Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Tears of Kali" is, despite the title, a German German-language film from 2004 and this one runs for 105 minutes approximately. The writer and director is Andreas Marschall and this is perhaps his most known work. He is fairly multi-talented, for example a prolific editor too. Well his film here is basically 3 in one and these three short films have components in common, but are otherwise not really linked to one another. Being the same genre (horror, mystery, maybe fantasy) isn't enough. The biggest name in the cast list here is Mathieu Carrière, but it makes me a bit sad to see his fall from how respected he once was and with the great names he worked with, even if this is already decades ago. He is featured prominently in the third and final chapter here, which is also the longest from the entire film and it fits well that it is named Kali, so maybe you could say that it is in the center of it all. But Carrière can also only do so much and while he elevates the material at times, he certainly cannot make up for all the mediocrities in here. Anyway, the rest of the cast is not known to me really and from what I saw in here, that's not a great loss. I was never thrilled by one of the three chapters and the film does look amateurish at times. It is never as atmospheric as you could hope for that it will get you to the edge of your seat. Plus the characters are most of the time not particularly interesting, let alone memorable. Oh well, it is not a failure as a whole because here and there there is a good moment, but I would say the negative and forgettable dominates these 1 hour and 45 minutes. Don't watch.

EVOL666 I had initially heard of TEARS OF KALI a while back and it sounded like something I'd be into, but with all the films I have coming in on a regular basis, it kinda fell off my radar. While roaming around the local WonderBook...I spotted the box for this one and grabbed it up. I have to say I'm pretty glad I did. TEARS OF KALI is a strange, gory, sometimes downright creepy film which is somewhat constrained by it's obviously low budget - but is still an entertaining and worthwhile watch.TEARS OF KALI centers around the fictional India-based Taylor-Erikkson cult group, that practices meditation and other rituals in the pursuit of facing and banishing the individual's "inner demons" - but apparently these techniques work either all too well or not well enough (depending on your viewpoint...) as dark forces are not only exorcised, but also unleashed upon hapless victims.The film is told "anthology-style", with a short but memorable and "eye-opening" intro sequence, and then proceeding into the three stories that make up the bulk of the film.The first (SHAKTI) is about a journalist who visits one of the cult-members who is being held at a mental hospital. The journalist goes in under cover of wanting to research the Taylor-Erikkson cult, but we find that her true motives may hit a little closer to home. When the interview takes a violent turn, the journalist finds that she may have gotten in over her head...The second part (Devi) concerns a violent young man who is sentenced to psychological rehab in lieu of a prison sentence for beating a young man into a coma. We find that the treating doctor in question is actually a Taylor-Erikkson "alumni", and his rehabilitation methods are far from the norm...The closing story (KALI) revolves around a quack "faith-healer" and his assistant who perform "miracles" for a fee. When the healer unwittingly helps one of his clients and actually expels a force which had been possessing her, the demon is now free to roam and looking for a new host...I gotta say I really enjoyed TEARS OF KALI. There are some faults with the film that keep it from being truly excellent - but it is an original and ambitious film for what it is. My biggest gripe with the production is the poor and uninspired over-dubbed dialogue. The dubbing is sub-par and I would have much preferred to have a subtitled option with the original language track. Some reviewers have said the acting is poor, which I don't necessarily agree with. I think that the dubbing is so lack-luster that it makes the performances seem stunted, which isn't really the case. In fact, a few of the performances are pretty damn chilling (the "doctor" in the second segment, and the "client" in the third readily come to mind...) and notable. The gore FX are very well done for a low-budget film, with some graphic scenes of eyelid-removal-via-cuticle-scissors, a pencil-in-the-throat-suicide, some decent (but irritatingly "shaky") self-flaying, and a few other goodies thrown in for good measure. Not as rough as some of the more "extreme" gore films out there, but definitely stronger than your average horror fare. I also found the story concerning the cult-group to be intriguing and a welcome change to the typical horror-story nonsense. There are plenty of scenes of genuine atmosphere and tension, the likes of which I haven't come across in a while. Although flawed in some fundamental ways, I still think TEARS OF KALI will appeal to most "underground" horror viewers - some scenes may prove too much for the more mainstream viewer. Definitely Recommended - 8.5/10

jazzamind This movie has its ups and downs, but to me the good stuff in this movie very much outweighs the bads...What's not so good about the movie are indeed sometimes the dialogue, the sounds, the lighting(am I the only one who noticed the way the sets were lighted was amateur, and the acting....What is very good are the highly original storyline, the very intense atmosphere, the gore factor which is very high, and the effects which are done supremely.So, definitely worth watching, or maybe even a must-see for all you horror and gore fans....

OlliBLN The plot is real horrific, the atmosphere really depressive, unusual for a low-budget production like that, and at least, for a German production. A little bit of Indian spirituality, mystic thriller and slasher movie mixed together. The development of plot and characters are great, the sets very close to reality, without any studio-atmosphere. It could be perfect, but at unfortunately some things were a little bit disappointing, what don't inevitably have to be typically for low-budget movies:1.) The cast sometimes is not more than average. Almost every actor look like a layman. Some of them do a good, or a very good job, but some are acting like the actors of crappy German court-shows! But I was very, very disappointed of the acting of Mathieu Carrière! His acting ( in a lots of of his older movies his acting was fine ) here was below-average! But that could be the reason, why he today takes part in crappy German soaps or TV-series on private channels.2.) The dialogs are sometimes on soap-opera-level. 3.) The bad sound made it sometimes very hard to understand, what the characters are saying. I saw it on DVD and was glad to could rewind and to listen it again. It caused by the set ( big halls as in the hospital or with the esoterically group ) and sometimes the strange dialects of the actors!But all in all, it is an interesting movie, worth to watch it, far beyond the commercially movies, which are often more terrible.