker school from the pre-possessed filmmaker.Writing that it seems more exciting then it is the acting is appalling, the script has no thought, the plot messy.
The opening includes a great leaping stab.In today's time Julian (Johnny Pacar) is making a movie of the event as a class project.
In this horror film we are given the gratuitous nude shots of the young girls as they are being secretly filmed by Quinn (Toby Hemingway) the teen who works at the news station.
The maker of the film claims it gives the movie "energy" while the viewer describes it as giving him "a headache." Toby Hemingway plays a good moody psychotic teen.
The distinctive piece about the film is that whatever possessed Quinn does so via watching recorded footage.What is this spirit after?
Must have been a quiet day at the office.Anywho, not the worst film I've ever seen, but down there with quite a few other teenage 'horrors' I would have enjoyed it age 13 possibly!.
Then some more partying happens, teenage shenanigans ensue, and 'oh hey, it looks like Christian Slateroh wait, it is!' he sleazes it up, bring in some blood, insert antagonist's history s*** goes down and bobs your uncle.And just one spoiler for the end: Don't read if not wanting some things spoiled!
This movie dives right in at the deep with the character Harlan Diehl, covered in blood and dirt, moving through a house with a video camera.
Christian Slater actually plays a very small role in the movie.
The bad points, although they don't spoil the movie, the acting isn't great, but the story keeps you interested, and it does get a little predictable towards the end.With a storyline based on the notion of the ability of photography to capture souls, it goes one step further with the use of video and as it turned out, this movie was better than average.For reviews head over to http://mavensmovievaultofhorror.blogspot.com/.
Slater is in maybe 3 or 4 scenes in the movie and has no importance whatsoever in the movie.Playback begins with several high school friends who are shooting a film project for a journalism class assignment.
hello, i have watched this movie a few days ago and i almost forget it because i didn't like it much...
this movie is having not a good but also not a bad story.
it was kind of weird what was going on in this movie things like a guy that is recording people and if he touches the TV while he is watching them they fly back and a few secs.
but the movie was a little fun to watch because it was a bit original.
It is also a waste of Christian Slater's talents although his short performance added to the enjoyment of the movie.However, that being said, this movie revealed a major plot hole early in the film.
Or something along those lines.Plot B: A spirit inside an old movie possesses people and goes on a murder spree.Also: The only active cop for 90% of the movie is a pedophile who has the murderer put video cameras in girls' rooms.
Two stars.---They should have made it as either a B-movie gore-fest, Parody/deconstruction with psychological undertones, or a decent-budget horror film.