On the way to their holidays, lovers Eric (Armont Casale) and Shelly
(Diana Quezada) take a pee break in the middle of nowhere ... and are
attacked by a serialkiller, Purge (Nicholas J.Leinbach), who brutally
kills Shelly, and is only stopped from doing the same to Eric by Caitlin
(Linda Bella), the woman he was actually after ... A year later: 18 year
old Kiara (Bianca Lemaire) has just learned she has not been accepted into
Harvard, which is a big blow to her because she's used only to the best.
But her friend Ronan (Anton Troy) suggests a way for her to be accepted
into Harvard after all, by writing a paper on serialkiller Purge (who has
gone missing since his encounter with Eric, Shelly and Caitlin a year ago)
fueled by some first-hand-experience - which basically consists of a visit
to his home, a makeshift maze in an abandoned plant in the middle of
nowhere. So Kiara and Ronan collect their friends, sarcastic Brit (Allison
Ochmanek), good girl Kimberly (Meredith Laine), Ronan's best friend Maxx
(Eric Lewis), and Eric's brother Juan (Teodorico
Paul Sajor) to visit the place as sort of a last adventure
together before they all seperate to go to different colleges all over the
country ... Eric has never come over the loss of his girlfriend he
actually wanted to propose to when her life was cut short by Purge, and he
partly blames Caitlin for it because it was her Purge meant to kill and
not Shelly. Caitlin on the other hand is convinced Purge is still out
there, and she wants to persuade Eric to help her track down and kill him
- something that she only succeeds in when Eric learns where his brother
has just gone to ... Once at Purge's place, the others learn something a
tad unsettling about Ronan, that he secretly admires Purge and especially
the philosophy behind his killings, this being to eliminate all weakness
from the face of the world by killing all who he considers weak, and this
way create a new masterrace - but doesn't everyone have at least one
weakness? Then evidence turns up that Ronan had planned to lure his
friends here for quite some time ... and then out of nowhere, Purge
strikes ...
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Basically, Filth
to Ashes, Flesh to Dust is a slasher movie that features many a genre
mainstay, from its slightly farfetched premise to its clichéed cast of
characters. But then, Filth to Ashes, Flesh to Dust is something
more as well, as the story is intelligently set up, provides the killer
with an interesting (if totally insane) motive for his crimes, the story
arc often defies genre conventions, some of the clichéed characters show
unexpected character development, and the film keeps who's going to
survive a surprise until the very end (not often the case in slasher
movies). In all, a very pleasent surprise. Recommended.
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