Reviews

It's a shame the the marketing for this movie is a straight lie. It's not even misleading, it's a lie.

This is no horror movie at all.

The whole thing is marketed as something in the vein of Predator. I was hoping it would succeed where the godawful Prey failed.

But no. It's just a boring thriller with the dumbest reveal of all times and a message we've heard so often these days. Honestly, why can't we get movies without a political message stuffed down our throats?

I can imagine the people involved on this garbage sitting in the writing room, patting their backs and cheering themselves for putting their political views in a prehistoric thriller.

3 stars for the visuals. They're quite nice for the movie being a low budget production.

Seriously, this could have been one of the best shows on the vampire theme. The setting is great, acting is mostly good, the twist on the genre with the underlying theme of religious fundamentalism and religious madness is great.

But:

Mike Flanagan seems to be incapable of writing dialogues. To be honest, there are no dialogues at all. The communication between characters is based on endless monologues they throw at each other. They're mostly dull and boring and kill your immersion. No real person would ever communicate that way. Even if this is a kind of trademark of Flanagan's work, it's so exaggerated here that some scenes are nearly unwatchable. The worst thing is that they add nothing to the character's depth or development as they repeat in endless speaches what we already know cause it was shown to us.

Still a 7/10 due to the uniqueness, the setting and the cinematography. But also still a missed opportunity to do something really great.

A mild spoiler now: I am sure there could have been a better solution to the reverse aging process than bad Make-up and actors in their 30ies trying to mimic the body language and behavior of much older people.

I should have known better, but I gave this movie a chance.

As all new mainstream horrors of the last two decades, it failed to deliver.

Good things first: it's technically well made, camerawork is mostly good.

The opening scene delivers a good setup.

Acting is okay.

Now the bad things and some spoilers:

The main character is unlikeable and behaves contrary to everything she should know due to her profession as a therapist.

Who if not her should know that if you try to convince your friends and family that something weird is happening but you're not hallucinating you should not behave like you're psychotic.

This was simply the worst writing mistake I've seen in a long time.

In nearly every scene where she tries to convince someone she's discovering a very bad secret, she acts batshit crazy and starts yelling I AM NOT CRAZY within 5 minutes of conversation. Even a very scared person should be able to act and talk different if that's her profession.

Besides that, there are the usual cheap jumpscares for the mainstream audience, a plot that has been mostly copied from Ring and It Follows, a bad cgi-monster und the totally ruined ending.

Save yourself some time and don't see this movie except you're exactly into jumpscares. Don't expect it to be as good as It Follows or Ring.

This must have been one of the absolutely worst horror films I've seen in my entire life.

Nothing here is right. The pacing is a mess, the acting is terrible (especially the old couple), so much stuff doesn't make any sense.

Spoilers now:

Story 1: unlikeable Jenna, a character with the worst written dialogue I ever experienced in TV runs away from her parents who also have the worst written dialogue I ever experienced in TV. I don't get deeper into why and how cause it's boring. She ends in a bead and breakfast with an old couple played by the worst actors I ever seen on screen who also have the worst dialogue I have ever experienced in TV. They end up being some sort of serial killers no one can take serious due to the worst writing I ever experienced in TV. You get the deal.

Story 2: no idea, my phone was way more interesting than anything in this movie.

Interconnection of story 1 and 2 with the overhead story: see story 2.

Things that made zero sense:

1. Old lady gets hit hard in the head, but is fit and capable to do everything about 2 minutes after.

2. Scientist examines naked man without gloves or anything.

3. Stalker dad finds unlikeable Jenna everywhere without a reason.

4. Old lady tells her boring story to unlikeable Jenna like she's reading a script (and without any other reason than bad writing).

5. Unlikeble Jenna texts random boyfriend to call the cops instead of calling the cops with her phone she's texting from.

6. Dialogues are mostly monologues to explain the story cause writers aren't capable to visualize properly or work it in in some natural dialogue.

Forget the story, watch it for gore and violence.

Honestly, the story isn't that great, you should expect nothing here.

But if you're into violent and gory fun, this is for you.

As several people in other reviews mentioned, there's tons of blood in very well made killing scenes. If that's your thing to waste a few hours, you will definitely not be disappointed.

Turn your brains off, grab some popcorn and enjoy.

Only downside here, and mild spoiler now: obviously the movie prepares for a part two, the ending already sets this. I don't know exactly how they'll do it, as the story is already thin and drawn out. But we'll see.

First things first: This movie is well made. Technically. Acting is mostly good, except from Justin Long, but that might be a personal bias as I can't stand that guy. He seems to make every movie a bit worse than it actually is. Also one gore scene is well made and shocking.

The first 30-40 minutes are intriguing. Sadly it ends somewhere else.

Now to the negatives: Although it's nicely shot and intriguing first part, the movie disappoints on so many levels after

(spoilers now!)

Skarsgard gets his head smashed. As soon as the cut to Justin changes the setting and the tone it goes downhill soooo fast.

I can't really get my head around why people praise this as surprising, genius, whatever.

It's subverting expectations in the worst way possible, by turning an intriguing intro into a silly half comedy half horror nonsense with a message that doesn't get delivered through nice acting and a nice plot but more through the dumbest decisions and most nonsensical behavior by every single character. How anyone thinks the message is delivered well through this is out of my mind.

Also the highly praised humor here is what? Justin Long measuring the basement? People really lose their minds about this incredibly annoying scene and praise the sh** out of how funny that was. Seriously?

Also Tess being very careful in the beginning and then starting to make the dumbest choices ever seen on screen. Completely out of the formerly established character.

And these dumb decisions lack the silly charme of 80ies slashers, on one hand due to the tone and on the other due to what we know about Tess and how clever she is. In the aforementioned slashers, people are dumb tropes from the beginning on, so their decisions fit the role.

The whole movie suffers from so many small details that either don't fit the character, that completely change formerly established rules that you need a complete suspension of disbelief to get any enjoyment out of it.

...6 times total garbage.

The Autopsy and The Viewing are great. Really great. With more episodes of this quality, the show could have easily been a 10/10.

But the other episodes are somewhere between mediocre and bad. Mostly style over substance (as the visuals are nice in all episodes), not gripping, no memorable characters, too stretched out and so on. I did not watch the last episode, as I avoid Kent's work at all costs since forcing myself through that pretentious piece of crap that is The Babadook.

Back to the positive parts and mild spoilers now: As said, The Autopsy is great, a nice hommage to Carpenter's The Thing, well acted, perfect pacing, a pleasure to watch.

But my personal highlight was the Panos Cosmatos episode. Considering Mandy might be my top movie within the last 10 years, I was very excited to see him directing one episode. And The Viewing delivered! Great characters, the best visuals in the whole series, Weller delivered a 10/10. And the gore in the last third was also worth watching.

If you don't want to force yourself through the mediocrity of the whole show, I highly recommend seeing at least these two episodes. You won't regret!

Very disappointing start to this anthology. Unlikeable clichéd main character, cringy dialogue, no logic at all, stretchy at the wrong parts of the episode.

A few examples (light spoilers):

Main racist owes a lot of money, gets a chance to acquire 300k, behaves like a total asshole and does not listen to the guy who wants to spend the 300k, does ignore his warnings etc.

Scenes showing main racist throwing away garbage several times doesn't add anything, it's just unnecessary scenes. We already know it's a bit claustrophobic inside the storage, no need to show it several times, the audience isn't that stupid.

No explanation for the strange hopping of the old guy, instead a lot of showing what a miserable person the main guy is.

I hope the next episodes will be better.