We open to a bunch of students watching a movie that wouldn't pass for a high school film class project. We'll never know why, they just watch it, and thus the film club is reformed, having shut down seven years ago when one student went insane and another died. That's it, we see them watching, than they're getting picked up to go down.
You can tell this is the greatest film club to ever exist, because not once during the course of this film do they ever talk about, well, films. I'm not asking for 90 minutes of enough cinematic references to make Tarantino blow his load, but maybe just showing a tad bit of interest. I'd even accept an off hand Kurosawa name drop. I'm not even sure why they care about making their own movie, which is apparently going to be an improv. Is it even correct to say they care about making their own movie? There's virtually no planning. A couple of the girls will get together at a time and just make a shot, or record themselves announcing their roles.
Oh, but I haven't even gotten to what's actually the focus: the drama. The film has a ton of interpersonal conflicts, from food stealing, poisoning, that go nowhere. There's no blow off or pay off to any of it. I wouldn't have minded any of this if it ever built up into anything. As it is, it just feels like the only way the writer knew how to pad out time before the movie picks up is having them hate each other.
and by when it picks up, I mostly mean when it teases us. It takes over half the movie before we get anything but cheap false jump scares (one really inept one involving a freeze frame), and then when we get down to brass tax? It feels like we were better off with the false scares.
When characters die off, it's off screen. It's not even like we cut away from the slayings, most of the time characters just walk off screen, and then eventually they're dead, like we're watching a slasher film version of L'Avventura. Lets also not forget amazing sequences like when our antagonist, searching for a hiding girl, paces back and forth across the room like a confused drunkard.
What's sad is there are touches of quality. The setting is very nice looking, and there are a few effective moments. The director is capable of setting up suspenseful sequences and unsettling imagery. A good horror movie lies within.
Though one area there is nothing good to say is the soundtrack. Note to film makers: music doesn't automatically make your scene better. The film sabotages moments that could've been suspenseful with bombastic music. One sequence that highlights this is when two of the girls are trying to find their friend, who is screaming for help. This protracted sequence could've easily been suspenseful in of itself, but instead this ridiculous music is played. Not only does it sound like something that belongs in a chase sequence, but it almost mutes the screams. How did anyone watch this scene during post production and think "I am so glad we added this soundtrack".
Also a pretty obvious Evil Dead (the original) influence, especially the roaming shot through a night time forest. If only the director could've learned more from the original Evil Dead, like sustaining an intense atmosphere.
and then, the ending.
*SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT*
So after three of the girls magically disappear from the upstairs and wind up outside, mostly dead (except the spiteful one whose dying act is to hold onto the surviving character's ankle while she's trying to run), we find out our antagonist, despite all implications of supernatural forces, was one of the girls. The motive? Watching the movie made her want to kill. I assume it's because she couldn't believe anyone would make something that cheap and distribute it, and it made her lose all faith in the human race. So our survivor kills her in self defense, and wakes up with their, teacher or something, who only has a bandage around the head after taking a blade right through the skull. They sit and watch the video that drove Maki insane, and suddenly she tells her she wants to be like the survivor, which were the words the killer spoke. So, basically, she's driven insane. