A Message from Brianna (2021) User Reviews

Wow. Yeah, don't. Just don't...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 15 May 2022]

I sat down to watch the 2021 horror movie "A Message from Brianna" from writer and director DeShon Hardy without ever having heard about the movie. But this being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen was sufficient to make me watch the movie. And I will say that the movie's synopsis actually sounded interesting as well.

And "A Message from Brianna" was a horror movie. Not because it was a scary or disturbing movie. No, it was a horror to sit through, because the storyline was very bland and generic. And the acting performances in the movie were amateurish at best. The entire atmosphere of the movie was just oozing with low key and low budget horror movie. At best, then "A Message from Brianna" felt like a home video project.

I wasn't entertained by the storyline that DeShon Hardy managed to concoct for this 2021 horror movie. And this is definitely not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on, not even if you are an avid horror aficionado like myself. Some of us suffered through this so you don't have to.

There was just nothing scary about this movie, aside from how bad it was.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I wasn't impressed with what I saw on the screen.

My rating of "A Message from Brianna" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

A fair attempt

[beanikins · 4/10 · 19 July 2022]

As a scary movie lover, I can appreciate some of the attempts made at scary moments- I even jumped once and backed it up for a family member who also got a 2 second fright. But overall we laughed alot making commentary while watching and the wife characters is such a B1tch , I wondered if this was written by a man- low and behold it was. The wife is a constant complainer. Ungrateful attitude with zero compassion for her spouse. Her nasty attitude was really irritating and difficult to continue to watch.

Disappointing and I was left confused!

[moniquelbrown-58226 · 2/10 · 21 November 2022]

So let me first start with being very clear that I went into this with a mindset to really support my people and their efforts in the film industry. I have sooooo many mixed emotions... one being that I typically don't like the quality in filming of most B list movies, this was definitely a greater film skill quality than those considered B listing ... but the acting did not match that spirit. The acting was at best mediocre. The portrayal of the overbearing, angry and non supportive black wife and the weak submissive black male irritated my soul. I quickly gained a high level of disgust for the character Kathy portrayed by Asia'h Epperson. I spent most of the movie hoping the husband .. played by Vernon Davis would just.. for lack of a better phrase.. put her in her place... the dumpster... something! I was also equally confused by the casting of their daughter... this whole grown non walking child they had laying in a crib in their room .. like WTH??? That child was as big as the mother! The plot and storyline was at it's least generic... I just don't think anyone would find enjoyment in watching this ... but I watched til the end for no other reason than I hate to not know for certain how a movie ends. Their attempt at a plot twist at the end was a major fail, it just didn't have a place in the predetermined story line.

Speechless

[hayley-56662 · 1/10 · 11 January 2023]

I have just made an account to post this review.... I've never written a review of a movie before. I will save you the time and tell you don't even bother. The director should concentrate on a different career choice, cause this just ain't it! Well I can't believe that this was allowed to be made. Nothing good about this film, a hour of my life I won't ever get back. Poor editing, you could even see cast crew in one of the scenes. I'm utterly speechless to this. Story line could have been executed so much better. Just speechless!!!!!! Acting was terrible I've seen high schoolers do better than this! Come on man, you all should be ashamed.

Trigger Warning: Child Sex Abuse Scenes

[voxiburchenau · 3/10 · 18 February 2023]

No trigger warning for scenes of child/teen sex violence, and that same young (I'm sure of-age) actress later 'revenge-seducing' an older adult male. It was just gross. Also, very unnerved by the adorable toddler actress in a scene with the avenging ghost teen, Crystal, where she reveals to the wife that she ghost-seduced her husband, then picks up the baby to signify that she in fact ghost-conceived her, was.....skeevy. She looked too young and the scene, a sex act, was awkward.

As everyone else notes, the end was uninterpretable and stupid. The child-molesting and body-disposing grandfather, long a dementia-addled shell, happily strolls up to the haunted house of child rape, murder and possession, like a poor man's Cab Calloway and smiles like an old pedophile. What...the hell?! Either he was possessed by the girl or someone else.

