The Spore (2021) User Reviews

Great concept wasted.

[dixonbutts · 4/10 · 15 November 2021]

Loved the concept & use of practical effects. Unfortunately that's where it ends. The editing, effects & cinematography are solid, but everything else was poorly executed.

Script, dialogue, acting, directing, all very poor indeed. It's just one stupid character decision, & horror cliche, after another with a massive mound of awful acting on top. The synthesizer soundtrack doesn't do it any favors either. I really wanted to like this movie due to its overall concept, & I was drawn into the beginning moments, but it went downhill so quickly & never recovered. If you like practical effects & body horror then give it a go, but you've been warned.

A cluttered and confusing mess of a movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 2 November 2021]

Well this 2021 horror movie titled "The Spore" from writer and director D. M. Cunningham certainly sounded interesting from the synopsis and the movie's cover/poster also had some interesting appeal to it. However, as I sat down to watch I must admit that this was a movie that I hadn't even heard about.

And as the movie unfolded on the screen, I have to say that the first half of the movie was an inconsistent mess that just didn't really have much of any narrative connection, and I was somewhat lost as to what this was really about, since it felt like I was watching fragments of stuff shot randomly and put together. Then the second part of the movie made more sense, but it wasn't exactly top notch entertainment.

I feel like writer and director D. M. Cunningham didn't really have an aim with "The Spore" and it just felt cluttered, random and chaotic. The entire movie lacked a proper narrative and a red thread throughout it all to tie it properly together.

But I did manage to endure the entire ordeal, though the movie didn't get better as the storyline trotted on and on. So this 2021 horror movie was somewhat of a swing and a miss for me.

Visually, though, then "The Spore" definitely had some interesting visual effects and it looked rather good and realistic, so that part was working for the movie, just a shame that the storyline was such rubbish. And a real shame actually, since the concept of the storyline had so much potential.

My rating of "The Spore" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

must have been red necks

[kaefab · 2/10 · 2 November 2021]

This movie was hilarious infection all over the news how bad it was, they knew which zone was infected and yet people ventured there like there was nothing.

I gave the movie a 2 because the FX where good but other then that nothing.

A gorgeous but flawed experiment

[dmcebabb · 5/10 · 4 November 2021]

The good: I watch a lot of cheaply made indy horror, and this movie is very professional in terms of cinematography and sound (granted, I watch with subtitles, but still). The use of little thematically linked vignettes was an interesting experimental touch, as was making the radio announcements a world-expanding expository extra "character". And I even liked the spore idea itself; the practical effects for it were (mostly) decent for such a low budget production.

The bad: the dialogue is often stilted leading to it being delivered without any convincing emotion. The constant insistence people have on touching the infected borders on comical (that it's used to drive the "plot" of these vignettes is no excuse). The final form of the spore (you'll know it when you see it) was also rather comical, and unnecessary given the earlier (and more effective) mutations shown. Probably a case for "don't show the monster" arguments.

All in all I don't regret watching this movie, and I'd like to see what the writer/director can do with some more growth, but I would just barely recommend it to someone.

Ridiculous plot

[sanjeevmuniandy · 1/10 · 2 November 2021]

It was ok for the 15 minutes and then went downhill so fast my head spun. The infestation was all over the news yet these people seems to want to be infected and waiting for the spores to burst and smear their faces with bloody, gooey mess.

Absolutely horrible

[morehousemallory · 1/10 · 8 August 2022]

We thought this would be cool being it's based in Michigan and it's near us. Immediately into it I was annoyed with the background music. It's pretty much though the entire movie except tiny parts. What's the point of this other than to bug the heck out of you!

What's the reason this was even made? The is next to no dialogue and what there is, is terrible! Horrible acting, I mean absolutely horrible.

I told my husband and mom that if I didn't pay $6 for it I would turn it off almost immediately. We weren't even half way into it and I was done... I wish I didn't waste money on this and rented something worth watching. You literally have no idea what's going on. They shift from one persons story to the next.

They should have just kept this idea in their journal.

its really...

[ops-52535 · 2/10 · 2 November 2021]

Nothing, its a couple of sons of guns walking the forest in typical warfear/birdwatching costumes, beint smitten by the spore of maneating fugii.

Terrible production, much dark, too dark to see actually what happens, and swiming cameralead with ultraprogressiv hd quality that doesnt give blur nor glow to the story.

Acting are a borderline version of amateur and semipro, nothing stands out. Special effects, some gore and blood and beautiful fugii yes. Storyline is about human interaction with nature, and of course the strongest is the nature so this is just a revival of the 50's and a personal wish to make a movie.

Badly conducted, daft production, and filled with radioflutter as background score.

The GOM says a no recommend.

