BOTCHED/SPILLS BLOOD

Trap a few hostages on a mysteriously empty "13th" floor with a clueless band of thieves chased by a wannabe Ivan the Terrible and stuff happens.

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Directed by London’s Kit Ryan, Botched is horror/comedy at its wackiest.

It’s a weird but simple premise.

Hapless robber Ritchie is despatched to Moscow to steal a Russian babble from a highrise building but gets stuck in a lift with some locals who he takes hostage in the hope of bargaining his way out.

Unfortunately, his hostages include a fair share of unsavoury characters, led by the insane and armed Sonya.

Much more unfortunately, the floor is the haunt of the aforesaid Ivan the Terrible impersonator who likes nothing better than killing people, except maybe killing them ever more gruesomely.

So Ritchie is in for a tough few hours, awash with blood, stabbed by his partner (who seemed dead) and crushed beneath a stack of falling bodies (who definitely are dead).

Yet, he is the lucky man of the lot, at least retaining his body parts while all round him people are shedding limbs, even a head.

Curiously, for such a gore-fest, the film has some welcome and unusually well developed characters to make up for the OTT scenarios.

Inevitably the critical response to such a concoction has been mixed. On the one hand: Hit and miss, with more misses than hits. On the other: Not only has comedy that works, but fun characters that you can root for as well.

You can taste the flavour for yourself on botchedmovie.

Botched opens in London and key cities on Friday, April 18, 2008.

Posted April 14, 2008.