First rule of film school is don't make your movie about students at a film school.
I gave it a 3 generous stars for the cool concept, sound, and set design, but the story is... well, another story. Really annoying characters who get too dramatic too fast. Everything felt contrived. The title cards in between scenes were unnecessary and read like they were written by child. Second rule of film school is show don't tell.
If the filmmakers are reading this, please don't be discouraged. You had a cool concept, and I hope you can learn from this and apply it to your next movie.
16 Reviews
Was hoping for a decent indie film, unfortunately this didn't deliver
Shewattsi14 June 2020
I finished watching this film about 10 minutes ago on Shudder and if I'm honest it was quite disappointing.
The basic plot is that after the deaths of two people, seven students are blackmailed in to a booth to confess something. It sounds pretty straight forward, but as the background for each character or the situation isn't properly explained it just ends up super confusing.
Each of the seven then immediately embarks upon a rambling diatribe, most of which are hard to follow. Several of them go from 0-100 in one step, which doesn't leave them anywhere to go performance wise for the rest of the film.
If they had reduced the number of confessors down to maybe 4 or 5 and used the time saved to add some extra context, I think this could have been a reasonable film.
If they had reduced the number of confessors down to maybe 4 or 5 and used the time saved to add some extra context, I think this could have been a reasonable film.
Who would have thought my 5/10 would seem generous?
cobbler8816 August 2020
I'll be a departure from a good number of reviewers and spare the synopsis. It's at the top of the page, for Christ's sake.
The direction was fairly minimal but I thought effective. An entire film shot in booths has its limits. With a couple of exceptions, I also didn't think the performances were that bad, especially given what little they had to play off of. Again, the limits that have to be dealt with given the approach.
I liked the premise, but it needs to come together at the end to be satisfying, and I don't think it really got there. I'm not saying you have to LIKE the resolution, but you do have to at least recognize it as the culmination of every bread crumb that's been laid before you, and there was too much that fell short.
The movie is obviously all dialogue, but surprisingly little of that dialogue actually contributed to the story. I recognize that maybe it was revelatory to some degree as to the mechanics of each character, but even as you watch it you know it's not really fleshing out the mystery in any substantive way. It's just padding. So, you're basically listening to a handful of archetypes blather on like any typical student does (to the ear of an actual adult). I'm guessing this may have first been done as a 30-minute student film with 3-4 fewer characters.
There has been mention of the anti-male talking points. Those were minimal, but once the first one hit, it took up a chair in the back of my mind and never really went away, right up through the false credits which included the final shot at men. It made it extra delicious that this shot not only was a shade off of the proper use of the term "derivative" to describe male producers, but it was misspelled as well. :)
If this were a typical indie horror pic of this quality, I'd recommend it as ambient noise while you're busying yourself with other things. But this one requires that you sit and actively listen to it, so it is held to a higher level before it can get a nod.
It's not garbage. If you're really interested in this approach to storytelling, give it a try. Maybe you'll get more out of it than I did. But I'm guessing you'll likely click out of it a little disappointed.
Take care.
The direction was fairly minimal but I thought effective. An entire film shot in booths has its limits. With a couple of exceptions, I also didn't think the performances were that bad, especially given what little they had to play off of. Again, the limits that have to be dealt with given the approach.
I liked the premise, but it needs to come together at the end to be satisfying, and I don't think it really got there. I'm not saying you have to LIKE the resolution, but you do have to at least recognize it as the culmination of every bread crumb that's been laid before you, and there was too much that fell short.
The movie is obviously all dialogue, but surprisingly little of that dialogue actually contributed to the story. I recognize that maybe it was revelatory to some degree as to the mechanics of each character, but even as you watch it you know it's not really fleshing out the mystery in any substantive way. It's just padding. So, you're basically listening to a handful of archetypes blather on like any typical student does (to the ear of an actual adult). I'm guessing this may have first been done as a 30-minute student film with 3-4 fewer characters.
There has been mention of the anti-male talking points. Those were minimal, but once the first one hit, it took up a chair in the back of my mind and never really went away, right up through the false credits which included the final shot at men. It made it extra delicious that this shot not only was a shade off of the proper use of the term "derivative" to describe male producers, but it was misspelled as well. :)
If this were a typical indie horror pic of this quality, I'd recommend it as ambient noise while you're busying yourself with other things. But this one requires that you sit and actively listen to it, so it is held to a higher level before it can get a nod.
