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It is a performances centric movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

When a movie is billed as 'a bit like Hostel' you have to be concerned that it might be 'a bit like watching paint dry' and, in truth, this is precisely that for the first 40 minutes or so. The first half of the 'movie' - seriously folks, I use that term in the loosest possible sense - is essentially a soft core adult flick spliced together with some 'plot' relevant scenes involving Our Heroes exploring China. Well, I say exploring China, what I mean is going to a market and planning to visit a strip joint. And being loud. And drunk. And obnoxious. And utterly vile and, ultimately, utterly, utterly deserving of death. Well, as luck would have it, they find their sought after den of iniquity, which happens to be some odd kind of hotel where you go to have sex with a person you are already with. Bit odd. Anyway, it turns out the proprietors aren't exactly high on moral fibre. Instead, they imprison the ne'erdowells, tie them up and start to butcher them. That's it. Utterly lacking in style or soul, this nevertheless accomplishes precisely what it sets out to do: to debase, to defame, to degrade and cheapen the stock of humanity. Seriously, just when you thought human beings could sink no lower, we go and make a movie like this. Whilst never having any intention to watch this movie again, I still have to commend them for being nothing short of repulsive. Good horror is all about the atmosphere, and this has none. In it's place is tasteless sex, gore and violence. With a sinking heart I have the feeling that this kind of 'realism' is going to become the norm, though here's hoping enough true horror fans remain to demand at least a semblance of effort and concept. Gruelly and offensive, approach this at your peril.

Live Feed is set in some unnamed Chinese/Japanese Asian district somewhere as five American friends, Sarah (Ashley Schappert), Emily (Taayla Markell), Linda (Caroline Chojnacki), Mike (Lee Tichon) & Darren (Rob Scattergood) are enjoying a night on the town & taking in the sights. After a scuffle in a bar with a Japanese Triad boss (Stephen Chang) they decide to check out a porno theatre, as you would. Inside they are separated & quickly find out that the place belongs to the Triad boss who uses it to torture & kill people for reasons which aren't made clear. Can local boy Miles (Kevan Ohtsji) save them?This Canadian production was co-written, produced & directed by Ryan Nicholson who also gets a prosthetic effects designer credit as well, one has to say that Live Feed is another pretty poor low budget shot on a camcorder type horror film that seems to exist only to cash in on the notoriety & success of Hostel (2005) & the mini craze for 'torture porn' as it's become known. According the IMDb's 'Trivia' section for Live Feed writer & director Nicholson wrote it after hearing about certain activities taking place in live sex theatres, for my money I reckon he wrote it after watching Hostel! The script is pretty poor, there is no basic reason given as to why this porno theatre has a big fat ugly freak dressed in bondage gear lurking around torturing & killing people, none. Was it for the Triads? Was it for his pleasure? Was it to make snuff films to sell? Some sort of explanation would have been nice. Also why did he turn on the Triad boss at the end? If your looking for a film with a coherent story then forget about Live Feed. It seemed to me to be some sort of uneasy misjudged mix of sex, S&M, horror, torture, gore & action films which doesn't come off. I mean just setting a horror film in a porn theatre isn't automatically going to make your film any good, there still needs to be a decent script & story, right? The character's were fairly poor clichés & some of their actions & motivations were more than a little bit questionable. It moves along at a reasonable pace, it's fairly sleazy mixing gore, sex & nudity but it does look cheap which lessens the effect.Director Nicholson doesn't do anything special here, the editing is choppy & annoying, he seems to think lighting almost every scene with neon lights is a good idea & the film has a cheap look about it. Available in both 'R' & 'Unrated' versions I saw the shorter cut 'R' version which really isn't that gory but I am prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to the 'Unrated' version & say that it might be much, much gorier but I can't say for sure. There's a fair amount of nudity too if that's your thing. I wouldn't say there's much of an atmosphere or many scares here because there isn't & aren't respectively although it does have a sleazy tone in general which is something it has going for it I suppose.Technically Live Feed isn't terribly impressive, the blood looks a little too watery for my liking & entire scenes bathed in annoying neon lights sometimes makes it hard to tell whats happening, it to often looks like it was shot on a hand-held camcorder & the choppy editing at least on the 'R' rated version is at times an annoying mess. Shot on location in an actual porn theatre somewhere in Vancouver in Canada. The acting is poor, sometimes I couldn't tell if the actresses in this were supposed to be crying or laughing...Live Feed is not a film I would recommend anyone to rush out & buy or rent, I didn't think much of it with it's very weak predictable storyline lacking exposition & which goes nowhere, poor acting & less than impressive gore (at least in the 'R' rated cut anyway). Watch either Hostel films again or instead as they are superior.

The first full-length feature from FX-man turned director Ryan Nicholson, Live Feed treads similar territory to recent 'torture porn' movies Hostel 1 & 2 (and to a lesser degree, Vacancy and Turistas), and likewise fails to make the most of an admittedly interesting premise. I guess the fact that I actually rate it on a par with much higher budgeted efforts from major studios can be seen as a positive, but, considering I really enjoyed Nicholson's earlier 'short' Torched (rated 8/10 by me), I can't help but feel somewhat let down.Live Feed sees a group of five hedonistic friends on vacation in the Far East, who become trapped in a sleazy porno theatre. There they become the latest victims of a vicious organised crime syndicate whose boss gets his kicks from watching people die. One-by-one, the petrified tourists are slaughtered by a hulking brute wearing a rubber apron and a bizarre S&M-style mask, with all of the gory action broadcast to the sadistic boss on a 'live feed'.With plenty of nasty violence and loads of gratuitous nudity, this film certainly doesn't pull any punches, but it is let down considerably by bad characterisation, lame acting and a poor script. Unfortunately, no amount of extreme bloodletting and welcome T&A from pretty girls could distract this viewer from these weaknesses, and although I enjoyed the many brutal deaths (especially the bit where one guy gets his head twisted clean off!), I wish more time had been spent on bringing the substandard aspects of the film up to scratch.Nicholson could be praised for achieving the same degree of nastiness in his film as self-proclaimed 'saviour of horror' Eli Roth does with his over-hyped Hostel. But since I genuinely believe that he has more potential than Roth (and certainly has more respect for fans of the genre), I regrettably give this film a rather disappointing 5/10, and hope that he fares much better with his next project, the intriguingly titled Gutterballs.

I watched the Unrated version of this film and realised about 30 minutes into it that I was never getting my time back. I persevered to the end hoping that the dialogue would improve, the martial arts would look realistic eventually, the special FX would actually look special. I was so wrong. I love Horror, I am a complete gore hound. I number some of the eighties splatter flicks amongst the greats of the film world. This however was not made in the eighties, if this film had come out in the early eighties the FX could be forgiven for looking so bad. It wasn't so it hasn't got that defence. The dialogue is terrible with so many bad lines I was wincing at the writing rather than squirming at torture. I don't like Hostel, never have, I thought it was over rated, over hyped and I felt nothing for the protagonists, however it shines as a beacon to greatness next to this garbage. The back of the cover for Live Feed promised a twist you would never see coming, I'm still waiting for the twist that was promised.