Change Your Image
aaron-howe
Reviews
After Midnight (2019)
Pretentious and dull
I watched this film on a recommendation from Vulture, who are usually good at picking gems, but I can only surmise they were paid to rep this particular film.
It's one of those movies where not only does nothing happen throughout, but you can actively distinguish the scenes were the director clearly thought they were really breaking new ground - especially when the music supervisor took their turn to showcase some of the most awful music I've ever heard in scenes where no musical accompaniment was called for.
The twist, if there's any way to justify calling it that, was so massively telegraphed that it could have been seen from space. If you want to watch a genuinely odd and questioning horror then watch something like The Void instead, it'll be a much better investment of time.
Would You Rather (2012)
Poor
I'm going to deliberately keep this review short because the film doesn't warrant anything in-depth. Jeffrey Combs and Robin Taylor ham it up for all they're worth - but that isn't much; it's as if they were told to act as caricatures of rich, bored and sadistic people but couldn't make it beyond bored and sadistic, there is no class on show at all. They have absolutely no acting talent and as a result come off as pantomime villains bringing the tone of the entire movie down. Their constant changing of the rules makes clear they intend not to study the limits of human interaction but rather to enjoy the suffering of others for what appears to be absolutely no feasible end.
It's a shame because the concept of the film would have been exciting had it been properly thought through - in the vein of the earlier Saw films the "game" could have been an effort at redemption but instead revolves around escalating rounds of torture porn without imagination. The "players" are being exploited for needing cash, which neither endeared me to their causes nor helped me empathise with them.
If they had a chance to back out at any time (without cash)... if the tasks in any way represented their needs... if the hosts had been able to portray any semblance of being moneyed individuals (as opposed to obnoxious trust fund a*holes)... this could have been a good thriller.
Left with a unlikeable cast, boring plot and entirely predictable ending there really is nothing to recommend anyone seeing this film.