Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations (2009)

After Dark Horrorfest III – Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

Rating:  

Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations was one of the entries in the 3rd After Dark Horrorfest.  It is the story of a young man with the ability to travel in time.  He works regularly as a ‘psychic’ for the police, helping to solve murders.  When he decides to go back in time to stop the death of his late girlfriend, he runs into (and creates) nothing but problems.

Let’s get this out of the way to begin with: titling this film ’Butterfly Effect 3′ was an immediate turn-off for a lot of people, especially the horror community.  Aside from a central plot idea, there doesn’t seem to be any common ground between this film and the other two (if I’m wrong and anyone has more info feel free to leave a comment).  Now, if they hadn’t titled it this way, it may have had a clean slate to start on.  However, critics may have then just said they ‘stole’ the story from the Butterfly Effect films.  Either way, most horror fans are immediately turned off by the title.  Unfortunately, though it isn’t a spectacular film, it deserves to be out of the shadow of the other two films.

Though I have not seen Butterfly Effect 2, I am not a fan of the original.  For that reason, I had no interest in any of the sequels.  Had Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations not shown up on the bill for After Dark Horrorfest III, I would likely never have given it the time of day.  But thanks to After Dark, I can say that I prefer the third entry over the original.

The story is predictable, but gives a base for what is the highlight of the film:  there is some excellent gore.  If it were a straight-forward 80′s slasher, this could be a great film.  Ironically enough, what takes away from the film’s potential the most is the plot.

So overall it is not a bad watch.  The gore makes it entirely worth viewing.  It doesn’t seem to be closely related to the original Butterfly Effect, so if you enjoyed the first one and are looking for something similar, you’ll likely be disappointed.  Gorehounds however may enjoy this film for the blood and guts alone.