Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Gutsycurene
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Cheryl
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
myignisrules
Shiver is one of those straight to stream movies, that you can easily miss, but I try to catch these when I can. 9 times out of 10 they suck but when I saw Danielle Harris was one of the stars, I knew it might be good and I'm pleased to say, her performance, along side John Jarratt, who plays our resident psycho, manages to take a bland story and turn it up a few notches. They are the strength of this movie and without their solid turns as Psycho Serial Killer vs The Final Girl, this movie would've fallen flat. When they aren't the focus (and thankfully they get most of the screen time in the second and third acts) Shiver becomes boring, with Casper Van Dien (what happened to you Casper?) as the cop on the case, and Rae Dawn Chong (the stewardess from Commando) as his partner, sleepwalking through their parts.It's a decent horror and the blood and terror builds as the movie goes along. It won't win any awards and I don't see it ending up on any Best Of lists, but the performances of the two lead actors make for an entertaining watch.
hbeeinc
Franklin Rood is a serial killer - RUDE....GET IT??That's about the extent of the depth of this POS. John Jarratt is the most annoying serial killer ever. Half retarded and....half retarded. He's a serial killer because someone broke his glasses. Seriously. We know he's a "genius" because he knows Edgar Allen Poe. And he's smart enough to scream "NOT SO SMART NOW, ARE YOU?" after he kills the woman who misquoted The Raven. Wendy is a gorgeous wallflower, too timid to ask for a raise, but magically becomes a tigress street-smart enough to slip a knife up her sleeve when she feels threatened and calm enough to continue to slip away when threatened. Adding insult to injury are jazz standards that pound away on the soundtrack. Most stalker movies you have some kind of kinship with the killer. This guy you just want dead. And not in a good way.
callanvass
Wendy Alden has a boring job, lack of self-esteem, and a love life that she is reluctant to fully commit to. To make matters worse, a notorious serial killer is killing off women in her area. Wendy encounters the killer and manages to escape from a near-death experience. In order to survive, Wendy is gonna have to outsmart the killer at any cost. I only watched this because of Danielle Harris, I think the woman is immensely talented, even when she is dealing with sub par scripts. There isn't really anything overly original in this one, it's fairly derivative, but it does what it can with the material it has. It has a bit of an old school feel to it and isn't afraid to push boundaries. it also has some decent psychology in it as well. I did think they could have delved further into the serial killer's plight because he just seemed like a typical killer with family issues growing up. While I will give it credit for doing what it can with the material, it's too derivative to be that effective. How many times have we seen a perverted serial killer hack off beautiful women over the years? Its been done to death. There are a couple of questionable plot holes as well. How did the killer survive the car going off a cliff? It isn't fully explained. I wondered how the police could be so incompetent at times. Poor camera work at times is also an issue. Gore hounds should be at least content with the amount of violence. We get a nasty slit throat, and an eye is gouged out. Bloody corpses, gunshot wounds, and severed heads add to the fun as well. The harshest part may have been the scene with the pregnant woman, I thought that was effectively brutal. The acting is decent. Danielle Harris is excellent as our heroine. It was nice to see they didn't fully go the way of the damsel in distress. She is very vulnerable, but the strong heroine you'd expect her to be as well. John Jarrett ranges from hammy to good. There were times where I thought he was outstanding with his work, others where he was too OTT. He was a bit too whiny for me in all honesty at times. Casper Van Dien is OK. He got this weird smirk on his face at the weirdest times. An underrated favorite of mine, Rae Dawn Chong has a small part as wellI tried to be as fair as I could with this review. For what it is, I felt it did some good things. It can be suspenseful at times with some great acting (Harris especially) , but there is nothing that special about it. It's just another serial killer film that is carried by Danielle Harris. Harris fans and fans of the genre will find a few things to like about this one5/10
Coventry
It's too bad that I end up writing an overall negative review for "Shiver", as I truly and honestly wanted to like it! I saw the film at a very small-scaled but charming Festival in my home country, and both director Julian Richards and writer/producer Robert D. Weinbach were present for the screening… Yes, sadly it wasn't lead actress Danielle Harris who traveled to Belgium for a visit. Anyway, they are both very friendly gentlemen and truly proud of their accomplishment. They describe "Shiver" as the first a deeply disturbing serial killer thriller in a very long time and supposedly also one of the first to draw a profound and genuinely realistic portrait of the psychopath. Well, it's good that they're fond of their product, of course, but sadly all I watched was a dull, derivative and tremendously clichéd run-of-the-mill B-movie thriller. John Jarratt, who my girlfriend immediately recognized from his role in the sappy soap series "MacLeod's Daughters", is immediately introduced as the murderous madman Vinnie even before the opening credits appear on screen. So don't pay any attention to the other user comment around here claiming that the trailer reveals the identity of the killer… You're meant to know right away. Vinnie savagely strangles with a steel wire because he had a traumatizing childhood. This gets illustrated trough a flashback in which we witness two bullies crushing little Vinnie's glasses. Now if such a vile act doesn't turn you into a relentless and misogynous serial killer, then what does? Vinnie leaves a big trail of bloody massacres behind in Oregon's Portland, and in spite of his rather rude and careless modus operandi, the dumb police inspector Casper Van Dien doesn't have a clue how to catch him. Then one night, Vinnie breaks into the apartment of cute single lady Wendy Alden. When she narrowly survives Vinnie's assault, he becomes obsessed with her and convinced that they belong together. What ensues is an incredibly tedious and predictable cat-and-mouse game, featuring all the clichés you can think of. Our killer literally pops up everywhere around Wendy, even in places where he couldn't possibly guess she is there, and "Shiver" quickly becomes ridiculous beyond proportions. Near the climax, Vinnie goes on a sickening blood rampage that is actually laughable instead of disturbing, and the final confrontation between him and Wendy is then again quite tame. Horror princess Danielle Harris ("Halloween", "Hatchet") gives a good performance and the make-up effects are pleasingly gross, but the film is far too weak in the scripting and executing departments.
