Red Mist (2008) Starring Arielle Kebbel, Sarah Carter & Andrew Lee Potts Directed by Paddy Breathnach Written by Spence Wright

I really wanted to like Shrooms, yet came away from the film feeling I would have been better off if I had just watched the trailer. What appeared to be a great idea involving drug induced paranoia and hallucinations descended into just another slasher film that ultimately was no more than a lame excuse to kill stupid people. Sadly, Red Mist falls into the same trap.

In Red Mist, the stupid people have been replaced by smart people who do stupid things. Once again, I approached this film optimistically because I see talent in Director Breathnach; I feel the guy is capable of delivering something special. Unfortunately Red Mist suffers from the same poor writing. This time around, it was a recycled Fulci idea from his '87 film, Aenigma. As was the case with the Maestro's film, Red Mist winds up falling quite short, leaving you wanting a hell of a lot more than you get. Red Mist is just another routine case of the same old bullshit that already plagues too many genre films. It wants to be different but lacks the balls and inventiveness to do anything more than fall back on clichéd ideas.

The medical students from "Forthaven" Hospital are a bunch of miserable pricks and sycophants who, one night at a local bar force feed a loser named Kenneth (Andrew Lee Potts) a cocktail of drugs and alcohol that leave him comatose and convulsing on the floor. Instead of helping the annoying little bastard (who has some incriminating video of one of them stealing drugs) the med. students promptly forget the Hippocratic Oath and decide to let him die.

Feeling badly about the incident "Catherine" (Arielle Kebbel) begins to research some experimental drugs being tested for possible use on coma patients. Finding one that may restore his brain to a functioning state she begins to sneak into the hospital at night and administer the drug. The drug makes his brain function but has a side effect that enables Kenneth to leave his body and control others. Once Kenny assumes control over his hapless victim he is then able to use them to carry out revenge on the fucks that put him down! Sounds cool huh? It would have been had the story not shifted into just another murder set piece that takes us from one clichéd scenario to the next. We have the asshole responsible, who suffers a Mothers Day mouthwash, the Goth chickie that gets hers in the bath, and the list goes on from one to the other right through to an ending that is telegraphed so badly it may blacken your eye if you aren't paying attention, which at this point you probably won't be.

One day Paddy Breathnach will no doubt deliver a solid film that really grabs me by the goose eggs and I will feel really bad about writing this review. Until he does, however, my recommendation is that you avoid the Red Mist the way I avoid my sister-in-law, like the fuckin plague!