All of the adults are reprehensible people. The women are, of course, demonic. The grandmother protects a dead-beat child raping husband by casually slaughtering the hopeless victim over breakfast and telling her shocked, child molesting husband to get rid of the body. How a woman could make a ruthless, evil, sack of garbage like him seem less revolting is the writing acrobatics of a woman-hating man. Happily, she rises from the dead and violently murders the woman who was busy making dinner for 'her man' like nothing happened.

The main characters, a wife, husband and toddler are haunted by the same spirit because it was his grandparents who tortured and murdered her. He knew her when they were kids though didn't know the reasons behind her sudden disappearance. Their daughter becomes possessed and the mother is first to correctly diagnose it but instead of running to protect her child she runs away, unravels, distances herself while the men attempt a solution.

The myth of the tail-between-the-legs, sorry, sad sack is in full force here. The wife, convinced the child she bore isn't hers, goads the husband into leaving her on the stoop of an abandoned church at night. Yes. Next they're happily cooking dinner planning some cliche strawberries and whipped cream middle class fantasy as if they hadn't survived a haunted house, their toddler being possessed, digging up the murdered body of a raped, pregnant child, the grandfather being arrested and possessed.....yep. The daughter reappears while these fools are readying for date night and the spirit possesses the mother. The next day they're reassuring the pastor as a happy family and creep grandpa rolls up. And that's all! Yes, it's terrible. The grandfather's nurse was a nut too. Some of the haunting scenes are good, the young actors are also good. Avoid this movie.

A message from Brianna

[phyllislawhorn · 1/10 · 30 June 2022]

This movie was weak as hell. No black people would stop fighting for their child and dump her. Just plain ridiculous. The acting was mediocre at best. The male was weak.

WOW

[stuzzo · 1/10 · 13 February 2023]

The was horrible,the acting was just bad. The wife always having a nasty attitude and that nurse when he went too see his grandfather wow!!!! I didn't like the storyline at all. When the father walked in the kitchen and didn't see his daughter on the floor I knew it was going too bad then.

For them to just leave nah it wouldn't of happened over a ghost and blame the husband for everything it was grandfather not the husband .Couldn't believe they just left that baby like that,made no sense,ending was strange.

Oh i forgot!!!! It got me when the grandmother killed that girl,it wouldn't of been that way, she would of stabbed his ass. Movie was bad just bad.

It's ok

[collier_tierra · 2/10 · 13 August 2022]

The ending will leave you very confused! Overall it's ok not worth the time. The way the wife was talking to her husband was also trash. Could've been better.

Atrocious

[shawannamitchell · 1/10 · 17 June 2022]

This movie was horrible! How could the dad not see her when he walked into the kitchen and how could he not check her bed as he walked right by hers to get into his bed. And the way the wife talked to him throughout the movie was disgusting! Don't get me started on the makeup and special "not so special, effects. It's a no fit me!!

Don't waste your time

[ladyjay0786 · 1/10 · 26 May 2022]

Garbage! Don't waste your time because the ending will leave you confused. It's pretty much predictable! The kid gets possesed by someone the father knew growing up. But you will question the whole movie by the end.

I watched it twice back to back

[lisadoston · 8/10 · 6 July 2022]

A message from Brianna was a good try at a possession horror movie. The acting wasn't horrendous. However, the story itself was poorly executed. A lot of information was left unsaid. Instead of telling a cohesive story the movie jumps around in the beginning with no real direction. The use of subtle hints and mental innuendos were used throughout most of the movie. Spoiler alert.

The movie begins with a couple moving into the husband's childhood home with their young daughter. Once they are settled in the child (Brianna) starts showing unusual behavior. The couple takes her to the doctors, whom finds nothing wrong with her. It's a lot of weird things that happened mostly on camera thanks to the nanny camera. The mother doesn't decide to check footage until something tries to smother her with a pillow. The father sees the spirit and recognize her from his childhood. Now knowing their daughter is being possessed they seek help from a pastor. When the back story unfolds it's revealed the grandfather was a rapist of a young woman that he impregnated. Can't get much worse right? Wrong when the grandmother finds out about the pregnancy. What dose she do she becomes a murder. Yep she kills the young woman at the breakfast table. She was okay with her husband rapping the young woman but the pregnancy was the final straw; didn't really make sense but neither did most of the story. The ending the couple abandons Brianna starts a new life becomes pregnant again; and then the wife gets possessed by the spirit. It's not revealed that the husband and pastor knew and were in on the spirit taking over the wife's life. Subtle hints are left for viewers to come up with that conclusion. All in not Bad not Great. Definitely worth the time to watch.

it's not the worst movie I've watched

[akire-williams · 5/10 · 30 September 2023]

. It had some decently disturbing/scary scenes.

