Birth Rite (2003 Video) User Reviews

how much did it cost???

[a77prettykitty · 2/10 · 22 January 2005]

You can tell by the first five minutes that the movie is going to be hard to stomach...and its not because of gore! I think this movie cost 20 bucks to make! I've seen better acting at a middle school play. I really enjoy witchcraft movies, but this didn't even feel like a witchcraft movie. A lot of things are said that are not wrapped up and seem to just come out of nowhere. You leave the movie feeling like you know less than when you started. I usually tell people when I see a bad movie that it is worth seeing at least once, but i would never submit ANYONE to this. Look at its IMDb rating and trust the comments on this one, I think I would have rather been at the dentist. I don't like telling people my movie reviews because everyone likes different things. But i think it is safe to say that this is just awful movie making. Wanna see a good movie, go rent DEMON KNIGHT!!

Cheap, lame & very poor.

[Stevieboy666 · 2/10 · 1 March 2018]

On her 18th birthday a handsome stranger reveals to Rebecca, an orphan, that she is in fact the daughter of a witch & warlock, etc, etc. The DVD cover has scream queens Julie Strain & Brinke Stevens names on it but they are mere cameos Natalie Sutherland does a reasonable job as Rebecca & takes her clothes off several times, one of the few highlights. For the girls Danny Wolske gets his pecs out, but sadly his acting ability is wooden at best. There are a few death scenes, the girl being sucked down the toilet being the best part of the movie. Otherwise, the little gore is very poor, as is the whole, stupid film.

horror for toddlers

[trashgang · 2/10 · 8 September 2009]

Well well, I have seen a lot so far and especially those 70's grindhouse and exploitation movies but nowadays everybody is trying to make an ode to that era. Mostly they are total crap. But there are worser things happening, due the success of horror at the box offices the labels are bringing out every movie made concerning horror. And some are a total turkey like this one. Nothing really happens, a warlock appears and disappears like nothing while he is searching for his "lady" to rule the world. From the first five minutes you know enough, a shoot out while a black mass ceremony is happening. But when people get hurt no blood is flowing. Then we move on 12 years later when the girl who would be sacrificed becomes 18, an adult. But when she gets possessed by the warlock, you really should see the effects, so stupid. This is worser then watching Disney. In fact there are no effects. The warlock effects are just done by editing. And the possessed girl effects are just done by her hands. The so called love scene's are ridiculous, but hey, the director included some nudity. If your toddlers will find this DVD they will never be feared, in fact they will be amused like watching Nickelodeon.

Decent horror flick, but far from great

[Katatonia · 25 April 2003]

I guess this is the new breed of film Charles Band is going to stick to. Birthrite is released as a Shadow Entertainment release with Full Moon nowhere to be seen in the movie except on the DVD case. I heard a rumor that Charles Band was dropping the Full Moon moniker. I suppose Full Moon has become like Empire Films, it's precursor. I've seen every single Full Moon release there has ever been and I am pretty much now convinced it's all super low budget outings from here on. Hopefully there will be a small percentage of good ones in the bunch.

I was expecting maybe a witch film like "The Coven" or "Equinox Knocks" which were both very low budget, yet quite entertaining. I did like Birthrite up until about 45 minutes into the movie. It got just a little ridiculous from there until the end of the movie. It took itself way too seriously about the "Powers" that it became mostly hilarious.

If there was a high point to the film it would be the first half of the movie which had cameos by veteran scream queens Julie Strain and Brinke Stevens. Julie Strain played a stressed out high school teacher, while Brinke Stevens played the adopted mother of Rebecca.

I won't say that Birthrite is not worth watching, it is entertaining most of the time for what it is. Just don't expect a masterpiece or anything. At least it had a better overall look than the recent Shadow/Full Moon films, and seemed to have somewhat of a larger production value. Hopefully the future films from Charles Band and Shadow Entertainment will get better...

Redefines the meaning of bad

[milamber13 · 1/10 · 23 April 2003]

Bad acting, bad dialog, bad editing... just bad everything. The movie is so bad that it aspires to be made fun of, and falls short of even that. I rated it 1/10 because I couldn't give it a zero. I rented this expecting a schlock "B" movie and it doesn't even reach that high.

****Minor Spoiler****

The movie starts with a Satanic rite that's suppose to bless a young 6 yr old girl. A couple locals bust in and kill everyone except the girl and one other. Fast forward to her 18th birthday where the other that got away finds her and tells her she's a witch. A few more people die (and by this point you really don't care) and we come to the 'big showdown'. If you're still awake they throw in a plot twist at the end to do an 'all is OK again' ending. Frankly you're just glad that the movie is over.

The dialog is bland and uninspired, acting is mediocre at best, characters are all two dimensional, editing is jumpy and uneven, fight scenes are hokey, and the flesh scenes (there are a couple sex bits) add nothing to redeem this even a little. There is a reason that this is a 2003 movie and it's on video already in April.

