The Shadow People (2017) User Reviews

Deja vu all over again

[aldiboronti · 3/10 · 28 March 2017]

You have an uncomfortable feeling that you know which way this film is going 5 minutes into it. A young married couple are driving through torrential rain to their new house. Look out! A figure in the road right ahead of them! The car swerves into a ditch. Instantly the seasoned viewer will guess what's coming. Oh come on, surely not another one of those! You hope you're wrong but as the film progresses it becomes clearer and clearer that you're right. You watch on in grim determination to finish the film but you've seen this a hundred times before, maybe a thousand. Sometimes there are interesting variations on the theme but not here. Perhaps the writer is young, hasn't watched many movies and thinks he's being original rather than following one of the oldest and most tired templates in the screenwriter's book.

I've marked this review as containing spoilers and if you've been watching horror movies for some years then it does. For those newer to the genre I'll say just this. The couple crash their car at the beginning, run to their house which happens to be just up the road and then start seeing spirits and other assorted phenomena. Think about it, guys, you really don't need to be Einstein to figure out what's happened.

3 out of 10. A poor rehash of a theme that was already old when Methuselah was in short pants.

Do not waste your time

[jenn-88078 · 2/10 · 6 April 2019]

Lets start with the amazingly bad acting and end there! But wait, still have to mention, the effects of the "shadow people", so cheesey. The plot is predictable, I mean who doesn't know she's going to loose her necklace in the first 5 minutes? I'm sorry for anyone that wastes the 1 hour, 18 minutes, and 47 seconds on this film. I couldn't take more than 45 minutes. Not even sure it rates as "B" movie.

Go Ghosts!!!!!

[averagebear · 2/10 · 25 October 2022]

Never in my LIFE have I rooted so hard for the ghosts to off the new, entitled, self centered, whiny, helpless, thoughtless, self absorbed, idiot "victims". The movie waivered between boring and mind numbingly annoying. Both stars I've given goes to C. Thomas Howell, the poor sap who is the only one that can actually act but still wasn't clever enough to avoid this train wreck. I have specifically noted the actresses name to ensure I never see her in anything ever again. I'm going to bet she is the one that wrote the only 9 star review. If this isn't rock bottom for Hollywood, it's as close as has ever reached.

If you want to watch a scary movie this is not it.

[jimludwig · 1/10 · 18 March 2017]

The movie starts out looking like it might be OK. Ghosts start appearing and you think it might by scary. Throughout the whole movie it is not scary. It seems that the whole point of the movie is for the couple to kiss. That seems to be all they do. There is a gratuitous sex/nude scene at the start. I actually did not even see the end. My wife and I could not even care enough to watch it till the end.

A large number of these reviewers didn't watch til the end

[pcrowe-33884 · 5/10 · 22 June 2020]

This film ends with a twist. It might not be the world's most surprising or original twist, but it puts everything we've seen before into a different context.

I was hugely irritated by the sappy behaviour of the couple and the wife's irrational behaviour for most of the film, but by the end I had to admit it made sense given what was really going on.

Though I do have to admit that giving over 95% of your film to foreshadowing the last two minutes doesn't really justify how annoying the wait ends up being.

Rain rain never goes away.

[MovieLover1925 · 1/10 · 10 March 2020]

Boring. Not scary. turns out they are dead the whole time. Crap movie. Decent acting though.

Oppps?

[ronicrosby · 1/10 · 18 May 2017]

Any story can be made to be interesting.. Not the case here. Possibly a decent story line but the acting is so fake and child like that I was unable to get passed the first 8 minutes without leaving it. I cannot blame only the bad acting, and trust me the acting is near comical, I must also blame the directing and effects producer for a job badly done.

This could had been possibly a good story line but I'm afraid I will never know as I could not stay interested for more than 8 minutes to find out.

(Clap Clap) for destroying possibly a decent story.. And where did you find this acting? The worst I've seen yet.. Reminds me of a SCIFI channel movie.

Don't waste your time.

[catherineosullivan-74037 · 1/10 · 31 October 2022]

I have never watched something so awful in my whole entire life! I can't believe I made it to the end. If my son and I hadn't searched for something to watch for so long beforehand we would have turned it off. I wondered whether it was a spoof it was so corny! That poor defenceless woman 🙄🙄🙄 good god!

I bet a lot of people don't make it to the end which is the only bit that makes sense by which point you don't care because you have had to endure the film until this point which is completely exhausting to watch.

The relationship between the couple was sickly and vomit inducing. Poor acting. Pointless scene after scene... like the time his broke the mirror and the fact that they were drowning in two feet of water outside their front door.

What was the point...?