I audibly gasped at least a handful of times. The concept of a possessed toddler turning against her parents was an interesting choice.

The acting from the main characters was pretty good. But the wife's terrible attitude seemed displaced & made it very difficult to focus on the scene.

Certain scenarios lacked continuity & made absolutely no sense. A 3 year can't walk, yet the doctors say she's perfectly fine...and that's it. In real life this wouldn't be the case.

The visual effects were awful & extremely cheap looking.

But I will say this movie wasn't boring & it genuinely kept my attention a majority of the time.

The ending completely pissed me off!!! It was VERY VERY hard to watch! But unfortunately within "our" community SA does get swept under the rug & the victim is blamed. It was an accurate depiction.

Really bad, but it's a start for DeShon Hardy

[Gravendal · 3/10 · 19 May 2022]

So, I found this movie when i heard about the name DeShon Hardy. Actually no idea who he is, what he have done or whatever exception that his from the black community in the US. Not in my opinion you don't find many black horror directors, specially now from 2020- so yeah i guess i give this movie a try and review it will full honestey. Hopefully DeShon Hardy will read this so he step up his game.

The story, setup and build you have seen a thousands time before, but the characters are pretty ok but it puts a lot of focus wasting time with the parents in various scenes. Honestly i feel that this could have been used to build up the daughter, perhaps give us some hints from time to time before "stuff start happening" that there might be someone else there, more then just "oh noes backdoor open". That is not scary, it's not scary at all with random arms dragging the little girl away in the kitchen light.

The introduction of the Priest could have been done already from the start at the party, or whatever. This is what the director is missing out to put out the bits for us the viewer to see before you use them in the story.

It's this kind of small "gaps" in the storyline which makes the complete story seems just empty.

I like the husband as a characters. He gives his family everything and a bit more, fights for it to the end. His wife in the otherhand just whine and give very little support, even start talking like she is the one getting targeted, totally selfish and not relatable at all. And that i think is the real horror of this movie - this guys relationship with his wife. I feel for him, it's not easy to be the blaming goat all the time - even though its not your fault at all.

Otherwise, some scenes are good filmed, but due to the lack of good story it fits tougher bad.

All in all, max a 3 out of 10.

Don't get me totally wrong, you can do find some good stuff in this movie - but the general of a movie this is not good at all.

DeShon Hardy should actually start watching more horror movies, specially movies that ain't older then 2000 if he want to create a good horror movie and not just copying whatever movies that has been the past 10 yeras. Moviewise this movie comes together then a lot of other b-movies, here the editing, acting and lightning ain't bad at all, just scenegraphy and story that is really bad. Hard to put together a movie with a story like tiktok videos.

I am having a hard time that this is a movie that goes home into the "black community" which it promotes itself to. The black community i believe have way better taste of movie then this, the Black Community did give us William Crain.

If I could award this zero stars I would.

[thankumuch · 1/10 · 30 May 2023]

It wasnt scary, infact the so called scary scenes were laughable, otherwise it was actually disgusting.

Underage girl in their grandparents care, gets raped (rape scene went on for way too long.. which was disturbing and gave me nightmares) and murdered.

So her spirit comes back to seduce the husband and birth a demon toddler. Like What??

Reminds me of old aunties who call underage girls fast for getting molested. Every female in this movie was demonic, I only sat through it because I wanted to see them die.

The toddler, was an adorable little girl. Her cherub like giggles really didnt sell the whole demon possession trope.

Visual effects were a joke, the demonic rape victim bit her grandmas head off with her neck. You read that right.