Mark Hengst in THE COOK(2008).
© Anchor Bay
Title: The Cook
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Penny Drake, Mark Hengst, Makinna Ridgway, Kit Paquin, Nina Fehren
Written By: Nicholas Bonomo, Francisco Rodriguez, Dirk Van Fleet
Directed By: Gregg Simon
Distributor: Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Audio commentary by the cast and crew, behind the scenes look, Mark Hengst audition footage
Buy it now!
THE COOK
By: Robert T. TrateDate: Saturday, March 29, 2008
Several years ago the USA network had a late night program called “Up all Night”. It was a showcase for stand up comedians to give their two cents about horror movies. Gilbert Gottfried and Rhonda Shear were probably the two I saw the most. They never interrupted the film a la “Mystery Science Theater 3000”. They only popped up before and after the commercial breaks with quick obvious jokes. Often the films were B or C horror movies that usually had more blood than dialogue. Nonetheless, “Up all Night” was the first place I ever saw Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn so it did have its moments. Most of the time the programming played edited films like Caged Heat (1974), Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) and Popcorn (1991). The mixture of gore and scantily clad women is what reigned supreme on “Up all Night”. The Cook clearly belongs on a show like “Up all Night” and nowhere else.
Several sorority girls are stuck in their house over a long weekend. They have just hired a new cook (Mark Hengst). He, in turn, kills them one by one for no reason. The cook gets rid of the bodies by feeding them to the surviving sorority girls. That is the plot. For a film with three writers one would think that there might be a little bit more to it than that.
The film plays out to every male fantasy of what sorority girls do behind closed doors. They do drugs, drink, curse like sailors and engage in lesbian activities. Gregg Simon and his team of writers stock the film with every stereotypical sorority college girl in the book. Yet, they find the time to give us characters that would never be in a sorority. The religious Christian girl (Brooke Lenzi) and the Goth girl (Penny Drake) would never be in a sorority, at least not one of this nature. For the sorority house is populated with self important pretty girls who are nice look to at but who are just as shallow as the plot.
Mark Hengst’s portrayal of the cook could have been fun and over the top. Unfortunately his performance falls flat. Perhaps this is because all of his dialogue is in Hungarian. More than likely it is because the three writers could not find anything interesting for him to say.
Makinna Ridgway’s character, Amy had the best part in the whole film. Nerdy and still hot wearing glasses she actually had a character, unlike her sisters. What was disappointing was Gregg Simon and the writing team did not have Amy remove the glasses and fight for her sorority sisters. They had nudity, senseless violence, drug use, sex scenes and the cliché ending but that moment, like all of these, is gospel for this type of film.
This is a film for young guys who want to see naked girls get killed. It will inevitably help them get over the fact that many of these girls would never talk to them. The Cook could have delivered some real horrors. Instead it delivered some real snores.
The Cook will be in stores April 1st, 2008.
