‘Black Rose’ is No Horror Flick… But it is Unintentionally Humorous

Directed by: Alexander Nevsky

Cast: Alexander Nevsky, Kristanna Loken, Adrian Paul

Let me just start by assuring you that Black Rose is no horror film. It’s a crime drama with a few hints of ugliness. Sure, you can stretch the classification into the thriller bracket, but few will find Black Rose horrific. That said, anyone who does tune into the film is in for an interesting nostalgic punch – this flick feels like an action flick that crawled right out of 1990, minus the five finger death punches and devastating high kicks.

The flick opens up on LAPD investigating a series of killings that look like the work of one man. Whoever this man is, he’s targeting Russians, and since no one on the force speaks Russian, the big wigs call in a no-nonsense terminator-type from Moscow to solve their serial killer problem. Long story short, it works.

Everything in the film is by the numbers. You’ll have your suspect list narrowed down to two individuals inside of a half an hour, and the guy that your gut is telling you to go with, is indeed the perpetrator.

The acting is interesting. Sometimes it comes off as sharp, and sometimes it’s borderline amateur. What makes the movie a little confusing is all of the comedy. I’m convinced this isn’t designed to be a comedic picture, yet there’s so much unintentional comedy I couldn’t help but spend half of the flick in stitches. Was that the goal? I don’t know. If it was the goal, it worked like a charm.

Black Rose isn’t going to make it on any “best of 2017” lists, but if you’re climbing up there in age, like myself, you just might find yourself feeling as though you’ve done the time warp again, and you may get a kick out of the over the top action sequences and silly dialogue. If you’re looking for a dead-serious serial killer movie, you won’t hurt yourself by passing on this indie effort.

Rating: 2/5