By Steve Biodrowski

This odd film is poised halfway between the art house and the grind house. It has a vaguely satirical tone, showcasing an orphaned family whose oldest brother is trying to hold his siblings together and keep up appearances while they occasionally kidnap people and hold them captive in the cellar for food. In other words, they are basically no better than the Texas Chainsaw family, but they look normal enough to fit comfortably into any suburb. And to top it all off, there is a mysterious, unseen being in the basement that seems to be more ravenous and dangerous than the rest of the family put together.

The screenplay's structural conceit is to tell the story from the inside, forcing audiences to identify with the Hamiltons as they go about their ugly predations, run afoul of the locals, and nearly disintegrate under the pressure of trying to maintain the facade of normalcy. This creates a nasty, disturbing ambience, especially in regards to twins Wendell and Darlene Hamilton, who play sadistic cat-and-mouse games with their victims, enjoying the thrill of the kill for its own sake, even if it puts their family at risk of exposure.

The story is told from the point-of-view of the Hamilton’s youngest son, Franics, who narrates and documents his life through a small video camera, creating a mock-documentary tone that helps compensate for the movie's low-budget, shot-on-video look. With its moody music, suburban setting, and wistful sense of an apparently noraml life undermined bya  dark family secret, this is CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS, remade as a horror film. In a strange way, Franics charts a character arc similar to that of Michael Corleone in THE GODFATHER: the young son, who feels like an outsider in his own family, gradually drawn into the family business. The difference is that THE GODFATHER was clearly a tragedy, while THE HAMILTONS celebrates the eventual solidification of the family. (One hopes this paen to family values is intended as highly ironic, but the film makes little effort to say so.)

The characterizations and performances are solid, creating a sense of everyday realism that underlines the ugliness of the horror. Unfortunately, the pace - lacking a frequent infusion of high-calibre thrills - feels more suited to a domestic drama, and the unpleasant aura eventually wears the audience down. Also, the final-reel revelation of what's been lurking in the basement is an (intentional) anti-climax. Yes, it is a genuine surprise, but it borders on the absurd, becasue what we finally see is clearly incapable of perpetrating the atrocities attributed to it throughout the rest of the film.

Nevertheless, THE HAMILTOSN remains effectively grim and often unpleasant - definitely not an entertaining roller-coaster thrill ride of a mvoie - and in some ways it is not particularly enjoyable (unless you have a masochistic streak). But it is engrossing, in a disturbing kind of way (like watching a bloody car accident - you cannot look away), and it earns some respect for the conviction of its docu-horror approach.

TRIVIA

"The Butcher Brothers" is a pseudonym for the writing-directing team of Phil Flores and Mitchell Altieri, which they created for their work in the horror genre.

After a screening of the film at the October 2006 Screamfest in Hollywood, Flores said that the Butcher Brothers' pitch for the film was "CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS as a horror film."

The movie was shot in fifteen days.