Scaler, Dark Spirit (2016) User Reviews

Creepy is as Creepy Does

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 2 July 2017]

PLOT SPOILERS Jessica Lake (Jessica Froelich) is a paranormal reporter who "works" for a blog and she likes to soak in the tub. She also has a nasty draft in her kitchen. She gets a thumb drive from Justin (Lafayette Scott Hankins...you can shorten that) who is distraught. Justin claims they were chasing a Scaler...which is the snipe of ghost hunters. The Scaler is an ancient inter dimension race trapped in some purgatory plane and they like Earth women which really wasn't well developed. They are the biblical Nephilm. They are from Sumeria, although are located at "city church." In spite of their ancient origins they understand modern English and respond to Latin. The story is poorly arranged as a plot with Jessica in the present looking at the thumb drive of the events themselves that we see is not found footage. It is split between the two.

The film uses an overly loud sound track to make things seem creepy, but I found it annoying. Creepy music for people walking and a tea kettle swinging slightly back and forth. The Scaler is invisible for much of the film and can infect a computer like a Russian hacker. But it has to open a door to get in a room in spite of its gaseous appearance when we do see it.

The plot wasn't bad. I liked the idea when it was done in "Altergeist" to explain space aliens. Sorry for that second film spoiler, but could have been worse, I could have said that Superman died or the last Jedi is related to Obi Wan. The acting wasn't there. They couldn't properly frame a cafe sidewalk conversation. They had sound issues in the catacomb. The priest was not convincing. No character introductions or build up. This film had Misty Mundae written all over it. She could have done one of her long atheistic rants about spirits and demons and she does great tub scenes.

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

Scaler, poor script.

[Patient444 · 4/10 · 28 June 2017]

I won't be so hard on this one, even tho the idea was not original, the acting overall weak and quite the bad special effects. Let's not forget what indie means tho and what little it can actually provide.

Of course we've seen such productions that succeed in leaving quite an impression, that doesn't mean we should always compare new ones with those up there. Is it really that bad? It depends, if you picked it for the point of watching a horror, well, it is, you need to look elsewhere. But if you wanted to see what's out there, this one is perhaps a 4 stars out of 10.

Again, I usually grade them by comparison to less successful, this way I lower my expectation and won't find myself judging some cheap productions that wanted to show their faces here. All in all, weak but not the worst out there. Little to offer tho.

Cheers!

Worse Than Passing a Kidney Stone

[dcarsonhagy · 1/10 · 27 June 2017]

An 8.1 rating? BS..and I do mean BS. This film was worse than having to endure two root canals sans numbing agents.

In order for this genre (yet another "found footage") to work, you HAVE to have at least one character the audience can either sympathize with, care about, or pull for. No characters in this POS came close to that. The film was DARK (and not in a good way), very grainy, edited poorly, and way too choppy. The "lead" had the personality of a fence post, and her "supporting" characters were just as bad.

All in all, if you are scared by hanging pots and pans moving on their own, a priest who always looks like he's just been hit in the head with a brick, and photos of a leaky faucet, here's the find of the century. The movie comes in at just 77 minutes, but I swear it seems like it lasted for 77 hours. Posting the nefarious "Based on Actual Events" cannot hide the fact your movie is basically a big old turd.

Rated "R" for no apparent reason.

After Effects: The Movie

[DBLurker · 1/10 · 8 July 2017]

I have no idea where to begin with this disaster.

Oh I know, how about audio normalization or sound design? It seems that the director (Dan T. Hall) has never heard of either of those. Majority of the dialogue in this movie is a mumbling mess made worse by terrible soundtrack which comprises of a guy punishing his violin in tone-deaf attempt to create "horror" music. I had to turn on loudness equalization in my Sound Blaster control panel to minimize the loudness changes.

Without equalization, you'll increase volume to hear the mumbling actors who are incapable of speaking up only to be blasted with a loud zinger and soundtrack the next moment trying to jump "scare" you.

