Imprint – Masters of Horror – Rating 2 out of 5

Imprint – Masters of Horror – Rating 2 out of 5

Not much of a plot but plenty of wife beating, disfigured prostitutes, torture and aborted fetuses. Imprint is a pretty vulgar and guttural movie that has a very dark side, but it has a senseless plot and an even more nonsensical ending that just makes you wonder what the point is.

I admit the “Banned from Cable” tagline had me interested. “What could be so bad they wouldn’t show it on cable?” So I sat down to Imprint and let the shock factor begin. For those who like torture movies this is for you. The basic premise of the movie is this:

An American goes to the Orient to find his lost love. He ends up talking to a disfigured prostitute who happens to know of his love. She tells him the story of how she stole the jade ring from the Madame of the whorehouse and how she was punished to death.

The remainder of the movie is recounting how she was tortured by having her body burned with bundles of incense, needles stuck under her fingernails and into her gums, and how she was strung up with a block and tackle to complete the job. When the girl doesn’t confess to taking the ring, they just add more torture to the mix to get her to talk. Its way overkill for the crime and to me seems completely out of context for the movie.

The American says she is lying and not telling him the whole truth, so she retells the story again adding a few pieces back in such as the parts of her mother having the job of helping parents get rid of their unwanted babies. There are plenty of scenes of little bodies floating down the river mixed in with the scenes of the tortured prostitute.

But in the end what makes this movie fail is the incredibly poor acting. There is no emotion, the dialog is stiff and monotone and the story is so thin it’s hardly worth watching. Couple this with an incredibly stupid ending and absolutely piss poor special effects and the movie isn’t worth sitting through. It’s graphic and violent but completely pointless and meaningless.

I’m not sure if it was banned because of the violence or because of it’s stupidity.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Saw III
• Dead Silence – Rating 3 out of 5
• Deer Woman – Masters of Horror – Rating 4 out of 5
• The Number 23 – Rating 2.3 out of 5
• Reincarnation – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• The Ring – Rating 3 out of 5
• Exorcist II – Heretic – Ranking 3 out of 5
• Count Dracula – BBC Mini-Series – Rating 3.5 out of 5
• The Abandoned – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• The Grudge – Rating 2 out of 5