It's not garbage. If you're really interested in this approach to storytelling, give it a try. Maybe you'll get more out of it than I did. But I'm guessing you'll likely click out of it a little disappointed.
Take care.
Dialogue: The Movie
wormsoftheerth30 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
First, lets get right to it: the ENTIRE movie takes place in a confession booth. Remember that movie Phone Booth? Now, imagine that the only camera was inside the booth and you never saw the outside world. Doesn't that sound like an awesome movie? No??? Well the creators of this apparently though it would be a good idea. While movies like Unfriended: Dark Web and the V/H/S series experiment with new ways to make the Found Footage style dynamic and interesting, Confessional goes for the opposite approach- removing any and all potential the medium has and delivering one of the absolute most barebones "films" in history. I'm extremely hesitant to even call this a film when it fact it's more like simply "Dialogue: The Movie".
Anyhow, since they didn't spend any money on the production of this movie hopefully they spent it on the story? Nope. This comes across as a 13-16yr olds revenge fantasy wet dream. The movie revolves around the character of Amelia who is apparently one small step away from Jesus- all the characters seem to idolize her to the level of a bad fanfic. Everyone loves her the most and is mad at so & so for falling short of loving her enough, or...something. The narrator is forcing everyone to confess and this narrator feels like a blatant and highly self-congratulatory self-insert. The characters are all cardboard cutout level 1-D (macho jock guy, a55hole alt right guy, crazy loner girl, guys roommate, someone's girlfriend, someone else's girlfriend) and act in completely unrealistic ways. They all let someone they didn't know all that well tape their "biggest regret"? Two people meet up and within seconds have sex in the booth? A guy has no reservations about getting sxcked off through a glory hole in the booth? Yes, totally believable things people would do, especially when being in a room watched/filmed by an unknown person! Unsurprisingly, the overall story is pretty straight-forward, generic teen/college drama. Everyone's "confession" is easily guessable within the first few minutes of them talking. Someone is gay, someone is cheating, someone was raped at a party...cornerstones of teen drama and absolutely no curveballs. They even go a step further and make it offensively dumb with the addition of 1 dimensional, heavy-handed, cartoonish "woke" stuff. The problem is that when you include very base-level woke stuff in a movie this bad/stupid, it makes people equate progressive ideas with a stupid ass movie of caricatures shoving their "woke" ideas upon the viewer and therefore not take them seriously. It would be much more effective if the movie was compelling and intelligently brought up progressive ideas in a way that accurately conveyed their seriousness. Additionally, this movie commits the cardinal sin of believing that "convoluted" is synonymous with deep/complex/unpredictable/smart. The movie continually cuts back and forth between the characters, giving them just enough time to talk without saying anything and then cutting away right when they might divulge some plot progressing information. This is done to artificially extend the rather shallow story and give the impression that the confession is going to be much more shocking than it actually is. It takes forever to get anywhere and you'll be constantly bored considering there is no actual visual stimuli- thereby forcing the movie to foolishly rely solely on its obtuse, overly confusing dialogue and storytelling. If you're going to reduce a movie to only the writing, than the writing needs to be exceptionally strong! Anyway, that's more than enough about this one. Terrible idea for a movie style; really low level, predictable writing; 1 dimensional, uninteresting characters; trite twist and complete lack of payoff. If I hadn't already cancelled my Shudder account than I would have after seeing this.
