Review: Cross Bearer (2012)

First I´d like to thank Adam Ahlbrandt for providing me with a screener.
Heather (Natalie Jean) is broke. She has a soul sucking job as a stripper. Her live-in girlfriend Victoria (Victoria DePaul) has a baby and a coke problem. Her boss Harry (J.D. Brown) is an abusive maniac. Life cannot get much worse…or so she thought. Determined to get out of this living hell, Heather and her lover, Bunny (Kacie Marie), plan to rip off Harry, ditch Victoria, and leave town to live out their days on the Greek islands in peaceful bliss. One big score is all they need, and Harry gives them the opportunity when he asks them to take care of a drug deal with one of his clients at an old warehouse. As Heather and her friends arrive, everything seems to be going fine until they make a grizzly discovery and are trapped inside by a rambling, religious maniac hell-bent on purifying the Earth of its sins through murder and destruction. Armed with a carpenter’s hammer and a fanatic passion, the Cross Bearer (Isaac Williams) hunts Heather and her friends down one-by-one in a sadistic crusade to burn clean the filth of the world. Heather’s dreams are shattered and if she survives nothing will ever be the same. Cross Bearer is written, directed, shot and edited by Adam Ahlbrandt. The acting is good, it´s professionally shot and edited and I love the sets, especially the old warehouse which is used to good effect by the filmmakers. The movie has a nice gritty/dirty feel to it. The soundtrack is good and the pacing is excellent. The Cross Bearer is a imposing and vicious killer and I love that he is played straight, there ain´t no irritating comedic one-liners in this.
It´s very gory, one of the highlights can be described with 3 small words: Hammer Smashed Face... It´s all practical fx and it looks great. There is plenty of T & A in this.
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This review is based upon a screener supplied by the filmmakers.
Rating: 7 out of 7. Cross Bearer is great! I enjoyed it immensely, it delievers what I was expecting after seeing the poster (which is awesome) and more. It´s well made, has a good plot, graphic kills, T & A and a imposing and vicious killer. Cross Bearer gets my highest recommendations! Slasher fans and gorehounds are gonna love this! I hope to see more from Adam Ahlbrandt soon.

/JL