Grade School

[jimspencer7 · 2/10 · 3 November 2021]

When we were young kids we liked to put our imagination in gear and come up with neat things to do! That was when we were in 5th or 6th grade. Later we realized that our ideas were generally immature as we got older. This movie had to be the brainchild of an imaginative child because it is not well-threaded nor very entertaining! Perhaps the producers of this mess should go back to basics and back to film school!

Beware....Awful

[rebeccaevilky · 8 November 2021]

Absolutely the worst movie my husband and I have ever seen. Complete waste of our time and money. We would rather get a route canal with no sedation or novocaine whatsoever, than to sit and watch the rest of this movie. Definitely requesting our money back. If I directed or produced this movie, I would be utterly ashamed of myself for putting this movie out and expecting people to watch it. I can't even leave 0 stars, this should be a negative stars rating.

High School Quality

[TMoneyDogVIP · 1/10 · 3 November 2021]

I don't leave reviews very often for movies, but I felt the need to with this one. I had never heard of this movie, had just stumbled across this and thought it sounded interesting enough...Even after reading the very few reviews there are so far, with one that's a 10/10 and I can probably guarantee that its someone involved with the movie that just made the account in November 2021 and has only left one review..I thought I'd give it a shot still.

The quality and acting in this movie is about the same level as a high school video production class. It took a lot in me to get through the entire film. But I highly suggest staying far away from this one. Give 90 minutes of your life to another film.

Amateur effort

[omendata · 3/10 · 6 November 2021]

Well I read the reviews on this movie before I watched it and to be fair the low reviews are correct.

But as always, I try to give a fair review of every movie based on budget, camerawork, acting , s-fx, music and more and I have to say, that for an amateur effort, Mr D. M. Cunningham seems to have done it all and he deserves a praise for it as he not only wrote, directed , produced this, he also did the sound editing and most of his family are in the cast list to save money so I can bet this cost less than £10,000 to produce.

He also seems to be a fan of John Carpenter, as the music for the most part was actually quite reminiscent of the burble and warp of the old John Carpetner'esque era of analogue synth soundtracks, coupled with some rather professional photography / quadcopter shots and a well designed cover art for the movie it all boded so well...

Unfortunately as other reviewers have pointed out, he should really have concentrated on the writing as it meanders from point to point aimlessly with no idea what it is, coupled with the bad acting, it fell a bit flat after the first promising 15 minutes.

Sad, as the gore effects and s-fx were; for an ultra low budgeter, rather well done and I did like the radio broadcast fill-ins reminiscent of Dawn Of The Dead with a soupcon of Pontypool and it had vibes going on of Cabin Fever.

With a bit more money and better writing and acting this nice little idea could have been so much more but as it is, I am afraid its a stretch at 3 hatchets on the horror scale out of 10 from me on this one!

Loved it

[dbotwinski · 10/10 · 9 November 2021]

The horror movie titled "The Spore" from writer and director D. M. Cunningham created a cult like masterpiece. I thought the movie was going to be a lower budget Indy style movie but I must admit that I found it to be a brilliantly thought out movie. I am not a horror flick fan but this movie was able to grab my attention. I mean, there does not need to be a lot of talking when it comes to how people would react to a virus. I like how there is not really a plot to solve the virus but rather short flicks of 10 people and how they were affected by the virus.

I liked the inconsistency and chaos of the movie. It was something I did not have to think about. I like how the movie was fragmented. It just revolves around what the virus is doing and how it started and how people react rather than the normal start , middle , finish of predictable horror films.

The flick did not really need to come together. I liked how it pulled apart . I liked how the movie stayed true to its geographic location and the camera angles used to capture hints and reminders of geographic location.

I feel like its has a cult like following for fans that like the Blair Witch project but it has more talking and a little bit more beef. I think the movie embraces horror and realism without jamming it down our throats.

I was easily able to sit through this movie and enjoyed the music in the credits. I did a little googling of the music and found the band "Head" was also a local band in which the movie was filmed .

I believed most of what was happening would happen if the virus/ alien like creatures really existed. The gore was not glorified like most horror films but rather intensified throughout the film.

I think my rating is justified because it was crafted perfectly rather then just falling into every run of the mill horror film. It's hard to compare it with other horror films for that reason I rate it a 10. I like when a film can stand out on its own.

If youre into slow-paced films, watch this.

[selenepillos · 7/10 · 2 November 2021]

The film's cinematography and color palette were magnificent and executed flawlessly. The music was also excellently produced. These are the factors that persuaded me to remain and watch the entire film.

This was not your typical zombie film; it was a little ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as one of those zombie films where a horde of zombies is after you. If you enjoy slow-paced zombie-nature themed cinematography, this is the film for you. Despite the third character's poor acting, the camera and music did an excellent job in creating this film.

