2017's 'The Grinn' did intrigue me first hearing of it, when it appeared in my recommended for you section. This was when reviewing another low-budget horror recently as part of one of my many completest quests. The concept was pretty great and could have been quite creative and the cover looked very creepy.
'The Grinn' didn't fully live up to its potential, but it doesn't in any way squander it. To me, and everybody else here, 'The Grinn' does quite well with it, and of my recent low budget viewings it is definitely one of the best of them. Not mind-blowingly great, but there are definitely far worse films, at least 'The Grinn' didn't insult my intelligence or make me regret even watching it. It is uneven perhaps and the low budget does show, but it is creepy, entertaining and engaging and tries to put its own twist on something that sounds very familiar.
Found the villain in personality and how he looked to be unnerving, and the male cast fare quite reasonably. The titular character being especially note-worthy, no over-compensating or lumbering along. The setting and lighting evoke some eeriness and the early parts sees a protagonist that is worth investing in, there have been far worse cases of bland or annoying characters behaving illogically.
Found 'The Grinn' to have some tension and suspense, a few surprising moments and enough moments of creepiness and unsettlement. It does maintain a lot of interest, with some decent pacing and with a sense of what it was trying to be and who to aim the film at.
Not that 'The Grinn' is perfect. It isn't. It does get off to a slightly slow and ordinary start and the tension, suspense and creepiness actually could have been more.
A lot of the dialogue is rather cheesy, if not without its smart moments, and saying that the female leads are subpar is putting it politely, their worst moments painful. Don't expect much depth of characterisation, there is not enough of that with the titular character by far being the most interesting.
Overall, better than expected. 6/10 Bethany Cox