Black Circle Boys (1997)
Film Information
Director: Matthew Carnahan
Producer: Lysa Hayland, Raquel Carreras
Screenwriter: Matthew Carnahan
Date Released: January 17, 1997
Cast:
Scott Bairstow as Kyle
Eric Mabius as Shane
Heath Lourwood as Munn
Chad Lindberg as Rory
Tara Subkoff as Chloe
Dee Wallace as Mrs. Sullivan
Donnie Wahlberg
et. al.
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Kyle is an all-American swimmer and excellent student who transfers to another school. There, he meets a group of kids who call themselves the black circle boys. They are a group of cult-worshipping metalheads. Filled with a world of satanic rituals and drugs, Kyle enters the group but it may not be so easy getting out.
Gore Factor
There is no blood or gore in this film other than a blood ritual. Otherwise, this film is more built on suspense rather than outright gore.
The Grave Review
The 1990s had a plethora of films revolving around rebellious teens that are disgruntled with life. One of the most popular cult films was The Craft (1996), which followed a group of teenage outcast girls who performed witch rituals. Naturally, there had to be a boy version of this film with some minimal differences. It may not be fair to compare this film to The Craft, but even standing alone, Black Circle Boys (1997) doesn’t command the kind of death-metal impact it may have intended.
What’s interesting about this film is that for outcasts, their doing a lot of bullying. As the story unfolds, the main antagonist, Shane, has his own abusive family issues and exudes his own violent tendencies. As a result, Kyle gets influenced by this. But, what we realize is that even the people who put on the toughest faces have weaknesses.
The pace of the film was also relatively slow. For an hour and forty minutes, there was a lot of ground to cover. However, many scenes felt unnecessary and transitional rather than substantive and meaningful to the story. In addition, the acting was subpar. As a viewer, you never had the opportunity to feel a connection with the characters. As such, the film could have developed the characters a little more. That being said, Black Circle Boys (1997) somehow pulls together at the end of the film (sort of) and leaves a cliffhanger as to what happened.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Black Circle Boys (1997) two graves out of five graves.
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