Anyhow, since they didn't spend any money on the production of this movie hopefully they spent it on the story? Nope. This comes across as a 13-16yr olds revenge fantasy wet dream. The movie revolves around the character of Amelia who is apparently one small step away from Jesus- all the characters seem to idolize her to the level of a bad fanfic. Everyone loves her the most and is mad at so & so for falling short of loving her enough, or...something. The narrator is forcing everyone to confess and this narrator feels like a blatant and highly self-congratulatory self-insert. The characters are all cardboard cutout level 1-D (macho jock guy, a55hole alt right guy, crazy loner girl, guys roommate, someone's girlfriend, someone else's girlfriend) and act in completely unrealistic ways. They all let someone they didn't know all that well tape their "biggest regret"? Two people meet up and within seconds have sex in the booth? A guy has no reservations about getting sxcked off through a glory hole in the booth? Yes, totally believable things people would do, especially when being in a room watched/filmed by an unknown person! Unsurprisingly, the overall story is pretty straight-forward, generic teen/college drama. Everyone's "confession" is easily guessable within the first few minutes of them talking. Someone is gay, someone is cheating, someone was raped at a party...cornerstones of teen drama and absolutely no curveballs. They even go a step further and make it offensively dumb with the addition of 1 dimensional, heavy-handed, cartoonish "woke" stuff. The problem is that when you include very base-level woke stuff in a movie this bad/stupid, it makes people equate progressive ideas with a stupid ass movie of caricatures shoving their "woke" ideas upon the viewer and therefore not take them seriously. It would be much more effective if the movie was compelling and intelligently brought up progressive ideas in a way that accurately conveyed their seriousness. Additionally, this movie commits the cardinal sin of believing that "convoluted" is synonymous with deep/complex/unpredictable/smart. The movie continually cuts back and forth between the characters, giving them just enough time to talk without saying anything and then cutting away right when they might divulge some plot progressing information. This is done to artificially extend the rather shallow story and give the impression that the confession is going to be much more shocking than it actually is. It takes forever to get anywhere and you'll be constantly bored considering there is no actual visual stimuli- thereby forcing the movie to foolishly rely solely on its obtuse, overly confusing dialogue and storytelling. If you're going to reduce a movie to only the writing, than the writing needs to be exceptionally strong! Anyway, that's more than enough about this one. Terrible idea for a movie style; really low level, predictable writing; 1 dimensional, uninteresting characters; trite twist and complete lack of payoff. If I hadn't already cancelled my Shudder account than I would have after seeing this.
First Ever Review
rickeyshelton-978304 June 2020
Not sure why this was a Shudder Exclusive because there is no horror in the film whatsoever. It's not a thriller. It's a pile of garbage. I've watched almost every horror film that the above average horror fan can watch in my 30 years, and this is not only the worst horror film I've seen, it's the worst film.
I've been reading reviews on films for about 8 years now on IMDB to see what people say before I watch it. Wish I had done that for this one. Heed the reviews or you too will lose 86 boring minutes of your life.
I've been reading reviews on films for about 8 years now on IMDB to see what people say before I watch it. Wish I had done that for this one. Heed the reviews or you too will lose 86 boring minutes of your life.
Nothing thrilling about this thriller
SonOfThunor28 May 2020
This really could have been 30 mins tops. Long, drawn out, lacking climax or anything really interesting. The film, moving at a snails pace, feels like more of a chore to sit thru than anything else and the ending leaves the viewer wondering why they stuck it out the entire time. I hate to leave such a negative review about someone's efforts, but it just missed every mark.
Ouch! Who Green Lighted this Movie?
VerifiedMasterCritic17 June 2020
First, let me state I have never given 2 stars to any review, but this barely qualifies for the generous extra star I provided. This movie was simply painful to sit through. I'm not certain why it is categorized as a horror movie. I felt like I spent a couple hours watching paint dry on a wall. This movie had great potential. Actually, it didn't. It failed on every level. I won't comment on the acting as I'm not certain anyone could pull off making this movie interesting. As an actors "Actor" I don't blame the cast as they did the best they could with a horrible script that simply went nowhere. Shudder should have never put this movie in their line-up as it diminished the quality of their network.
Not horror, not a thriller. It's just... not.
justinlozowski8 March 2021
Yet another movie premise squandered away on a silly plot, bad acting and a twist you can see coming from a mile away. This one rehashed dull threads of movies past with a cast of fresh "pretty people" all somehow connected to the deaths of two people on campus. Complete with God awful camera angles that don't match the scene, with each actor turning to face each camera as they switch between shots. Nothing more than a lazy revenge mystery that doesn't even qualify as "mystery" as it is blatantly obvious within the first 20 minutes who is behind it all. Hard pass.
I felt I needed to review this...
brokenmind198625 October 2020
After reading the reviews I felt like I needed to leave a review. I didn't hate this movie. It's not as bad as all the reviews say it is. I'll even say I enjoyed it. Lots of twists, which I like in a movie. I don't understand all the hate.
Some talent there, bad premise
jungmind10 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
These reviews are a little harsh. The film definitely doesn't belong on Shudder, and is far from any conception of "good", but it's not completely worthless. I thought it was kind of cute, as a film student or novice filmmaker's attempt at a kind-of found footage or mockumentary style thriller. It has some moments (the...er... "gloryhole" scene comes to mind), and I liked their clever set design and use of lighting effects to make the booth come alive around the actors. Music was pretty decent too. It suffers from a profound lack of direction (there's no real substance to the plot), but the writing's actually not half bad.