Nothing like the look of pleather....

[cyclone259 · 1/10 · 26 February 2005]

Renting b-movies is always a gamble, sometimes it pays off with an underrated gem or in the other case (this was a prime example) you bring home a real bucket of "Grade Z" fertilizer.

***IF YOU'RE STILL READING THIS THEN BEWARE OF POSSIBLE SPOILERS*** (as if anyone cares)....

Opening scene. Two cops? Witch hunters? We're never told EXACTLY what they are, but they're out to bust up a coven of baddies dressed in really bad pleather (hence the summary) jackets. With guns drawn they break in on some kind of supposed satanic? (later we learn they're witches, but could you blame two guys with $1.99 haircuts for being concerned?) ritual where a young girl looks as if she's about to be sacrificed. Anyway.. bang.. bang.. One "good" guy ends up dead (sucking chest wound I believe) and being the good natured guy the surviving partner is he adopts the would-be six year-old sacrifice, Rebeccah. Suspending disbelief is extremely important if you're going to buy that someone can blow away most (we save that element for later) of a coven of ham-handed thespians... I mean witches... and then whisk the "sacrifice" away and adopt her WITHOUT alerting the authorities, ie. John Q. Law. Wow... the six year-old daughter that magically (no pun intended) appears out of nowhere.

Skip ahead... 12 years... More pleather...

Rebeccah is now 18 years old and seems well-adjusted, but what dark secrets lie underneath that shovel-faced posterior, I mean exterior (they both look the same)? Well, a supposedly hunkish (my wife thought so anyway) guy (turns out he's a Warrior Warlock) named Roman starts showing up with information about her REAL family (also that Rebeccah is a Grand Am(?), the most pure essence of both a witch and a warlock and he needs to mate with her)... yada..yada..yada.. Roman then bestows on her a "magical amulet" (more of a rodeo belt buckle on a chain) that allows her the ability to amplify her energy and control objects, people, toilets, etc. After being drawn into Roman's world of evil, sex, gratuitous nudity, manipulation, crapola graphic violence and more pleather than you can shake a satin hanger at start occurring at an alarming rate. In the end, Rebeccah's "sister" (remember, Rebeccah is adopted) saves the day, more or less, with some athletic martial arts moves (think of The Matrix, except with a .99 budget). Well, Rebeccah's sister dies and now Rebeccah has the choice: Use her powers to reverse what is done and end up sacrificing herself in the process OR join Roman in his evil plot to control the world's supply of pleather? You'll have to watch to find out... OK... she sacrifices herself... See, I did you a service and saved you from the agony of actually watching it and wasting 90 minutes that you could've spent spackling a wall or re-grouting the tile around your bathroom sink.

Did I mention that there's at least (2) sex scenes in this movie? Of course the downside is that we have to endure Rebeccah nude (quite a bit actually) instead of her much-better-looking sister. The other other downside is that we have to see her (adopted) brother practically buck naked too... blah... I had to wash out my eyes with Drano after seeing that.

If there was a rating lower than 1*, this movie would have earned it in spades.

Roman? Where are you?

[amelia_vhs · 1/10 · 4 May 2005]

Once upon a time, tricked by a reasonable looking front cover and the fact that it was in blockbuster, a friend and I rented this film. That day is burned in our minds forever. It is clear from the first 5 minutes that this film is rubbish. To start with, it's a stupid plot.

What I really don't get is why Rebecca suddenly starts having sex with everyone. And why she doesn't think it's weird that some warlock suddenly starts stalking her.

Then there are the "special effects". Rebecca (an "eighteen year old")sees Roman through the window "floating". He is just standing on a car. And there's a scene where everyone "disappears" by walking out of shot.

I'm not saying don't watch it. On the contrary, go and get it right now. I'm just warning you, if you are looking for a film you can believe in, this isn't it. I don't really know how to rate this. For comedy value, 10 out of 10. For a serious horror movie, 3 out of 10. What am I talking about, 3? I mean 1. No, not even that.

The best bit of this DVD is the trailer for R.O.C.C.O. Seriously.

Never watch.....ever

[bfcat · 1/10 · 28 February 2005]

I rent bad videos to laugh at them, I purposely look for the crappiest videos and watch them just for the humor. (A bad habit me and my friends have) This is just plain bad. I've seen a lot of "B" Rated flicks but this one is the worst one. If torture was allowed in the U.S., playing this in front of someone over and over again would be the worst to endure. I've seen better acting in my school talent show, the gore and graphics looks like the producer made a mistake with it but left it in there because they didn't have the money to re-do it, the plot is absolutely laughable and just makes you hate yourself afterwards . I recommend that anyone who finds a copy of this, destroy it immediately and tell everyone else to do the same. And I'm not exaggerating how bad this is.

