Malevolent (2018)
October 8, 2018 7:14 AM - Subscribe
A brother-sister team who fake paranormal encounters for cash get more than they bargained for when a job at a haunted estate turns very, very real. (iMDB)
This was exactly my take - I even double-checked the release year because it seemed like it MUST have come from an era where the torture porn was more of a thing.
posted by destructive cactus at 9:14 AM on October 9, 2018
posted by destructive cactus at 9:14 AM on October 9, 2018
Ugh I felt cheated. I wanted to watch a creepy supernatural haunted house movie. I did not want, and in fact never want, to watch torture porn. It just snuck up on me. Also, did the house not have a phone line? Because at one point someone was like "We should call an ambulance" but then they didn't, and at no point thereafter did it ever occur to any of these dipshits to just call the Scottish equivalent of 911.
posted by the turtle's teeth at 7:29 PM on October 9, 2018
posted by the turtle's teeth at 7:29 PM on October 9, 2018
Jeeze, tough crowd.
1. THis was not anything close to torture porn. It has the characters experiencing unpleasant things, but almost entirely off-screen. Eli Roth would have filled the things with close-ups.
2. I agree that the the first 1/3 is the best, and the remainder feels really padded. There isn't much to reveal, so what should have been an investigated 2nd 1/3 is just kind of... wandering around?
3. There was at least one scene that I expected to be a pacing homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre that sadly wasn't, and the final third was surprising short on tension, despite the threat the characters were under.
4. Really, no one except Angela gets any sort of character development. I don't expect a lot from a 90 minute horror film, but you should make me feel something for the characters.
5. It was a generally well-shot film, but there were a lot of really murky scenese that made it hard to figure out what was going on or what was being seen.
6. The villain's motivations were boring.
All in all, a film that could have been really good ended up as maybe a C due to weak writing and lackluster directing. The actors all did OK with what they were given, which wasn't much. Definitely not torture porn. Barely the haunted house movie it should have been.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:42 PM on October 4
1. THis was not anything close to torture porn. It has the characters experiencing unpleasant things, but almost entirely off-screen. Eli Roth would have filled the things with close-ups.
2. I agree that the the first 1/3 is the best, and the remainder feels really padded. There isn't much to reveal, so what should have been an investigated 2nd 1/3 is just kind of... wandering around?
3. There was at least one scene that I expected to be a pacing homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre that sadly wasn't, and the final third was surprising short on tension, despite the threat the characters were under.
4. Really, no one except Angela gets any sort of character development. I don't expect a lot from a 90 minute horror film, but you should make me feel something for the characters.
5. It was a generally well-shot film, but there were a lot of really murky scenese that made it hard to figure out what was going on or what was being seen.
6. The villain's motivations were boring.
All in all, a film that could have been really good ended up as maybe a C due to weak writing and lackluster directing. The actors all did OK with what they were given, which wasn't much. Definitely not torture porn. Barely the haunted house movie it should have been.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:42 PM on October 4
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posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:18 AM on October 8, 2018 [4 favorites]