Porno (2019) Poster

(2019)

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5/10
Some weird Horror reviewers
Sergiodave6 November 2020
Not sure what some reviewers are expecting from a low budget horror. For me, a slightly interesting plot, quirky characters and some humour will do. This was better than I was expecting, characterisation was good with some good dialogue thrown in. Think of Kevin Smith making Clerks as a horror and that's the kind of thing they are going for. The acting wasn't Oscar material, but then what are you expecting. Hope they make another horror movie, would definitely give it a go.
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5/10
It's alright
TdSmth55 July 2020
Some kids work at an old movie theater. The owner is a fanatic Christian. The projector operator is a convert as well. The kids go along with it but don't make much of it. Two of them have sex on their minds. There's a girl as well, who has a thing for the remaining guy who's supposed to be the jock. The owner leaves for the night letting the kids watch whatever movie they want. They find some old crazy guy somewhere in theater who goes nuts and runs through a wall. The kids go through the hole and find a bunch of old reels and books and adult movie posters. The find one huge reel with symbols on it and decide to watch that movie. It's about some satanic ritual that features an attractive naked female demon. The kids label it a "porno" and their weak commitment to Christianity doesn't allow them to watch the rest of the movie

Still, turns out they watched enough of that movie to bring demon to life and she now goes after our gang. The movie owner also returns and falls victim to the sexy Lilith, not before the kids discover a naughty secret he's been hiding. Then the operator runs into the demon, and one of the guys becomes possessed. That leaves the girl and her would-be bf to resolve things.

Porno is that kind of movie you want to like. The cast is likable enough. The succubus theme is the most overlooked in horror and one that has much potential. Here's it's not particularly well used because Lilith isn't much of a seductress...unfortunately, because Katelyn Pearce is absolutely stunning. The huge pubic hair wig they've attached to her doesn't help though. Not quite sure why those things have become so fashionable in movies lately. It's completely unnecessary and looks ridiculous even if it's some poor attempt at time period accuracy. The ugly cinematography doesn't do this movie any favors, much is filmed mostly in green, the rest in red. None of it looks good. They make a huge deal about homosexuality and are not shy to show male genitals for some reason. No pubic hair wig there though.

I've never liked movies set in movie theaters, a trope low budget horror movies love using. Here it's ok though. This movie could have been much better had it focused on Lilith and developed her character more instead of focusing on the dull kids. Just as the label "porno" doesn't apply to the movie the kids discover, the title doesn't make much sense for this film either.
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6/10
Sadly Not Pornofantastic
Tweetienator24 April 2020
Solid horror comedy with good cast and production. What you get are some funny scenes and some fine visuals (the satanic movie porn for example). What you don't get is something ueber-new or ueber-creative. Solid pop-corn horror flick with a little gore here and there - nothing more but also nothing less.
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2/10
Obnoxiously, Pathetically Safe
TheMovieDoctorful14 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
For a movie with an abundance of testicles, this film had no balls to speak of.

The admittedly excellent direction, glorious synth soundtrack, fun gore & makeup effects and decent production design can't make up for the least likable (or interesting) cast of characters I've seen in a Horror film in years and a story as predictable and cliched and unbearably slow as it is obnoxiously safe. If this film had any guts whatsoever, it would have ended with all these characters either dead or possessed and the world at an end as we know it. Instead, we get an undeserved and tacked on happy ending for a bunch of horrible people who didn't develop or regress in any way. The fact that a film with as cool a concept as this is not only not one of my favorite films of the year, but actually pretty bad, is heart wrenching. I love Succubus Horror. I love 90s teen Horror comedy. I love this film's tone and aesthetic. But the meat of Porno is rotten to the core.

This is one of the worst years for Horror since the 2000s and Porno marks yet another inexplicable disappointment that should have been a great film.

Pity.
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7/10
church-group kids stumble upon...things
MunkyMovie19 March 2021
If you went to Sunday School and look back, guffawing, this is probably for you. If you were , or know someone who was, dragged to gay conversion therapy -- all the more so. I thought it ran out of steam half way through, but the first half was pretty great.
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3/10
The only good is....
ks-6050022 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The penis model is so real and the bloody explosive is so vividly gross. Rest of other just nothing.
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7/10
Playing for laughs
kosmasp7 February 2020
So the beginning of the movie might indicate that the title is exactly what you are getting (although not in any explicit form), but it becomes clear very quickly this is just to give us some character moment and justify the weird male characters in the movie.

The movie itself is anything but what the title is suggesting, but it is about a movie that is ... well evil. Now this is not necessarily a morality tale (although I reckon you could view it that way under a certain light) - but it does show the dangers of watching something that is forbidden ... and opening a doorway to ... ok so it is not really based in reality. And it's a comedy, so if that sounds fun to you, you will have fun, even with some very low level jokes
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3/10
This was a swing and a miss...
paul_haakonsen25 April 2020
I must admit that when I saw Fangoria were involved in this 2019 I had some expectations for the movie. So I sat down and watched "Porno", without knowing what it was about.