A disaster of a film

[Smurfoid · 1/10 · 10 October 2003]

What can I say? This film suffers from a bad script, bad acting, bad dialog, bad camera work, cardboard acting, just all in all a disaster.

The opening scenes of this movie were very melodramatic, almost as if it was meant to be a comedy, but it was from the awful acting, not from any intention of the film maker. From there on it went downhill, the final fight scene had me cringing.

All I can say is don't waste your money on this... You have been warned.

I want the hour and a half back of my life.

[dlmyst-29813 · 2/10 · 9 August 2020]

I knew something was wrong from the start with the bad acting and 80's style wanna be heroes. I should of turned it off at that time and watched something else. However, I was like let me give it a chance and see what happens 30 mins into the film. That was a mistake too since the movie kept on getting worse. All I kept thinking is wow they miss cast the main character and dam she's bad at acting. The other actors were overacting at best which made the film even worse. Don't watch this film and save yourself.

Wasn't terrible, Laura Nativo was stunning...

[newfoundmassal · 2 January 2004]

If you don't like b-movie horror then you'll despise this movie, however if you are like me and enjoy the silly logic and over all silliness of b-movie horror then this movie will be enjoyable, though it isn't very note worthy with the exception of Laura Nativo, who looks stunning in "Birth Rite". Worth seeing just to see how pretty she looks, and she isn't a bad actress either.

better than my expectations

[theadorust · 2 December 2003]

One point before I begin: it's on video already because it was shot as a straight to video film... not because it didn't have any pull at the box office.

I enjoyed Birth Rite quite a bit, although by no means the best film I have seen.

An interesting point is that it was shot on high definition digital video as opposed to 16 or 32mm film, which is the standard.

The music used during the opening and closing credits, fit the film very well. It was by the band "SPF 1000"

----Could be a Spoiler----

One aspect that I found hard to believe was how easily Rebecca game to grip with the fact she had powers. If some one told me I had powers I don't think my response would be "cool, can I do..." The excessive use of a zoom lenses in the opening scene did it's job communicating a sense of chaos and unease, however I'm not sure what was happening in the frame was also conveying the same image. This kind of camera work would work well when the two men broke into the ritual and the fight sequence where the emotions associated with them would be better placed.

Awful, Awful, Awful

[johnboy1 · 10 January 2004]

I don't know what I expected when I rented this film, but I sure didn't care for it.

Laura Nativo does a nice job of acting, and so does Kyle Lupo. That's the good news. The rest of the young cast are eye-candy, especially Danny Wolske.

The real problem here is the script, the staging, and the directing. The story is laughable and unrealistic. ............Spoiler.........

When one of the characters gets knifed to death, why is it not shown, and why is he shown with blood all over his body, but no wounds?

The fight sequence near the end is downright ridiculous! We are expected to believe that this woman is able to get the best of the muscular hunk she's fighting, yet he's got mystical powers, in addition to his natural strength! Come on!

I suspect that all of the actors could do much better, given the right script and proper direction.

Be warned...

Birth Rite is far from right.

[zactac · 8 May 2010]

If you're having stomach problems and you need something to help you vomit or to help release pressure then see this movie. My brother got this movie for 99 cents when he heard a movie store was closing down, and now I see why it was only 99 cents. This is probably the worst movie I have ever seen. So many things were done that just made me sick to even watch this movie, I seriously couldn't eat dinner after watching this movie, not from the gore but from how bad it was.

The movie is an awful story about a girl who finds out she is this all powerful witch and goes crazy with power. It kinda reminded me of Carrie except with horrible acting, some of the worst special effects I've ever seen, and a script and dialogue that was so stupid the only thing that was worth the watch was to make fun of it later. One of the things that happened that was so stupid and did it for me (and I'm serious, this is what happened) was the crazy girl making a toilet suck down another girl. Then the other girl in the bathroom just stood there like an idiot yelling for help not even trying to pull her friend out then when her friends head is going down the toilet she yells "no don't go". I was nauseous, I was laughing from how stupid it was, and I was horrified that a movie could be so bad at the same time. When the crazy girl died at the end trying to save her family I didn't care in fact I was clapping that she was dead because it meant the end of bad acting. It was to me probably the best part of the movie.

Now I can understand that independent filmmakers can't have big budgeted films like other studios do, however it didn't even look like there was any effort put into this film. When a gun would go off there would literally be a flash then when there was kicking and punching you could see as plain as day that the hits weren't real, one girl would be hitting him and you could see she really didn't then if it didn't get bad enough when she would give him an uppercut he would go down instead of up (I know I'm sick just thinking about it). The point is this film is awful like a failed project for a student attending film school in a portable. So unless you want to vomit then I strongly recommend not seeing this movie you will vomit trust me. I give it no stars because there is nothing good about the film to even give it one star. Stars:0/10!!!!