IMDb > Son of Sam (2008) (V) > IMDb user comments

IMDb user comments for
Son of Sam (2008) (V) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 2:[1] [2] [Next]
Index 16 comments in total 

21 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Rinse, lather and repeat..., 1 June 2008
3/10
Author: rocknrico from United States

This movie portrays the story of David Berkowitz in a dreamlike nature complete with haunting voices, star lens effects and twisting camera work going in and out of color/focus.

Save yourself some time and just watch the first 20 minutes of this train wreck of a movie. Everything else is simply a repeat, both in style and form as they go from one murder to another. There must have been 10 shots of David just staring into the NY skyline experiencing schizophrenia which all appeared to be shot on the same day. Fortunately, nothing is graphic or too bloody and the murders are implied. From wooden acting to Karo syrup blood effects, the film is amateurish.

Lastly, you would think that someone would at least run some of the text through a spell checker as the concluding text contained typos.

Was the above comment useful to you?

10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Yup we're back in dreaded Ulli Lommel, 9 September 2008
1/10
Author: movieman_kev from United States

David Berkowitz, son of Sam, (played in a near-catatonic state by Yogi Joshi) recounts his story to his public defender, a tale that gets extremely repetitive fairly quickly. This deathly boring film by Ulli Lommel takes an somewhat avent-garde approach to the true life crime story, but all that does it make the redundancies all the more unbearable (Berkowitz kills, scene of satanic cult, talks to public defender, wanders around looking vacant, repeat, repeat, repeat) Also this film is not even noteworthy to those that are fascinated by the case, as the facts are played with loosely by Mr. Lommel. Speaking of which, this guy has made what, 5 or 6 'based on true life' serial killer movies so far(?!?!!) One would think he'd actually learn to make one that's even competent, alas perhaps it's just out of his grasp, poor guy... But he still shouldn't churn out such awful product.

My Grade: F

Was the above comment useful to you?

7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
holy cow this is bad!!!, 13 October 2008
1/10
Author: pulpmojo from United States

wow! I'm actually playing the DVD right now and it is soooo freakin' awful! I don't even have to wait for it to end to write my review. It's like a sub-par student production. The writing is unbelievably bad. And the acting... well, I seriously think I saw better acting in my daughters elementary school play. If these are serious actors trying to build an acting career, I really feel bad for them, it would really have to suck to be associated with this film. If I were them, I'd make sure to leave this horrid film out of their resume. I'm not all that picky when it comes to films either. I always try to find something good about a production. But this.. I just can't find the silver lining on this film. I think this Ulli Lommel fella should maybe consider looking for another line of work.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The worst director in history, 13 April 2009
2/10
Author: ilovemygoats from United States

Ulli is without a doubt the worst director is cinematic history. This mess of a movie proves that without any argument. Perhaps if he would actually try to make a real movie instead of "art house trash", he would make something watchable. The only good thing about his movies is that one can hit fast forward for at least 60% of each film and get done faster and therefore waste less time out ones daily grind. Ulli's movies are so bad, that "Plan 9 From Outerspace", the deliciously bad movie and "Attack of the Killer Tomato(e)s", would have a uncontested win in the Best Picture category at the Oscars! Ulli's movies are so bad that Uwe's films look like masterpieces.

The continual shots of the Satanic rituals got old after the first one. Each one making less and less sense. The shots of "Son of Sam" just wondering around became so nonsensical after the first two times.

Somebody please keep this man from wasting any more of our lives by making any further films!

Was the above comment useful to you?

4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
This movie is awful., 15 November 2008
1/10
Author: scruffybear37 from Canada

Totally inaccurate. The writer didn't totally research the actual events. The writing was horrible and the acting was even worse. Bad direction and very poor production round out the worse film that I have ever seen. I don't know why this was even released, this was a total waste of film. I had trouble staying awake for this movie and I was watching it in the afternoon. Further, I think that it is an embarrassment to Lion's Gate to have anything to do with this film. To the people who are considering buying this film, Save your money! Buy Summer of Sam, it is far more entertaining. At least in Summer of Sam they have big name actors that give a far better performance.

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Ulli Lommel: Someone Please ..... This Guy !!!, 16 October 2008
1/10
Author: roland-brenda from Belgium

Director Ulli Lommel should be burned alive: also Son Of Sam is another unwatchable mess with only one question: why was it made ? What was he thinking ? Serial-killer movies based on true events can certainly be worth watching and educational: it is some sort of history, if you ask me. I was pleasantly surprised by the made for TV-movie Capture Of The Green River Killer which was on a couple of months ago. Or The Hunt For The BTK Killer.(NOT the Ulli Lommel version !!) David Berkowitz was never an interesting serial killer like Gacy, Bundy, Dahmer or the BTK-killer. Spike Lee made "Summer Of Sam" back in 1999 in which the killings only took place in a back-story. Even he was not interested in telling the tale of Berkowitz. Berkowitz killed mainly young couples in their cars with a gun at point blank. He later admitted that the neighbor's dog barked at him the commands to kill. The dog was possessed by Satan stated David.

Lommel presents us with a cast that lacks any talent or charisma. The story is stupid, slow and annoying, filled with irritating flashbacks, vague dream-sequences and so on. Shot with your average video-cam, any man could have made this movie, much better than this failure.

I watched about half an hour of it, than a fast forwarded.. it never got better. In fact, after 10 minutes you already realize you have a turkey on your hand.

