Director: Peter Burger
Writer: Matthew Grainger, Jonathan King (Screenplay)
Starring: Jason Behr, Mia Blake, David Fane, Robbie Magasiva, Ian Vincent, Caroline Cheong, Nathaniel Lees, Michael Hurst
Plot: A young artist unknowingly plays a role in releasing a deadly spirit as he attempts to learn tatau, the Samoan tradition of tattooing.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Interesting Idea for Horror
Story: The Tattooist starts as we follow Jake Sawyer (Behr) a young tattoo artist who wants to learn the ways of the cultures behind tattooing, leaving Singapore he learns of an older way of printing a tattoo. Heading to New Zealand he wants to continue to learn about the Samoan technique.
When Jake accidentally touches a piece of equipment used in printing the tattoos he finds his hand infected by something that seems to spread and doesn’t clean off. Travelling around with his guide and friend Sina (Blake) he Jake gets embraced by some within the Samoan culture but others want him out, but he needs to learn what is causing the infection in his hand, as the people he has tattooed are being consumed by their tattoos.
Thoughts on The Tattooist
Characters/Performance – Jake is the young tattoo artist who wants to learn each and every culture behind the art of tattooing, he finds himself learning something he shouldn’t going against the culture he has been studying. Sina is the guide and love interest of Jake that takes Jake into the world of Samoan tattooing.
Performance wise, well this is the first of the negatives, I didn’t think anybody in this film shines to any level to show any fear or believable dialog in the interaction the characters have.
Story – The story is one that comes off very interesting, diving into the beliefs of culture behind the art of tattooing. The idea that we dive into the ancient beliefs is a huge plus, along with how the spirit comes for the victims. Where the story does fall short is within the inconsistencies with how the spirit acts toward finishing everything off. We also have issues with how certain people never truly follow what they believe when it comes to the tattooing.
Horror – Certain moments do come off horrific in places as we see how the people get consumed by the tattoo but otherwise it all comes off quite soft in the end.
Settings – The settings show the different cultures Jake is learning about, which is all good but nothing becomes iconic for what is going on.
Special Effects – The special effects also come off slightly weak as you can see the CGI going on through the killing scenes.
Final Thoughts – This is a nice idea for horror as mixing the true culture behind a belief with horror can come off very effective, but other times I can miss when it comes to the final product.
Overall: Easy to watch but slightly weak horror film.
Rating