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 2 October 2020]

Maybe I should have read the reviews of this movie on IMDb prior to sitting down to watch it, and thus have saved myself the wasting of time. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

I hadn't heard about this 2017 horror movie titled "The Shadow People" before now in 2020 when I was given the chance to sit down and watch it. And I must admit that I was intrigued by the movie's cover and the title. However, I hadn't read the synopsis for the movie. But it within the horror genre was more than sufficient for me.

The storyline was a mess. So very little of the events that took place throughout the course of the movie made little sense. Some of it was odd and slightly disturbing, sure. But when the reveal towards the end was unfolded on the screen you just sit there with a feeling of everything throughout the movie made even less sense, if any at all.

"The Shadow People" has a fairly generic storyline, which was somewhat on the more boring and mundane aspect most of the time. There were the occasional random interesting thing happening now and again, but it wasn't enough to make the movie interesting.

The acting in "The Shadow People" was actually adequate, taking into consideration the bland storyline and script conjured up by David Wilson and brought to life on the screen by director Brian T. Jaynes.

My rating of this 2017 movie lands on a generous three out of ten stars. "The Shadow People" is not really worth the time or effort, and if you enjoy a proper horror movie then there are far better choices out there.

Just too bland...

[paulclaassen · 2/10 · 20 June 2018]

It was refreshing to see a happy couple (without moaning and groaning kids) move into a new home. The very interesting twist ending unfortunately still does not render this a good movie. It was not entirely bad, but it wasn't good either. The acting was not convincing and got increasingly bad as the film progressed, especially Juli Erickson. Maybe the role was just too big for her. The effects were very ordinary and the film was just not compelling enough, with repetitive dialogue. The approach was more realistic, but maybe it just doesn't work for this type of haunted house film. It was rather bland, actually. At the end, one could say this was the reason why all the effects were so simplistic, but as a viewer you don't know this until the end.

I won't rate this movie

[taraangel-40960 · 2 September 2019]

If I can't give this movie a 0 rating then why bother? I've seen some absolutely horrible movies, I usually give them a 1. I watched it til the end, and honestly if you quit part way through, you can't know just how bad this movie is :) The ending made it even worse than it already was. And not scary, at all. Just kind of really dumb.

The Message Is Powerful

[twelve-house-books · 9/10 · 14 November 2018]

If you like a Ghost Story with a great message, this is a really good one. The acting is well done with great chemistry between husband and wife, the filmography is superb, the direction incisive. See this one if you're a fan of spiritual substance, or if you're just sick and tired of poorly scripted, directed, and acted independent films. Stars child actor (E.T.) C. Thomas Howell.

Married Eroticism, 9. Chemistry, 10. Jump Scares, 6. Story, 9. Foreshadowing, 9. Climax, 10. Scare Factor, 7.

While the reviews are bad....

[authorcamilson-499-156858 · 6/10 · 6 September 2019]

I would not say that this movie is all bad. The Shadow People starts out bland enough. A newlywed couple driving home swerve to avoid a person on the road, and ultimately, their car gets stuck. What follows in n unraveling sequence of events that, at first only Megan can see.

My initial thoughts here were: Why didn't Andrew turn off the car before they decided to prance home in the rain? Why didn't one of them call a tow truck when they got home instead of getting down to sex? Was Cain supposed to be a remake of a similar character (Kain) in Poltergeist?

It is not until the final act that we see the reality of what happened in that "near miss car accident with mysterious girl on the road".

I am not going to say anything here to give away the spoilers, but, the acting by Kat Steffens and Bug Hall was good enough to make me watch to the end.

All over the place!

[niteriderk · 2/10 · 30 March 2019]

Was hoping this would be good because I love C. Thomas Howell. Not only is he not in it much but the story jumps around. Also I hate when the lead female is so whiny but won't leave.... come on this could of been so much better! Giving 2 stars for C. Thomas Howell just because he's awesome!

Poor execution but an interesting ending

[Vonbrucken · 5/10 · 16 November 2019]

Just watched it for free on YouTube, the film was too bland with some writing problems, especially the girl who acted illogically. I couldn't get to sympathise with her plight because of it but the ending made it somehow worthwhile.

Hard pass

[susan685 · 2/10 · 31 January 2020]

I admit we didn't watch this until the end, because we couldn't. We usually don't let bad reviews sway us, so we had every intention of seeing it through, but... First of all, the couple is so horny they almost die while making out during a hectic drive in pouring rain. Seriously? You couldn't wait 20 minutes? Then they proceed to make out every couple of minutes. Simpering was the word another reviewer used. The baby voices, the incessant flirting, it NEVER STOPS. Add in that the wife wears things my toddlers did. Her pixie haircut and the shortie overalls were just too cute and made me roll my eyes so hard they hurt. She smiles so big and so constantly that her huge teeth are scarier than the ghosts. The "jump" scares hardly registered due to my annoyance. My husband looked to be falling asleep waiting for something to happen, so we just abandoned it entirely.