What even was this

[ape-08136 · 1/10 · 23 November 2021]

Top 5 worst movies of all time that I've seen. Confusing is an understatement. Very jumbled up it's like a handful of stories that are linked due to the spores.

Horrible Ending

[neicynjameseva · 1/10 · 15 November 2021]

This movie had me some what interested until the garage scene. The movie could have been decent, there was a good story line. But they ruined it. The ending was one of the worse ive seen in a movie. Dont waste your time watching this it gets worse not better.

How?

[Necio_wolf · 2/10 · 9 January 2022]

Great use of practical effects, but it doesn't go further then that. No dialogue for at least half the movie, bad acting, and a storyline that seems to be all over the place. If you read the plot description you would assume this would be a movie about some kind of fungus that kills. Yet somehow, it turns into a monster movie... To put it simply, if you watch this movie, you'll find yourself confused half the time with the "intersecting" storylines and horrible character decisions.

welp

[zombie84-1 · 2/10 · 20 November 2021]

Can i get a refund - jeez i was expecting a good gory throwback and what i got was a complete snoozefest i thought i was watchin the movie for a good 40mins and it was still at the 20min mark. So i'll take a refund.

The Snore

[cawlztothewall-76125 · 1/10 · 4 November 2021]

I see what they tried to do here. They tried to make a slow burn of a biological post-apocalyptic horror movie. Horrendous acting, stagnant pace, rubbery props, and senseless plot turn this movie into no more than ambient noise for an afternoon nap. There's no disease in the movie, for the movie itself is the disease. Listen to the bad reviews and don't waste your time or money like I did.

The sound technician should be shot

[second-exodous · 1/10 · 4 November 2021]

There are parts of the movie I want to hear but the music is too freaking loud. Why did they do this? Is this supposed to make the movie scarier? The beginning it was difficult to hear what exactly was going on because we were told by the radio but the mood music was just too high drowning out what was being said. I thought it was just the first but nope, it is well into the movie. I finally got frustrated and turned it off. They should re-release it with the audio adjusted. Seriously, WTF were they thinking?!?

If you like stupid people

[mrlmann1 · 1/10 · 3 November 2021]

If you like stupid people, that do everything wrong in a horror movie, you will love this. The movie is slow, very slow, there are no scares, and all you can do, is say all of the characters get what they deserve. Anyone that rates this movie high, is lying or, they work for the production company. I read a couple of critic reviews, that favored this movie but I don't know what they were watching, because it's bad, real bad. Poor acting, poor production, poor special effects. Some of the makeup was well done, if I have anything good to say about the movie and they must of had a friend, with some great vintage cars. But that's it, everything else was really bad. You have been warned. Watched on Prime and I wish I could get my money back and the hour and a half I wasted on it.

Hilarious

[nikkotradepost · 1/10 · 3 November 2021]

The director could have done better😅😂🤣. The title sounds good. Trailer look good. But as soon as it's starts😳😳. Director were did you find these awful actors and actresses.🤣😂😅. They must work cheap. Omg!!!. The dummy of a mother and son was hilarious. The stupid son Leaving the car in garage. When engine was on. The mother was awful actress. Like she never acted. The dummy lady in the garage letting the idiot back in garage. 🤣😂😅🤣🤣. The best part was the Lil creatures . At least the special effects were 😳😳. 🤣😅😂. The best part of this review was the spoiler was?🤔. The ending 🤣😅😅😂

Looks like practical horror is back on the menu boys!

[chrissygoris · 10/10 · 2 November 2021]

Whoah. This was fantastic. Way more than I was expecting. Great tension, amazing performances, beautiful photography.

The yarn is interesting in execution as well. Just like the spore itself travels from person to person, so does the story. Well done to all involved!

LOUSY BACKGROUND MUSIC AND STUPID STORYLI E

[herma_gan · 1/10 · 4 November 2021]

They make all the people inside the movie damn freaking stupid and dumb.. their dumbness scarier than the Spores. If you really have nothing to do and just want to kill time ok. If not, don't waste your time on this.

Slow burn or just boring?

[caladoon · 1/10 · 5 November 2021]

I would have given the 1st half of this movie a good rating, slow burn build up, but then it just got boring in the second half.

The fx were either pretty good or looked like tomato sauce on their head.

Great effects

[sleeve81 · 3/10 · 13 December 2021]

The effects were great. I was impressed and wanted to see more. I loved the expository writing of the radio news clips..I wish that was the entire movie. When we go to the actual scenes with people, everything fell apart for me.

The camera guy, knowing what is going on, hears gun shots and a woman screaming and yells put hello. No one would do that. You don't want to be shot either.

The rest of our time with him was him complaining about his leg and him getting infected.

The woman who was hitchhiking didn't find it weird that he didn't look at her? Then didn't see his giant black arm that looked diseased AF?!

I really wish the movie was the radio clips in action or done as a news cast.