The short story: This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Literally the worst movie I've ever seen, 1 February 2009
1/10
Author: SuperCatMonkey from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I'm not usually given to hyperbole, nor have I ever felt compelled to write a movie review before. After watching this steaming pile, however, I'm actually angry enough to pan it out loud. My daughter and I loved Zodiac, and picked this strictly based on the title. Don't repeat my error. Direct-to-video porn productions are made with more care than this "movie." It looks like it was shot on a Flip video recorder, the dialog consists of endless chanting and repetition of phrases (I'm not making this up - it's extraordinarily annoying!), and the storyline is lame lame lame, even though it's supposedly based on a true story. There wasn't a shred of effort to make it look like the '70s. It calls itself a "horror" movie. It's horrible, alright. My next step is to complain to the cable company for putting this on pay-per-view - I wasted my free coupon on it. Caveat emptor!! I should have looked on IMDb first.

Spoiler: The only reason to sit through the whole thing is the hope that the chick in the Satanic cult (or maybe the lawyer chick) will get naked. This never happens, so don't waste your time.

Was the above comment useful to you?

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Sucks, 1 December 2008
1/10
Author: billyroberts15 from United States

My cousins decided to see this on pay per view, and we definitely wished that we could refund it. After seeing the whole movie, we felt that we could have made a better movie with nothing but a camcorder (which is probably what these people used as well). The filming style is crappy, as is the acting and the effects. The Satanic worship sequences are anything but scary and are more hilarious than anything else. The main actor should probably stay away from acting as should the rest of the actors in this film. At times, they used the same actors from an older scene in a different scene. Stay as far away from this trash if you value your time.

Was the above comment useful to you?

4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Why do you want to see a Priest? Your Jewish!, 12 June 2008
4/10
Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***SPOILERS*** Somewhat fictionalized account of the Son of Sam's murderous rampage that terrorized the city of New York back in 1976/1977. We get to see David Bekowitz aka Son of Sam after his capture by the NYPD in a holding cell being interviewed by his court appointed attorney Miss. Kline.

Not at all denying his crimes that put some fifteen people in the hospital or morgue Berkowitz spills his guts out telling Miss Kline that the Devil made him do it. Alone and without any friends David got in with the wrong crowd, he tells Miss. Kline, who happened to be a gang of Satan worshipers. These evil people so thoroughly brainwashed poor David's mind to the point where he didn't have a mind of his own but one that's controlled by the Devil, or Satan, himself.

We then have this slew of flashbacks of David moping around town, mostly around the Brooklyn Bridge, looking for victims to sacrifice, with his bulldog .44 handgun, to his Lord & Master Satan wherever he gets the call to do it. It seems that David's victims in the film don't corresponds with the real victims that the real Son of Sam murdered during his killing spree. None of the some dozen persons he guns down, and the circumstances under which he shoots them, don't remotely resemble those that the real Son of Sam did in some 30 years ago!

There's also the story of who's directing Berkowitz to do these terrible things that turned out to be a black or chocolate Labrador dog name Sam thus the name Son of Sam that Berkowitz gave himself. In the film we see David on very friendly terms with Sam even at times sleeping with the mutt which also doesn't correspond with the real events of the Son of Sam murder case.

In real life it wasn't Sam the dog whom Berkowitz was referring to as his father but Sam the man, Sam Carr, who's dog Harvey-called Sam in the movie-was driving Berkowitz nuts barking all night keeping him awake! In fact Berkowitz tried a number of times, after telling Sam Carr to shut his dog up, to shoot Harvey in order to keep him from constantly barking and thus be able to finally get himself a good night sleep! It was this non-stop barking on Harveys part that convinced Berkowitz that the dog was an agent of Satan pounding into his head orders to go out and kill for him through the Yonkers, where Berkowitz lived at the time, based Satanic Cult that he belonged to.

Knowing that he's hopelessly possessed and controlled by the Devil/Satan Berkowitz finally asks and gets a local Catholic Priest-Father Duncan- to do an exorcism on him and free his body & soul from the evil influence that the Devil/Satan has on them. It's then after being cleansed by Father Duncan of the evil that has been driving him to maim and murder Berkowitz finally sees the light and becomes "whole" again. With his both body and soul exercised of the evil that the Devil/Satan infected them with Berkowitz has now, in the movie, become a new spiritual and righteous human being. Morphing from the evil Son of Sam into the good kind and loving Son of Hope that's he's known as, behind prison bars, today.

Nothing really that new here on the murderous history of David Berkowitz but the fact that what he did wasn't done on his own but with the help and urging of his fellow Satanic Cult members.

It seems in the movie that only Berkowitz was entrusted to do all the dirty work by the Satanic Cult as if he, being an army veteran, was the only one who knew how to handle a handgun. What really struck me about Berkowitz and his many victims in the movie is how they never saw him coming, even when he was standing right in front of them, until he started blasting away! It seemed as if Satan himself made Berkowitz, who had great trouble handling his .44 bulldog revolver, invisible so he wouldn't be spotted by his intended victims until it was too late!

Was the above comment useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Stay away, 26 July 2009
1/10
Author: vichmd from United States

Stay away from this "film." I am unable to give a thorough, comprehensive review because I could not get beyond the first 22 minutes. It was really that bad. The first 22 minutes consisted of David walking around NYC gazing off into space interspersed with scenes of a bunch of people chanting at a Satanic cult. The special effects were awful and clearly low budget. The acting was amateurish. You can't fault the actors completely, because they clearly had little to work with in the way of dialogue, lighting, or quality recording equipment. If I were them, I would keep this part of their career a secret. I would not put my worst enemies through this.

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 2:[1] [2] [Next]

Add another comment

Related Links

Ratings External reviews Main details
Your user comments Your vote history