My biggest gripe with the film, aside from how the story kinda falls apart as more "confessions" are revealed, is actually the premise itself. I think the creators wanted an interesting vehicle to deliver their story of love/obsession/betrayal and kind of just rolled with the confessional video idea, but forgot to ground it in reality. Yeah, the story revolves around a student who shot confessional videos herself, but in what universe would six people all separately agree to meet someone they don't know in an empty building to talk about someone who just died under mysterious circumstances? Aside from the drug dealer, none of the characters have any real "dirt" on them that can be used as blackmail. No way ALL of them put their *lives at risk* out of fear of their classmates learning all the sordid details of their personal lives.
Overall it's an entertaining little film though. I thought the performances were passable (the "villain" stands out) and the premise is original enough to keep you engaged, despite being completely unbelievable.
My biggest gripe with the film, aside from how the story kinda falls apart as more "confessions" are revealed, is actually the premise itself. I think the creators wanted an interesting vehicle to deliver their story of love/obsession/betrayal and kind of just rolled with the confessional video idea, but forgot to ground it in reality. Yeah, the story revolves around a student who shot confessional videos herself, but in what universe would six people all separately agree to meet someone they don't know in an empty building to talk about someone who just died under mysterious circumstances? Aside from the drug dealer, none of the characters have any real "dirt" on them that can be used as blackmail. No way ALL of them put their *lives at risk* out of fear of their classmates learning all the sordid details of their personal lives.
Overall it's an entertaining little film though. I thought the performances were passable (the "villain" stands out) and the premise is original enough to keep you engaged, despite being completely unbelievable.
"I've got another confession to make,I'm your fool, Everyone's got their chains to break,Holdin' you."
morrison-dylan-fan28 May 2020
Since signing up to Shudder two months ago,I've been wanting to catch a original/exclusive on the first day,but due to various offline things have ended up watching at weekends. Unexpectedly getting extra free time,I went for a confession.
View on the film:
Seating all the subjects in neon lit booths, director Brad T. Gottfred & cinematographer Tobias Deml record a dry monotone atmosphere, keeping to the same mid-shot, giving each booth a repetitive appearance, draining any chance of tension arising.
Attempting to move the Found Footage genre from Horror to Drama, the screenplay by Jennifer Wolfe attempts to record shocking twists in the booths, which fizzle out quickly, due to Wolfe making each person in the booths utterly interchangeable,and the lack of background given to either the people in the booths,or the two dead teens,causing the confessions made to ring hollow.
View on the film:
Seating all the subjects in neon lit booths, director Brad T. Gottfred & cinematographer Tobias Deml record a dry monotone atmosphere, keeping to the same mid-shot, giving each booth a repetitive appearance, draining any chance of tension arising.
Attempting to move the Found Footage genre from Horror to Drama, the screenplay by Jennifer Wolfe attempts to record shocking twists in the booths, which fizzle out quickly, due to Wolfe making each person in the booths utterly interchangeable,and the lack of background given to either the people in the booths,or the two dead teens,causing the confessions made to ring hollow.
I kinda liked it
brookebisshop15 February 2021
You guys I dont understand why there is so much hate on this movie.
I mean i understand its not the best I/you have ever seen but the plot is in my opinion really awesome. There are good plot twists, fun and good actors. They did get too dramatic too fast though. If you really wanna watch thriller though dont choose this movie. The trailer is kinda misleading.
why shudder
zombie84-130 May 2020
If you keep at it with these boring movies i'm just going to cancel. I like slow going stuff as the next person, but lately all the new movies on here drag and drag and they are painful with horrible direction, acting, plots.
Every Up & Coming Actor Agrees To A Horrible Bomb!
zac-6827417 June 2020
The cast is basically young working actors that I'm guessing was helping out a friend with major Hollywood connections. This claustrophobic low budget film school project was Poorly written with bad directional timing!
I felt generous
eventlaunch16 June 2020
Just horrible.
LoupGarouTFTs8 September 2021
Why waste the film? Just make a radio play out of it. The characters were shallow, the monologues were uninteresting, there was no effort to even create even a bit of tension from the other side of the confessional. I made it through about 20 minutes before I turned it off. I stream movies and there are a lot better movies I can use my hotspot for. It's really too bad. The premise was interesting. If there had been some intervening exterior shots, then I might have been willing to stay for more, but there was nothing. What I think turned me off the most, even beyond the lousy dialogue and so on, was the "Bless me father for I have sinned (followed by profane words)." So totally disrespectful. That and the assumption that "all college students" need illicit drugs to get through. Bleh.
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