This movie feels like someone was trying to learn After Effects while editing it. Audio is a disaster, but it doesn't come close to the editing for scenes.

Random camera cuts aren't that annoying until they are pointlessly (or "artistically") accompanied by slow-mo video and then instantly, fast forwarded video. Most of the scenes are shot through terrible camera angles and slo- mo/fast-forwards. Also, why is the movie shot like a TV show and not a movie? (like it was shot in 30 FPS and not 25 usual)

Then there is the little fact that they keep using same scene of that "crypt" over and over again. I am guessing the whole "crypt" was a sewer which which lasted few meters forcing them to re-use same footage to make it look longer. The old church shots are shot somewhere else and the so called "crypt" looks like a completely different brick and mortar architecture. Derp.

There is so much more, the "monster" in this movie is a terrible "Scream" movie mask only animated on-screen through After Effects magic. Then there is the "dust particle effect" they are so fond of using to show its presence, which looks incredibly out of place in all areas, especially for an "ancient" creature.

Oh and that creature is lonely, so that's why it must hunt.. women? Wut. They show it killing everybody and not doing anything different to the women, but then two men are randomly spared from its wrath.. why? The whole stupid story is a mess. It makes no sense, has way too many plot holes and the actors are just awful, AWFUL. The worst is the priest who, I swear, was reading most of his lines from a script in his hand in some scenes.

This movie was a pain to sit through. It isn't even bad in a good way so you could enjoy it with a bag of popcorn. This is the movie they now use to torture people instead of water-boarding.

Terrible acting, don't waste your time

[pedromcpires · 1/10 · 7 September 2017]

Time that I was able to handle: 10 minutes! What a piece of crap... sorry but this is just an amateur movie with less than amateur acting. Poor script and extremely poor production.Do not waste your time, the rating and the good reviews are FAKE! I give this one a ZERO. Cannot believe how someone spent their money producing a turd like this.

Idiotic

[africe · 1/10 · 31 May 2020]

Dumbest horror movie ever. Went nowhere. Bad acting and writing. The lead actress part was dumber than a tree stump. Even worse was the ending. Do not waste your time

This movie sucks

[joejoecacahad · 1/10 · 18 April 2022]

The movie was not scary at all I was more scared of how many times she took a bath in the span of 20 minutes than the movie, and also the color of the water was more tramatizing.

Sh*t

[danielaventuraferreira · 1/10 · 21 September 2017]

Resume: A SH*TLOAD MOVIE This film was lesser interesting than me watching my grandma sleep and less scary!!!! Overall the movie had poor writing, awful image quality and the editing was horrible. BTW YOU WRITER OR PRODUCER YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT PUTTING TOGETHER CREEPY MUSIC WITH A SIMPLE CONVERSATION DOES NOT EQUAL TERROR!!! It was simply a waste of my time!!!! The lead was terrible, Benfica's players can act better!!!!! Overall it was a GREEEEEEATTTTT MOVIE (LOLE)!

Astonishing

[emmanuelzerubbabel · 9/10 · 23 January 2023]

This story is a full package of everything u want!! And the cinematography of this series is extra plus point which make me hooked up with this movie!! The starting of this drama was in a unusual way which was interesting to draw my attention, then the plot was totally like boom... this is what u were waiting for to watch!!

I just finished watching Scaler, Dark Spirit and I was blown away with the outstanding cast, special effects and storyline.

I have to also give praise to the writers and director Dan T. Hall their talent and the effort he put into the success of this movie. I am in awe over the amazing story telling by the writers and the directors ability to convey the writers story from the written words to the big screen where the characters come to life.

Moreover its got superb acting by all the main characters.

Decent Indie Film

[sammount-88703 · 7/10 · 11 July 2017]

I thoroughly enjoyed Scaler, although definitely not an Oscar worthy movie, as far as Independent film goes I thought this was fun to watch and enjoyable. The paranormal concepts and facts of this film were spot-on and creepy. I'd recommend it to any paranormal buffs or any supporters of independent film.