Stitches is a product of the somewhat short lived Full Moon/Tempe Entertainment relationship from earlier this decade that produced some really crappy movies and a few good ones including Dead and Rotting and Stitches. After this relationship ended, Full Moon went way back downhill and, in my opinion, never really recovered. That’s a different rant altogether though.
This is a definite departure from your standard Full Moon flick even though there are puppets of sorts, in the form of paper dolls with hilarious “special effects” adding in the faces of her victims.
Here’s the basic setup: A demon, in hell no less, is creating a ’skin’ for themselves to complete a mission on earth. This mission, as we come to discover, is to obtain the souls of all the members of a house while taking the form of a nice older lady, Mrs. Albright. As the movie goes on, each member of the house goes down one by one after Mrs. Albright, sometimes in the form of other house members, convinces each individual house mate to give her “whatever she wants” in exchange for some sort of favor. In the end, each character (if in fact they make it – no spoilers) ends up as a face on a paper doll and is, presumably, now kickin’ it with the devil.
Whether it be bringing a husband back to life after their wife is tricked into busting some lead, promising to make the wisher as “smart” as the other girls or proving that demons exist, Mrs. Albright picks them off one by one. Sometimes in convincing fashion, yet other folks seem to go down a bit suddenly while some captures are extended over a period of time and are overly drawn out.
Aside from that and the occasional DV “glitch” (?) that always causes the action to speed way up for like half a second, I really, really enjoyed this. The story is good for Full Moon, the acting, in my opinion, is solid especially Elizabeth Ince (Mrs. Albright). Debra Mayer’s performance is pretty solid as well. The ending is interesting in a way, almost comical and that just adds overall to the movie.
I wouldn’t make this a permanent part of my collection, but it’s definitely a good one to rent for some late-night viewing or if you are sitting around bored and tired of being blazed and spacing out on perhaps the Home Shopping Network or something equally as shitty like..oh I dunno.. the Sci-Fi Channel.
**** out of 5.
[Stitches on Amazon]
