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The Terrible Two (2018)
They tried, and failed.
I don't want to be too harsh because I can tell there was genuine effort and heart put into this movie. But I feel like the people making it didn't put enough time into it.
To start off, the plot is incomplete and confusing. A couple moves into a house that turns out to have a horrifying backstory of evil occult ritualistic things. I would explain more, but I can't. There's no explanation given in the movie beyond "the previous owner was doing ritualistic deals with a demon so now the house is haunted." It's implied that the realtor who sold the house is involved, serving as the role of the house's "keeper," bringing in more people to it each time it finishes off a family so that the demon has new souls to feed upon. But is this ever explored? Nope. Do we ever get details on the rituals or anything? Not really. A random older woman shows up and harasses the couple at one point, then is seen in a later scene having generic banter with the realtor that implies both are involved with the ghostly happenings, but explains nothing more than that. The woman is never seen again and might as well have not been part of the movie at all.
The mom's acting feels unrealistic. There's a heavy implication that she's being slowly taken over by the evil energy of the house and that's why she's behaving strangely and getting angry and aggressive toward her husband. But the acting ruins that premise by making it seem more like she's just randomly acting crazy. This is especially the case during the ending, when she suddenly becomes bitter and hateful toward him out of nowhere, when previously she'd been more than ready to flee the house with him after seeing their daughters' ghosts. There's no real transition between her acting naturally and her acting "possessed." She just flips back and forth with no real cause, which is jarring and ruins the immersion.
The daughters' acting is also a bit stilted, seeming very forced and unbelievable. And you can't claim it's because they're kids, because plenty of child actors manage amazing performances. This is not one of them. I've seen short films with better acting and lower budgets.
Also, they really should have left out the scene where we see a ghostly entity on the roof during a flashback about what really happened to the girls, wherein we learn that the dad was temporarily taken over by the evil of the house (possibly implied to be the demon? It's not clear.) and snaps his daughters' necks as they lay unconscious on the patio. The demon(?) looks terribly cheap and cheesy, which just ruins any slight feeling of suspense or horror behind the concept. I see what they were trying to do there, but they shouldn't have. They clearly didn't have the budget to make it work, and instead what should have been a horrific realization moment becomes a mood-killing joke.
This could have been a good movie if they'd had a better script and more time. It all just feels very rushed, like the writer(s) just slapped it together with no real research and put it together over a single night. There are plot points that go nowhere, a generic "the house is haunted because demons" concept that could have been executed SO much better, and acting that ruins any tiny bit of horror that could have been.
It's not an original idea, but plenty of great movies have come from unoriginal concepts. It's all in how it's done, and this one was done very poorly. It feels rushed and unfinished. It should have been a short film instead of a feature-length ordeal.
Bless the actors who were in this film, because they did try. But they were nowhere near experienced enough to justify the time and effort. I can only hope they've had chances to improve.
Discarnate (2018)
Has potential, but could be better.
I watched this one a little while back, and had high hopes for it at the start. It starts off with a great, creepy premise; a young boy is stolen from his bedroom by a shapeshifting shadowy ooze monster, and his father sets out on a desperate mission to find out more about the creature and take revenge upon it for the death of his child.
What bothers me is that the story overall is dry, and almost none of the characters really stand out or have much personality. The only ones who even feel like real, engaging people are the brothers who work alongside the Doctor (the father from the beginning sequence) on his project, and the "witch doctor" character who shows up to help by providing the serum mentioned in the summary of the plot. Everyone else is kind of bland, and while I can see that they really tried to make them seem interesting, they just don't.
Also, the plot twist pissed me off, as did the ending. Long story short, it turns out the Doctor tricked his team into coming along with him under a false purpose. In reality he knows full well the danger he's putting these other people in. But when he's inevitably caught in his lies and confronted by the remaining survivors, he doesn't seem to care. While I get that the point is that he's single-minded about getting revenge for his lost son, it makes me so angry to see him act completely unbothered by the fact that his actions lead to innocent lives being lost. He knows it's his fault for lying to them. But he doesn't seem to care.
And in the end, he gets what he wants; the monster is killed and the Doctor fades away. No guilt for the fact that his precious revenge meant innocent people had to die. No shame over having willfully lead them into a trap that got them all killed. If he'd been presented as a bad person to begin with it would make sense, but no. He's made out to be this emotionally-devastated father who just wants to avenge the senseless loss of his child. We're supposed to be on his side. But instead I felt very upset by the ending, wishing he hadn't "won" in the end, because I didn't feel like he deserved that closure.
I really dislike movies that make the main character someone I can't bring myself to cheer for or support, and this is one of them.
Overall, a decent movie, but probably not one I would watch a second time. I wish the story and characters were more filled out, and I wish the ending didn't leave me wishing I could hit the main character upside the head with a shovel.
Circle (2015)
Decent concept with believable acting
This one wasn't quite what I expected. It definitely delves into a lot of social commentary and explores how people react to a crisis, and how they treat each other when forced into a life-or-death situation from which there seems to be no escape.
However, if seeing people be terrible to each other over things like race, class status, etc. upsets you, you may want to avoid this one, or at least go into it prepared to bite down on a blanket when the rage starts kicking in. The characters in this movie do NOT handle things well and spend a lot of time being rude or just plain antagonistic toward each other. Part of that is due to the fact that people tend to become stressed and volatile during a desperate situation, but the writing really takes it over the top. There were several times that I had to pause and go take some deep breaths because the anger I felt toward the characters for being awful toward each other was so intense.
Beyond that, it's a good suspense movie. There's a lot of tension surrounding how things will end, and you're never entirely sure what's going to happen next.
Zoombies (2016)
Predictable and low-budget, but kind of endearing
Let me start off by saying this: if you're expecting believable effects or top-notch acting, maybe set your hopes a little lower.
This movie is definitely what you might expect from one of the old SciFi Originals movies. Low-budget with passable but sometimes cheesy dialogue and actors that aren't terrible, but aren't going to be getting any nominations either. The best acting in this movie was done by the little girl character, and even then it's not spectacular.
But if you just want to waste some time with a so-bad-it's-funny kind of horror movie, or are just really, really emotionally affected by the thought of endangered animals turning into zombies, you might get a small, cheap kick out of it. I did, even despite how lackluster it was.
The CGI isn't great, and there's a scene where one character is held up in the air by a zombie animal and her body position looks laughably fake. (Her pose is so stiff and does not look at all like she's dangling in the air.) But if you can manage to ignore that, it's entertaining enough.
Overall, not the worst movie I've ever seen. It had potential, and you can tell there was some heart in it, but not enough to make up for the lack of budget. Still, if you've got an hour and a half to kill and don't mind cheesy low-budget horror, it's not terrible and is just barely worth a watch.