Stephen Dorff plays Richie Donovan, an American thief ordered by his mobster boss to journey to Moscow, where he must steal a valuable golden cross. Richie and his two cohorts do the job, but as they try to escape the building, the elevator becomes stuck on the mysterious 13th floor. They � along with the lift�s other passengers � are stuck in a seemingly deserted, run-down section of the high-rise. However, this being a horror movie, the group is not alone. A modern-day Ivan the Terrible and his deranged wife are roaming the halls, taking everyone out in one grisly manner after another.

Richie tries to survive the increasingly bloody goings-on, as do the other hostages: a prototypical sex symbol whom Richie has eyes for, a requisite dweeb, and the most hilarious character, a self-professed �manly man� whose acts of machismo are decidedly unimpressive. Every time this guy formulates a plan to overtake the killers, it goes wildly wrong.

Botched gets two things very right: the humor and the gore. Horror fans seeking some serious bloodletting will delight in the movie�s Fangoria-ready images. The nastiest, for me, involved one character getting speared through the ear and�well, you�ll just have to see it for yourself. The gore ramps up in intensity as the story goes along. I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence, but in a picture like this, it's part of what you're paying for. On that level, it does not disappoint. The killings are creative and, while graphic, done in the kind of tongue-in-cheek spirit that I cherish in splatterfests.

The humor is even more effective. Botched has a really oddball style of comedy that caught me off guard and made me laugh out loud. Some of it is borderline slapstick while other parts are slyer. For example, I love one of the movie's unspoken central jokes: although it takes place in Russia, the Russian characters all speak in broken English. (Sample line of dialogue: "Kick him in head!") Some of the antics between the killers are rather amusing too.

While there's a lot of good stuff here, there are some flaws as well. The film's low budget is betrayed by some rather cheap-looking sets. The story would have been better served with a more charismatic and compelling actor than Stephen Dorff in the lead role. And, although gory and funny, the film is never really scary. Its humor occasionally undercuts the horror.

I probably would have stopped short of recommending Botched theatrically, but on DVD it's definitely worth a look. In fact, this is the kind of movie that really plays better on disc than it would have in a theater anyway. Let's be honest: sometimes it's fun to gather a bunch of your gorehound buddies together in front of the tube to laugh and geek out on the bloodshed. If that's what you�re in the mood for, Botched will meet your needs quite nicely.

( 1/2 out of four)