I managed to endure 55 minutes of the ordeal that is known as "Porno" from writers Matt Black and Laurence Vannicelli and director Keola Racela before I gave up. Why did I give up? Well, simply put, I was bored out of my mind. This movie was pointless and uneventful.

The characters in the movie were as interesting as wet cardboard, although it seemed like the casted actors and actresses were good enough, but they had nothing to work with and were thus severely hindered and limited in their performances.

The storyline was generic and mundane, truth be told. "Porno" offers nothing overly interesting, and the presentation on the screen from director Keola Racela wasn't really anything noteworthy.

For a horror comedy "Porno" was lacking in both departements.

I am rating "Porno" a three out of ten stars, solely based on the production value of the movie and the fact that they had some interesting enough casted performers in the movie. I have no intention of returning to watch the rest of the movie, because it utterly failed to captivate me or catch my interest.
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7/10
Fun, Wild Film that Blends Comedy with Horror
Reviews_of_the_Dead26 May 2020
This was a film that when I first heard about it, I was pretty intrigued. I think that it was making it's festival rounds was when it first came up, then Nightmare on Film Street did an interview with the director who gave some insight to it as well. When I heard this was finally hitting VOD thanks to Fangoria, it made me pretty excited that I could finally watch it. The synopsis here is when five teen employees at the local movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious old film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring demon who gives them a sex education...written in blood.

We start here with a couple going at it. There are a couple of teens who are watching them of Abe (Evan Daves) and Todd (Larry Saperstein). Todd makes a statement about how he wants to go since he can't get caught again and sent away. The two head to work at a local movie theater that is run by Mr. Pike (Bill Phillips). He's a deeply Christian man and takes his job seriously. It seems to be the end of summer and Chaz (Jillian Mueller) has been promoted to assistant manger. Back from camp that summer is Ricky (Glenn Stott) and their projectionist is Heavy Metal Jeff (Robbie Tann). Jeff is straight edge. He hates drinking, smoking and anything that is not Christian.

This crew is allowed to a watch a movie that night after it closes. They need to decide between A League of their Own and Encino Man, which I thought was a creative way to inform us that we're in 1992. There's some debate as to which one amongst the group. Things all change though when a homeless man gets into the theater and runs amuck. They try to kick him out, but he reveals a hidden hallway behind a curtain. They go in looking for him, but instead find an archive room that seems to have fire damage. Inside they find a film canister that wasn't. It is decided that is what they'll watch, but Jeff takes some convincing by Chaz and the group.

They aren't expecting what they get. It shows a woman nude, Katelyn Pearce, as well as a man. They perform some kind of ritual and the symbols look pagan. The canister also had a similar marking on it. Jeff shuts it off, which upsets Todd. He wants to keep watching it as it intrigues him. He bars himself in the projector room and starts it back up again. This causes some odd things to start happening as a mysterious woman keeps appearing. We also start to learn dark secrets and inner desires about this group of religious teens. This woman also might be much more as well.

You could probably tell that I was going to enjoy the social commentary that this movie is giving to us. There are some things that I won't be able to share as I don't really want to spoil them. There is still a lot that I can delve into and I should probably start with the religious aspect. If you know me, one of my favorite subgenres is based around this and the corruption of it. I'm sorry to those that I offend by saying this, but I think a good amount of people who follow religion use it as a crutch and can be corrupted like we see here. Even more so though, I love that the ones who are the loudest about it, are the ones that it doesn't really take much. My thought there is that repression is something that isn't good. It is good to the do the right thing and someone needs religion for that, I don't have issues there. If it helps you, great, and I'm all for that, but with that said, I hate the people we get here that are pushing it on others. It is satisfying to see them get just punishment in my eyes if I'm going to be honest here.

I'm glad this movie also decided to use the succubus as the creature. We don't get a lot of this and I think that it brings up an interesting duality here with the people that are in this theater. My first experience with this monster is from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night where your character encounters one. I've seen, heard and read about them since then. It is based on corruption with lust and desires, which is great when you have so much repression here. There is also a pretty solid back-story of the theater that they're in as well. That all really worked for me.

What I did have a slight issue with though was some of the inconsistencies with the creature and what it does to people. Todd has an initial encounter with her and he survives it. Same could be said for Chaz as well. We then get to see Todd disappear for a long time and Mr. Pike shows up. I liked these encounters, but it just doesn't seem to make sense what the rules are and how it affects these characters. There are times when their sexual organs explode with ecstasies and it kills them, where other times it doesn't. Since I'm a story guy, it doesn't seem like the writers actually know so they're just kind of playing things with convenience.

