Story

Mysteriously abandoned on a subway platform lies a pair of RED shoes…. to die for! What a great concept for a story, imagine if there were a pair of RED shoes so stylish that a girl couldn’t help but saw a person off at the ankles to get them for herself. Or what if the shoes themselves are the actual evil, walking their victims to a certain unstoppable doom!

Those were a few concepts my mind was conjuring in my excitement before watching the Tartan Asia Extreme release. Tartan is a great company when it comes to marketing, the DVD’s usually come in sick glossy slip-covers with beautifully gory poster art dripping atmosphere right into your palm making you reach for your usually cob-web-infested wallet. They truly make you feel like you’re holding something special; worth your coin. Now, unfortunately, in my experience and I’m sure in many others’ experience, their consistency in quality entertainment isn’t exactly something to brag about, you have a 50/50 chance of getting gold or garbage. I’m still foggy on whether this is the fault of the films themselves or the cultural differences between societies whose story telling might be harder to relate to in a foreign market. But what I do know from my experience with women is most of them really, really love their shoes. I would have thought the concept is pretty universal. “The Red Shoes” begins with a woman finding a pair of abandoned PINK pumps in a subway station, she puts them on only to get attacked by another woman who just needs to have those PINK shoes (anyone realise the first problem with this movie yet?) Somewhere down the line of shoe transfers they end up on the feet of an eye doctor/mother whose having trouble finding a decent office space on her newly single parent wage. Soon after she settles on a place she starts warming up to the artist hired to decorate. What is once disgust turns to lust further alienating her from her daughter whose obsession with the shoes would crack the foundation of even the most solid relationship. But its not just her daughter whose temptations are getting the best of them, everyone she comes across while wearing the shoes is a new opponent for battle, and everyone who makes a successful heist of them ends up bare foot and toe tagged. To make matters worse she keeps waking up holding said PINK shoes with no memory of getting them back! Is she the killer or is something more bizarre going down? And more importantly, does anybody actually care?

Characters

The characters were a joy to watch, I really felt for the lead especially when she would have nearly beat her daughter to get her away from the shoes! The movie is a character driven story, and all were very realistically portrayed. The young daughter really sticks out in my mind as an impressive performance. Between her hatred for the new man invading her already crumbling family life and the obsession she has with the shoes. Every minute of her role was an emotional rollercoaster and she really made you feel for her. All the characters were easy to relate to and every reaction a believable one. The love story didn’t feel selfish, instead everyone was dealing with the awkward moments that life throws, with the shoes adding extra stress to an already difficult situation.

Gore/Special Effects

The gore was satisfying to see when it was displayed, but when most of it is featured in the the trailer it leaves little to shock. The gore wasn’t the wheel steering this beast so there really wasn’t much on display besides a few stylisly knubbed-off ankles.

Lasting Appeal

It starts out with a bloody bang, was worth one watch, and was decent enough entertainment for an evening. That being said, it’s probably going to hit Ebay© a whole lot faster than the time it took to write this review.

Final Head Count

What we have here is wasted potential! It can’t seem to decide between the two ideas I had before I pressed play, and without spoiling anything I’ll just say its less fun and manages to be both confusing and sickeningly all too familiar at the same time. It’s really stretched out with a running time of 1 hour 43 minutes dedicated to a pair of shoes. Shoes I might add that are quite obviously PINK!