The Tattooist
American tattoo artist Jake Sawyer wanders the world, exploring and exploiting ethnic themes in his tattoo designs. At a tattoo expo in Singapore, he gets his first glimpse at the exotic world of traditional Samoan tattoo (tatau), and, in a thoughtless act, unwittingly unleashes a powerful angry spirit. In his devastating journey into Pacific mysticism, Jake must find a way to save his new love, Sina and recover his own soul.
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- Cast:
- Jason Behr , Mia Blake , David Fane , Robbie Magasiva , Michael Hurst , Nathaniel Lees
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Reviews
Simply Perfect
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
I decided to watch this movie because it seemed like it would be a horror movie that was somewhat more original than usual - I certainly couldn't think of another horror movie centered around the culture of tattooing. While the movie does have some interesting insight here and there about tattooing and South Pacific cultures, the movie fails in its main intent - being a horror movie. For starters, the movie takes a long time before delivering its first real supernatural horror scene. And once the movie starts delivering horror, there isn't really a feeling of menace. Instead, it feels just as slow and boring as things were in the first part of the movie. It certainly didn't help that the protagonist wasn't that sympathetic. The enterprise also suffers from a low budget. While the special effects actually aren't that bad for a low budget enterprise, the surroundings look and feel like a modestly budgeted episode of a television show. This movie actually took three countries working together to make; it's surprising that the filmmakers actually found enough people who thought this tired script was worth filming.
After inadvertently stealing a tool and applying a native tattoo that holds special significance in their culture, a careless tattoo artist finds those he's marked under attack by a vengeful spirit and must find a way of stopping it's deadly rampage.This was an overall mildly-troubling but still enjoyable effort that really makes a lot of it's strides with the uniqueness of it's traditions and cultures that are exploited. The Polynesian culture is displayed here as being quite exotic and inviting, which is by itself hardly ever explored to begin with, and the foundations laid within make for a hearty and potentially-chilling ghost story that gets showcased here. As well, the fact that it's not a traditional ghost as far as what's commonly been utilized in such films is quite original, and it's scenes of revenge and torment on the characters in the second half gets the best scenes as the bleeding ink, opening wounds and more are quite bloody and really exciting. That said, there's still some problems here and it's mostly the slow beginning which doesn't really let on it's a horror film at all what with it being about tattoos and the such, so those who aren't into that lifestyle might find this one lacking. Also, the fact that the ghost/spirit is a CGI utilized joke takes a lot of the sting out of it's scenes when it looks so putrid and non-threatening, but overall it's still a good bit of fun.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language, Nudity, a sex scene and drug use.
The tattooist is a very good thriller film, jam packed with action and suspense. However the disappointing amount of horror involved was a let down. This is classified as horror when yes the theme is revolved around a ghost. However i was not scared at one point during the film.Admittedly it takes a lot to make me scared but no jumps,shocks or gasps were even lifted. The overall is that yes this film is good and if you like the Gothic genre then give it a try but if your looking for massive scares then this is a no. Good suspense and action compliments on the artwork, but this is not a horror film.
I am guessing that a lot of the low ratings have more to do with the fact that this movie does not immediately start splattering the audience with buckets of blood and splitting your ears with crescendoing screams.This movie is NOT following the normal Hollywood script. There's no "Oh yeah-there's the Monster" There's no parade of "Oh Yeah, the A-hole is gonna get it"This is Horror from the Suspense side of the formula. It's a story of a Guy who does something wrong in the pursuit of his art. And something is unleashed in return. Consequences and collisions occur in the context of a different continent and its own cultures and messy histories.No, it's not a DEEP movie, but it's an interesting departure from the usual fare. Nor is it a non-stop splatterfest. Watch this when you're in the right mood-- somewhere in the middle where you just want a good movie to fill the time and give you a story from a different place besides Hollywood.