Despite these issues though, I really did have a lot fun with this movie. I think there's a really good blend of comedy with the horror elements. To be honest, there was one scene that really spooked me where I called out which I wasn't expecting. The movie never got boring for me and I thought was paced really well. It has a good runtime of just over an hour and half. The ending left me a little bit confused, but it does wrap up pretty nicely. We did get some interesting reveals for characters as well which kept me intrigued to see how things would play out as well.

That will take me to the acting of this movie. I thought it was pretty solid for what we got and their comedic timing was pretty on point. Daves was pretty funny as that quirky, pervy teen in my eyes. He plays well off of Saperstein who is similar in a nerdier way. Abe is kind of like a Jonah Hill-type in my eyes where we have the awkward Todd who is similar more to a Michael Cera. Mueller I thought was pretty attractive. She does something horrible that was revealed and I like that. Her character works though as she is the assistant manager, so she does have some responsibility which plays out. Scott and Tann are both solid with Jeff bringing quite a bit of comedic relief as well. Props to Pearce and Amber Paul for all of the nudity they have in the movie. I thought them with the rest rounded this out for what was needed.

Shifting this over to the effects of the movie, I thought overall they were well done. The practical effects were really good. I was watching this with Jaime and she pointed out a moment where she could tell some things didn't look real. I did agree with her at one point where we're seeing cuts on someone and there wasn't blood coming out. That didn't sit well with me. Some of the CGI wasn't great either. Aside from that though, I did think the effects were above average for sure.

The last thing to go over is the soundtrack for this movie. For the most part, it didn't really stand out to me. That's not to say it was bad, because I don't think that is the case. It fit for what was needed in fitting the mood of the scene. What I really wanted to go over though was the uneasy feeling that I got from the 'porno' they're watching in the movie. The music that was synced with that was unnerving and got my anxiety going. I give that a lot of credit for the feeling that it gave me.

Now with that said, I thought this movie was pretty solid on the whole. I like the cast of characters that we get here and putting them against this entity that is playing with their beliefs. I even think we get a really good blend of comedy that worked for me and we get something that doesn't always happen when you cross over these genres, I was concerned that none of the characters were safe. There are some inconsistencies with the rules for the monster, some of the effects could have been better, but I will say that the music accompanying the movie they watched was unnerving. Overall I'd say this movie was above average for me though, probably coming up just short of being a contender for the year end.
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5/10
Great cast, OK movie
terrorfirmer-ie22 April 2020
Is this movie worth a watch? Yes, if you enjoy trashy, exploitative horror movies.

Acting is good and the characters are great, but the movie itself is fairly flimsy, cliche and doesn't hold together too well.

Overall I found it fine - not a bad movie, but not a good one. Though the actors were great, just wish there was more substance to the main plot.
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8/10
Solid Horror-Comedy
eighmii27 November 2020
Another reviewer said something along the lines of "imagine if Kevin Smith made a Clerks as a horror-comedy" and that's basically what this is with the addition of a couple (well one, really) gross-out nudity scenes but nothing too intense. This is the type of movie that you'd watch after watching some truly dark films that leave you in a 'mood'. It's a good pick-me-up.

The acting was surprisingly really good. The story is just okay but that really isn't the important part, if that makes sense. All of the practical effects are great. It's quirky, fun, gross, and pretty fast-paced once all the character development is over.

Overall, it's definitely worth a watch.
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7/10
A solid effort
suzukiluvr13 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoy all types of slasher flicks. This one has a campy feel to it. Not that there's any gore left out. Plenty to be had in the violence department. I do feel like some characters weren't explored more than they were. But that doesn't mean it isn't a great watch. There are moments you will reel in angst of what's coming next, some will inspire chuckles. Towards the end I feel like it loses a bit of focus that the beginning has crystal clear.

But I did enjoy myself watching this and hopefully you will too.
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4/10
I don't get it
richardwworkman10 January 2021
Is it supposed to be funny? Is it a teen coming age movie? It has some bits of horror and gore but what's the point.

There's something to do with Christians and the hypocrisy of small town religious observance but it's a bit too stretched out to make the story relevant.

The idea that there's an entire cursed movie theatre hidden from view and a magical reel of celluloid is ridiculously outdated. The movie is called porn so I was kind of expecting some porn to turn up. It didn't. Which would have made this dull little film marginally more interesting.

