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Reviews
Lights Out (2016)
Not bad but not stellar
Like many people who were interested in seeing this film, I saw the original short and was impressed by its simplicity and originality, but to me one of the most intriguing things about the short was that it made no attempt at all to explain the nature of the "monster" it was just there one night, and that was the beauty of it--it was completely unknown. One night, this woman turns her lights off and there's this ghoul in the shadows. No overwrought backstory, no clichés, none of that. That is where the feature film version falls short.
In trying to expand the concept into a full length story, the writer/director had to come up with a backstory to explain the monster and unfortunately he ended up going down an all-too-familiar route. The monster becomes not only tied to the family history, but comes from a bizarre experimental therapy conducted in a mental institution. How many times has this premise been used? It's just overdone and unoriginal and frankly was a disappointment. As an avid horror movie fan, being able to guess every plot point before it happens is boring. There's even the classic scene where the daughter finds all the articles and research neatly stored away in her mother's house that perfectly explains where the monster came from. Wow.
With that said, most of the performances were still good and there were some genuinely cool creature effects/scares that made great use of the practical effects chosen by the director.
Teresa Palmer did a pretty good job essentially carrying the film, and showed good range in her portrayal of a sister suddenly being forced into the role of a caregiver. The shortcomings in her character come from the writing which has her character jump from loner to protector of her brother and accepting of her boyfriend very suddenly.
Maria Bello did great as the unhinged but apologetic mother who started the whole mess, delivering a very believable and at times even sympathetic performance.
Gabriel Bateman does a fairly decent job as the younger brother Martin, managing to pull off what is essentially the role of an abused/neglected child very well. His delivery/mannerisms in some of the scenes where he is dealing with being sent back to stay with his deranged mother are particular poignant.
Alexander DiPersia was a name a didn't recognize but his face seemed familiar upon watching the film. Due in no small part to the poor writing of his character, his performance was completely forgettable, but I do think he did the best he could with the afterthought-style writing his character received.
All in all, this was a decent horror movie, but I was a big fan of the mystery and horror-of-the-unknown created in the original short and was therefore disappointed by the formulaic, clichéd, all-too-common story crafted by the writer/director.
Woodlawn (2015)
Short on sports/history, Way too preachy/religious
I admit I'm not a big sports fan, but I've enjoyed movies like Remember the Titans and Radio. I also really enjoy historical dramas and I think that films in that genre that address racial/social issues and tensions are very relevant today.
With that said, this movie uses scant amounts of historical/racial drama and sports as a flimsy backdrop for an overtly preachy story about how "faith in God will solve all your problems" The synopsis and reviews I read mentioned the religious aspect, but after viewing movie, I realized how much they had downplayed that aspect and that the entire message and plot of this movie is "God is great, you can play football in honor of him, and God will solve all problems and bring everyone together" Not only is that an absurd and naïve way to look at life and the world, but it just makes for a boring movie if you aren't that strongly inclined towards religion.
Pay the Ghost (2015)
Good acting, boring and overused story concept
This was...mediocre. SWC did a great job struggling through the cliché writing and script, and Cage delivered a good performance as well. The real issue is just the writing/story. Yet ANOTHER "Days before Halloween some demon/evil spirit gets to come into our world" story. It's just been done to death and this film didn't offer much new in any regard, other than using elements of Celtic mythology to prop up the contrived plot. Replace "Celtic mythology" with Indian burial ground, witches' curse, voodoo, etc and you can literally turn this script into any other movie in the Halloween/demon genre and nobody would notice.
Good acting, boring and overused story.
Smiley (2012)
This movie is so poor I made an account just to warn others
I had heard of this movie while browsing horror movie boards and thought "Awesome, a new serial killer slasher film finally!" As a huge fan of the genre, but knowing nothing about the film/actors, I went in to this one excited but with no real expectations. EVEN with NO expectations I was SEVERELY disappointed. I truly feel bad for Keith David having been involved in this, he is a tremendous actor with undeniable presence and should not have to bear the shame of being attached to this god-awful "movie."
PLOT To start with, the entire premise of the movie is completely and utterly asinine. It's what an internet savvy pre-teen would come up with if asked to create a horror movie. A serial killer is summoned via the internet by the magic words "I did it for the lulz." Seriously?!? "I did it for the lulz" is the best magic phrase the writers could pull from their collective asses? Things only get worse as the tension is never properly built up, thanks in large part to simply non-existent writing.
On top of this, the "writers" chose to shoe-horn in internet references like they were stuffing cotton into the holes of their sinking ship of a movie. It didn't work.
ACTING Keith David is a fantastic actor. Roger Bart is also quite skilled. That being said, everyone else in this movie is absolutely wretched. Even the most simple dialog comes across as forced and trite. The character development simply isn't there and every character is left flat and one-dimensional.
CINEMATOGRAPHY Independent films have a wonderful tradition of being free of conventional approaches to cinema. Experimentation is encouraged. This movie of course offers nothing new, just a small handful of recycled jump scares and no innovation. I'm not surprised given the obvious lack of talent and skill possessed by the creative/production team.
SUMMATION Absolutely not worth watching by anyone at any point for any reason. The entire experience feels like someone came up with a crappy premise and rushed it through production to try and capitalize on Shane Dawson's fleeting internet notoriety. There is no aspect of this movie that even deserves a single star rating, I implore any readers of this review to skip this one and consider it time not wasted. I would not be surprised if this is either 1) Swept quickly under the rug by even Dawson as a terrible mistake or 2) Ends Dawsons' "career." AS WELL IT SHOULD.