Change Your Image
mcmichael_devin
Reviews
Smile (2022)
No way in hell that's anything close to a 6.8 star movie
Films like this are the prime example of why I take these ratings with massive grains of salt. The premise is interesting and entertaining but the writing and overall execution is terribly off. This film is closer to 3 out of 10 than 7 out of 10.
The amount of incompetence and stupidity shown by virtually everyone in this movie throughout the whole runtime is mind numbing. I LOVE horror movies but this one has two of the tropes I absolutely hate: unnecessary jump scares that don't add to the plot or scene, and dumb characters that see something bad coming at them but instead of running or fighting they either fall over themselves and act like they need life alert to get back up or flat out just stand there and look stupid until it's too late. So many times in this movie there were chances for characters to do something, literally anything, but instead they just stand around like they're rooted to the floor and watch whatever bad thing happen even when they 100% know it'll come at their own detriment
Fairly early on in the movie the lead gets some very solid tangible physical evidence that shows that something weird is definitely going on. Instead of opening with said evidence she chooses to start conversations by saying things like "my eyes are finally open and now I see the truth" which sounds exactly like something a crazy person would say so no one listens to her. At every chance she got to say or show someone something to get them to believe her she went the opposite way and chose to say or do something wild or stupid. Her actions or lack there of made it feel like she didn't want them to believe her
There was literally 0 explanation about the who/what/why of the plot. We didn't find out who or what the entity is, why any of this is happening in this location, how/why the entity chooses its victims, or why the entity makes its victims give that weird smile. It's like the writers and directors didn't think the premise would be intriguing enough to provoke questions so they didn't bother to give any answers. I get that in horror sometimes it's best to leave things ambiguous, but literally nothing is explained even the slightest bit here
Lastly, whoever wrote the fiancé's part of the script must not have ever been engaged/married because dude was useless all film and was barely in it. She confides in him (a crazy theory albeit) and dude doesn't try to comfort or calm her whatsoever and reacts by basically telling her she's crazy just like her mentally ill mother. Then when I thought he couldn't be any worse of a partner he proved me wrong. If you think your spouse could be having a mental breakdown (if not some other weird stuff going on) and they run out of the house when you try to help them would you: A) chase/follow them to try to calm them down or at the very least make sure they don't do anything harmful, or B) watch them leave, sit back down on the couch and send them 2 texts over the next 2 days asking where they are? These geniuses thought option B was a good idea. And with some of the other subplots they chose to go with why was he even in the movie?
Don't believe the hype on this, I did and I was severely disappointed. You'd be better off watching It Follows.
Deadstream (2022)
Fresh & Entertaining Spin on Found Footage Horror
In 2022 cheap paint by numbers found footage horror films are a dime a dozen online. The style of movie has become extremely played out and repetitive at this point (and that's coming from a major horror movie fan). This movie is a breath of fresh air into a stale sub-genre. This movie is a great blend of creepiness/scares and humor with a nice dash of social commentary on top without any one of those aspects being heavy-handed. Joseph Winter is great as the lead actor on top of being a co-writer, co-producer, co-director & picking the music for the film. I found this to be extremely enjoyable from start to finish. If you love horror and comedy this won't leave you disappointed. I highly recommend this film.
The Whole Truth (2021)
Unnecessarily long, boring and definitely NOT a horror film
The film has an interesting premise but the execution fails terribly as a horror (there's a difference between a horror film and a film having horror elements). The subplot involving the son's "friend" being a creepy perv and the whole cheerleading captain drama situation was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the film outside of bloating the runtime. The main plot is slow, convoluted and predictable all at once. But for me personally, the biggest let down was the lack of horror in this horror film. Additionally, there is very little payoff for the suspense created by the creepy/tense atmosphere and situations throughout the movie. There's this little ghost girl involved but outside of the 10 seconds you see her in like 8-10 scenes each, the rest of this 2hr 6min film plays out like a generic and in some places poorly acted drama film. I do not recommend this film for any horror fan looking for a scary good time.
The Dinner (2017)
A waste of 2 hours
This movie is filled with unlikeable characters (the cast itself however were tremendous in playing their roles), slow and often times random dialogue, and an incomplete script. The movie literally ends abruptly at what should've been the climax of the film without an inclination of what just happened or what the fallout of everything we've witnessed will be. This is apparently based off a book, I highly suggest reading that and not wasting your time on this crap
It Comes at Night (2017)
Slow, vague and predictable close
This should be classified as psychological thriller and not horror. This movie answers none of the questions that it's major actions lead to. It expects the audience to "imagine" why and how everything is happening. A door that supposedly only had one key was magically opened by a 5 year old barely old enough to reach the lock and they never explained why or how this happened. They didn't even discuss the disease and how it's spread. Slow, vague and predictable conclusion
Without Name (2016)
Great scenery and photography are the only good things about this movie
This movie has some amazing shots of the forest and the dark gloomy environment that the cottage is surrounded by. Other than that, this movie was a waste of time. It is extremely slow paced and the dialogue was subpar. I've seen some reviews mention that the slow burn helps intensify horror movies like this, but I disagree because this movie is not a horror. I'm not sure what genre it is exactly but I'd say it's closer to a psychological thriller than horror. That makes the fact that NOTHING HAPPENS/IS EXPLAINED even worse. The plot essentially begins with something mystical going on in these woods and ends without expanding on the thought. The movie ends without explaining what is going, how it's happening or why. The ending is also extremely predictable after 3/4 of it if you pay attention. This was very disappointing
Monday at 11:01 A.M. (2016)
Great premise wasted on bad acting
The premise is interesting and was written well enough to draw you in but the overall execution and delivery was fumbled terribly. Additionally the lead actor was god awful from the very beginning of the film. While watching I started questioning who in their right mind casted this guy to be the lead in their movie. When it was over I learned that the lead actor was also the writer and producer.......makes sense
The Lodgers (2017)
Vague and slow movie with very few scares and beautiful scenes
The intro to the movie is interesting and will have you asking a number of questions about what is tormenting these siblings. Unfortunately, most of those questions are left unanswered by time the end credits roll. The question of "what?" is happening is barely addressed while questions like "why?" or "how?" these twins ended up in this situation are practically left unanswered altogether. On the bright side, the premise of the movie is interesting within itself and the cinematography was AMAZING. Shots of the house, the woods and surrounding areas was beautiful throughout. The acting was also pretty good. All in all, it's an ok movie at best that leaves viewers with more questions than answers (or satisfaction for that matter). 4.5 at best
PS: idk when everyone gained the ability to hold their breath under water for 5-10 minutes effortlessly