A kind of nothing movie that doesn't really do anything.
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1/10
Garbage
usajoehawk28 December 2020
I hate all this purposely trying to make a grindhouse type film. I even hate that term Grindhouse. Horror comedies are the worst and this one is no different. The plot is interesting enough, but they have to add so much stupid shhhheeeet into it that they think is comedy. The worst offender is this Christian straight edge guy who is the film project. Some of the lines of dialogue he says are so cringe worthy. I Guess that's what comedy is. If they played this movie straight it would've been much more interesting. Instead they decide to shoehorn early 90s 80s nostalgia references to fill in the gaps of a poorly written plot. It's got the same intellect as a Family Guy episode.
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7/10
Big! Bloody! Brilliant!
rocksockmegaladon24 September 2020
Sometimes critics can be unrealistically cruel. It's like going on a blind date with a narcissist. They love non but themselves. Porno is definitely not a "4/10" flick. It has a great poster, plot, sound fx, hilarious cast, gore, suspense and some nonsense. You're introduced to five unlikely cinema employees who stumble upon a strange movie reel unleashing the horror within. Now, being just that Porno is make it worth your time with a brilliant yet funny cast, adding suspense over suspense until you think you know how it's going to end and then it add another crazy twist which I wish lasted longer but I guess they needed a bigger budget and better special effects team. Overall Porno is a funny gore filled classic horror that's no trouble watching. 7/10.
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3/10
A nothing-burger. Never gets going. Directionless and uneven
jbar1931 October 2021
This movie had no coherent story. It was boring. I watched it hoping the ending would spice it up, but then, bang, it was over.

Well shot, relatively well acted (A little loud and shrill) but the story just falls flat.

No real scares, no good laughs, no logic, plot holes abound and the story never takes off.

Disappointing.
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6/10
some pretty good gore effects
buckeyefanohiostate27 June 2021
I enjoyed this movie its not a serious horror movie its kind of a horror comedy i really liked the teens in this movie and i really enjoyed the gore effects!! This is a good movie to watch with a huge Joint of some fire weed and a good friend or Spouse.
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1/10
dont waste time!
valentinionut12 May 2020
This is really bad. really bad. just avoid it. This is really bad. really bad. just avoid it.
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I need more letters in the alphabet
simon-99-730702 August 2020
Christ, B-Movie doesn't even begin to describe this. Are there any letters after Z? I chose really badly tonight. I started off watching Midsommar, which was awful, and then I chose this drivel.
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6/10
Intriguing homage horror comedy with stylish visuals
Floated24 April 2024
Described as a sort of horror comedy with a touch of supernatural satanic type film, given its title many viewers may have expected something somewhat different. However it's plot description is very clear of what to expect. For a relatively lower budget film, the visuals and overall look of the film is impressive as it doesn't look cheap and the acting is solid.

The story revolving around a group of theater employees finding an old video film and having demons being unleashed once the film is washed was decent viewing. The characters are given some depth and add to the story. Although it does become predictable there's a level of intrigue in continuing to watch. The visual of the demon creature is well done but wasn't clearly explained.
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1/10
Biased positive reviews on this, it should be a 0
adam-6349224 May 2020
Another poor terrible movie with 0 production value. Also worth noting before you say "oh but that guy kannibalcorpsegrinder rated it a 10 it must be decent", this same guy rates the movie "Us" a 9/10, a movie unanimously hated for its utterly terrible direction and he rates it a 9.... not to mention the other hundreds of low rating titles he has overrated. Plain and simple, this movie is trash don't bother.
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8/10
Fun Low Budge Horror Comedy
nashw827 February 2021
Don't let the title put you off, this is a quirky indie horror set in a small town cinema staffed by a fun group of confused, sheltered christian teens who face down an evil force. It's low budget by they get a lot of production value from the location of a small town cinema where the entire film takes place. The dialogue is funny and fairly smart, and while not all the jokes land they fit well with the characters who are well played by the young cast. It is a horror comedy but its a good balance of the two and while its not REALLY scary it occasionally builds some creepiness and tension. There is some nudity, a little gore and a few twists and turns to keep you going. It gets a lot of bang for its buck and I really enjoyed it.
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6/10
This film is Nucking Futs!!!
donttouchmeprimate1 September 2021
Great acting, intriguing s tory, weird premise, absolutely badly chopped together and incoherent. Still works though, kinda.

Honestly, watch it and get back to me. I'm confused.
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2/10
Okay... no
jmcgowan-808055 December 2020
When I was ten I "directed" a play that was so awful and out of control the instructors of the drama programme I was enrolled in actually had to call a stop to it. The crazy thing is that I've regretted that into my adulthood. This movie reminds me of that. Someone should have called a stop to it maybe about a half hour in. It stopped making sense around that time. Now whoever is left should feel the same regret I felt since I was ten for "directing" something that someone should have called a stop too early.
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1/10
Auch
cozminolalau8 September 2020
Don't recomend if you are a man Or a trans My pp hurts from watching this
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