Customer Rating:
Summary: The mind can sometimes be the ugliest thing of all
Comment: The key elements to a five star horror are pretty simple, right? Well not so much in this genre. But there are films that will blow your mind. All of the great pyschological films have a way of making you feel a bit crazy. This brings me to The Ugly. If you haven't seen my favorite horror movies, it's in the top 40. You may ask exactly why, so let me tell you. I will start off by saying that my favorite of any horror movies out there are the pyschological ones. Any time a horror is made into what can be reality, that scares me the most. Why is it that we watch them, to be scared of course?. The Ugly has a way of making you feel sorry for the killer, yet hating him at the same time. We all want the answer to why and what makes psychopaths kill. The answer is unknown, and in this film the real answer to that question stays unknown. We can't be in their minds, yet everyday psychologist get paid a lot of money to try. The acting is superb. The plot is fantastic. The atmosphere is really creepy and scary. We also have some good gore scenes involved. We are drawn in by one man that makes us feel that we are right there with him. His reality is our worst nightmare.

Serial killer Simon Cartwright has been in a mental institute for the past five years. He request a famous psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Karen Schumaker to evaluate him because he believes he is cured. Simon states that the evil within him is now gone. At first Karen believes Simom is cured and is regretful for all of his killings. When the truth starts to unravel itself, we are taken into Simons world with flashbacks of the evil that required him to do these cruel and unthinkable crimes. What Karen soon learns is that Simon is manipulative and she is forced into his world to take on The Ugly.

This is a great scary movie for Halloween. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but for the most part the horror fans will love this as much as I do. This will make you think twice about your own sanity. In the process just try not to go mad.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What Simon Sees...
Comment: THE UGLY is all about mysterious serial-killer, Simon Cartwright (Paolo Rotondo). The other characters are incidental, except for Dr. Karen Schumaker (Rebecca Hobbs), who attempts to figure Simon out. Simon is an enigma. Unlike other notorious serial-murderers, he apparently kills all types of people for no reason other than the pure enjoyment of the slaughter. He simply loves to kill. Or does he? Dr. Schumaker probes Simon's mind in order to uncover his secrets. Unfortunately for her, there's more going on than she is aware of. We are shown a world through Simon's eyes, where orderlies are sadistic thugs, and the head doctor is an aloof moron. Simon sees everything differently. THE UGLY is a glimpse into the skull of a man haunted by the demons and ghosts of his past. An abused boy in adult skin, seeking revenge for the agony of his youth. However, it's hard to tell if we can believe everything we see or hear. Simon is very tricky. Sometimes fantasy and reality merge, as do various past experiences. Like dreams within dreams within nightmares. Simon cannot be fully trusted. He can't even trust himself. THE UGLY is a well-made psychological / supernatural creeper w/ many cool set pieces, like Simon's chasing of the little girl through the stacks of chairs, or the final encounters w/ the "visitors". Highly recommended for anyone looking for something out of the ordinary...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 0.25 STARS: It's "Ugly" alright. "The Stupid" might be a better name though.
Comment: "The Ugly" is a so-called horror movie about a serial killer who is confined in an outrageous mental institution. Enter a highly publicized psychiatrist who comes onto the scene to presumably provide a second opinion on our sympathetic serial killer. As such, the audience is then subjected to the dreaded flashback mode of film making in which the killer recalls his past deeds. In the process, "The Ugly" tries to be cute and clever by throwing in illogical and outrageously ridiculous scenes to throw the viewer into blow-your-mind world. The result is ugly. Hence the name of this film, "The Ugly" or just "The Stupid".

Movies that attempt the flashback method often make for a frustrating viewing experience, (not that the method cannot be successfully done, see "Godfather II"). Just take "The Stupid", I'm sorry, "The Ugly", which uses this method in an attempt to be clever, but the movie just never gets off the ground. While horror movies certainly do not have to be realistic per se, they do need to be convincing, and this, among other areas, is where "The Ugly" completely fails. Aside from its questionable method of cinematic procession and complete lack of theatrical structure, "The Ugly" is also plagued by bad acting, an over the top and boring script, poor execution of a unimaginative plot and an unconvincing portrait of a serial killer. Indeed, "The Ugly" tries to be clever, but perhaps it attempts to be too cute for its own good.

While style over substance can work in horror cinema, it takes an especially talented director to make it happen. Just take a look at Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" for a perfect example of how to do a style over substance horror flick. However, just because a movie tries to be different does not make it good in and of itself, and that is what we unfortunately get in "The Ugly", an ugly and boring movie watching experience completely lacking in the ability to provide any degree of horror in the audience.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating horror- movie
Comment: This movie is fascinating, in a strange, intriguing manner. It combines some very gory (not exagerated!) moments with the sinister, hidden truth. One is drawn into a world, which is terrible under a surface, which only seems to be normal. The end is truly horrifying!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Type of Cunning that sometimes leads to Cutting
Comment: Simon Cartwright is many things, and sane wouldn't exactly be one of those mentioned. According to the beginning of the movie he has done unspeakable things and is the interest of many people because of it, with lots of prolific minds hoping to crack that hardest to read "nut." And why not? A career can be made overnight by publications on the "why" and "wherefore" that drives individuals to do horrific things, and the APA is always looking for some new insight into the minds of our most noted maniacs. Added to this is Cartwright himself; when you see him he seems almost a victim of some terrible mix-up, like a lamb amongst wolves, and when he speaks he seems forthright and honest when it comes everything he says. That doesn't seem to follow in the footsteps of most prolific bipedal terrors, almost making him approachable, and a certain Dr. Karen Schumaker sees such a chance in all of this to try to understand just what makes someone so terrible such a fright.
The thing is that Simon Cartwright isn't just a killer and, for the good Dr. Schumaker, this becomes evident rather quickly.

When I watched The Ugly the first time, I found it somewhat confusing and somewhat disorienting but I let my mind wander it anyhow. After a second visitation to Cartwright's mindset I found myself less pressed for explanations and rather impressed by the movie as a whole because it opted for a different approach to understanding the error behind things. It didn't try to dish out oceans of blood or intimidate the audience with a blacklist of crimes miles deep; it instead began with little tricks that played on the mind and continued to get deeper the more the movie continued on. This meant using somewhat surreal moments to play with the viewer's sense all the stroll through, essentially throwing them to those proverbial wolves in a visual sense of the word, delving all-the-while into a game that Mr. Cartwright allowed to grow deeper and deeper as the story itself grew deeper and deeper.
Personally, I enjoyed the experience of really having to keep track of what was happening and the sense of distortion that came with falling into the footsteps of a psychotic.

Another enjoyable portion of The Ugly was that the story presented about Simon Cartwright really played worked in bulks of images and soft-spoken wording. You have this tale that Cartwright concocts to play with the emotions of those listening, and then you have the true story of the person and "the Ugly" that dance around the spectator all the movie through. I found this especially interesting because so many movies are linear now, going from front to back without really trying. The Ugly does quite the opposite, taking a person's compassion and the things that they are willing to accept and using that against them.
It seemed like the adage of a "dog eat dog world" really coming to life here.

The movie isn't for everyone, granted, and some people might not like the way the movie is delivered. Still, for fans of horror that want to try out something a tad different, The Ugly is an interesting road to traverse.

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