Shiver (2013) Movie Review

Shiver is the story of The Gryphon a serial killer with a flair for the dramatic – and a grisly trophy case of victims. But when he sets out to add shy, young secretary Wendy Alden (Harris) to his macabre collection, he gets more than he bargained for. Unfortunately, Wendy’s escape from his first assault only deepens the killer’s twisted obsession – and affection – for her.

Always one step ahead of pursuing Detective Delgado (van Dien), the brilliant psychopath penetrates police lines at will, circling ever closer to the target of his deranged fantasies. Until, finally, the only thing standing between Wendy and the Gryphon’s unthinkable desires is her own desperate, indomitable will to survive.

I want to be gentle so I am going to keep my review of Shiver quite short and to the point. Indie horror films are unique in that they have some serious hurdles to navigate. Do you blow your budget on name actors or do you work on a truly fantastic script and hope that word of mouth in the horror community will help you find your audience.

Shiver unfortunately it seems went with the first option. If they had money left over for fine tuning a script and hiring a great production team it definitely did not show in the final product.

Danielle Harris stars in this film but do not confuse this with some of her other films like Stakeland, Shiver is a really bad movie that offers very few if any redeeming qualities.

The acting is horrible, the characters hollow and the special effects although at times well polished at other times look like Walmart store mannequins.

If you are a fan of Danielle Harris or are nostalgic to see another bad movie starring Casper Van Dien ( Starship Troopers ) then by all means checkout Shiver. I can honestly not recommend it. Although the script is solid and the concept unique you simply can’t look past the horrible acting and the pacing of the characters.

Three positive things I can say about the movie are its better then any film I have ever made ( which is zero ). Danielle Harris was pretty ok in it and the poster is pretty solid!