Reviews

When I saw a newspaper clipping of HH Holmes' "Murder Castle" framed on the living room wall, I was instantly intrigued and ready for a wild ride of mazes, sinister rooms, and all-out chaos. By the end of the movie, I was still waiting for them. There was so much potential with the plot that just didn't materialize. If you're going to reference the Murder Castle and suggest that the characters are in an updated version, you need to see that through. There were only two "murder rooms", if you will, but we see characters trying to navigate a poorly-lit hallway that suggests there are several more rooms to see in that gigantic mansion. Nope! Just two. And one is used more than once. It's as though there was a struggle between using the mansion to its full murderous potential, and spending the time on developing character relationships. In an hour and a half, it's difficult to do both. I think it would have made a great limited series if they had the time to flesh all of that out. In the end, I think it was less about drawing the parallels between the family and HH Holmes, and more about finding excuses to murder each other. From that standpoint, I was disappointed.

This is the culmination of four decades of the most iconic horror story of all time. It was not the right time to introduce a new character and storyline that concludes before the movie does (and if they plan to resurrect it somehow with the character's spawn, then the spirit of the franchise will jump the shark!). It also didn't make sense to have one of the characters move to the dark side in the grand finale, when there's no other vehicle to carry it over into another story. There was so much time wasted on this storyline - I would have preferred to see what Michael Myers had been up to all these years, and hopefully not all of them would have been living in a sewer like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

If this is a movie about exploitation, then it's only fitting that the actress playing Marilyn was subjected to numerous topless scenes that were completely gratuitous. And this is coming from someone who loves the movie "Showgirls"! And don't get me started on the abortion scenes from the point of view of her cervix - not groundbreaking; just disgusting. If they were going for shock value, the only shock I experienced was realizing that this film actually got made. I only watched the whole thing hoping for something good to hold onto, but my hand was empty when the credits rolled. The whole thing was ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if their next movie is about Michael Jackson growing up in the Von Trapp family.

I really wish this could have been expanded into a standard-length show. I like the plot, but I think so much more could have been explored, and I need a season 2 to satisfy my curiosity.

Is it predictable? Of course - it's a horror movie with a pregnant woman. Those are always predictable, but isn't that why we watch them? We know something's growing in the character, but we stay tuned to see what it is. Baby? Demon? Two-headed velociraptor?

I think it was done well, and the cast did a great job of elevating the story past its predicability. If this were reworked into a feature-length movie or standard 20-minute episodes, I would watch it again!

I have been interested in this ranch for years, so I was really hoping for something great. But is this just a fictional series? Either the owner of the ranch is being coached by the production team, or he's a bad actor. And there are occasions when the scientists seem stumped by something I can explain away with my high school science knowledge. Also, they don't use control subjects to prove or disprove their experiments. Anywho, it's fun to watch so I'll give it that.

I liked the idea of the story, but the dialogue is cringe-worthy and the acting is over the top. And the characters are weak - sometimes they'd say things that didn't jive with their personalities. Or they'd do the dreaded "look at the camera and shake your head." But worst of all - how did they get the found footage if Carl was still holding onto the camera to shoot it?