The Cutesie-Pootsie People

[tmccull52 · 1/10 · 24 January 2020]

I have to ask myself if there was some prerequisite, or some fetishist bent on the director's part, for the two leads to kiss literally every two minutes, or whenever they're within arm's length of one another. Yes, yes, they're newlyweds. They're young, they're in love; we get it. They don't need to kiss and paw all over one another every two minutes.

Andrew(played by Bug Hall) and Megan (Kat Steffens) are our cloying, nauseatingly cutsie-pootsie couple who move to a small town, and into an old farm house. I'm not kidding when I say that they either have to coo sappily at one another, kiss each other, caress each other, or all of the above every time they're in a scene together.

From the incessant displays of affection and mutual admiration, we go into the usual haunted house tropes. We have the tried, tired, and hackneyed plot device where only the wife, Megan, sees the ghosts. Isn't this the case in 99.9999999999999999% of ghost story/haunted house movies ever made? Then, we have the all-important protective talisman, which shields Megan from evil spirits, and of course, goes mysteriously missing.

When are then treated to the highly original trope of the ghosts telling Megan to "get out". Wow, who would have ever seen that coming? It's only in every single modern ghost story ever. We are also treated to the hubby who can't be woken up, for some mysterious reason, every time a ghost appears in the bedroom. There is virtually nothing new, original, or innovative about this movie. It's like the director binge-watched a series of haunted house movies, and made a list of things taken from each movie that needed to be included in this one.

Between the lovey-dovey, cutsie-pootsie antics of Andrew and Megan, and the completely unoriginal story, I lost interest in this movie within the first 10 minutes. Watch paint dry. Watch grass grow. Watch a dog doing it's business on that grass. Any of those things would be more engrossing than this film.

Boring, predictable and a waste of C. Thomas Howell

[byronhold · 3/10 · 5 July 2020]

I watched this film all the way through, but about mid way through I had already guessed the ending. The pace was far too slow. The two leads weren't likable, at all. For Howell fans, he appears in maybe five minutes or less of the film. Recommended for people who enjoy dark/broody romantic supernatural films. For those who like a little scare factor and characters that make one care, skip it.

not a horror movie.

[ethancrater · 4/10 · 14 January 2023]

If this movie were billed as anything else it would actually be pretty good. It's really a tragic love story with horror elements and bad special effects. A lot of low budget movies miss the mark on multiple criteria, such as bad audio, bad camera work, poor editing, bad acting, and a rushed story arc due to low film time. This movie actually manages to do very well in a lot of these categories. The cinematography is decent, audio is good, I didn't notice too many spots with syncing issues, and most importantly the two main actors were believable. They have very good chemistry and it's very easy to believe they are just another young couple in love.

Where this movie fails to land is in its special effects, and with its genre. The ghosts/spirits aren't scary, the scariest part is when the wife grabs a gardening hoe and swings it at her husband. This really isn't a horror movie, it's not scary, it's just tragic. The ending is pretty predictable, but still has a little impact. The ending is also where the movie struggles, the pace accelerates so rapidly it looses cohesion, and what's with the priest? They don't allow random people to just walk up to accident victims on stretchers, not even clergy. And where the hell did the EMTs go?

Other reviews mention some good points, like why do they just leave the car running and run to the house? Why don't they call a tow truck? It could be argued that since all the events after the first 3 minutes were a delusion that those things would be clues to the unrealness of the "reality" but it seems far more likely that they were unintentional. It's definitely not perfect, but it's not nearly as bad as many other movies on Tubi. Move it to a different category and it would probably attract a lot less negativity.

Horrible movie

[kasseegers · 1/10 · 10 October 2023]

I wanted to stop it 10mins in and did my housework while it stayed on. This is really rated a zero but you can't have that option. The actors were terrible and the scary parts were the worst I've seen in a very very long time. They want more words out of me but I can't be any clearer that this is the worse movie I wish I never put it on. The ghosts special effects something I could of done without. I actually enjoyed one part that is my rating of one I guess and that was the ending when they showed that the accident that happened actually killed the both of them. You found out that the people they were seeing was at the accident.

They tried.

[Stephanie-Hurst · 2/10 · 6 February 2024]

So it's one of those movies. The couple was very high school romance...pawing at each other in every scene. Kat seems to think acting only involves her nauseating toothy smile and showing her boobs. Bug actually has some acting ability but it's squandered on this overacted nightmare. Kat Steffens is a beautiful girl, but overacted every scene. The movie could have been good, and I'm shocked that C. Thomas Howell would agree to be in such a movie. Honestly, this movie was so bad. I'm not sure what the director wanted but this could not have been it. This movie failed at being scary. The first "scary" scene made me laugh hard as the ghost made rawr hands. C'mon. Try harder! Don't waste your brain cells.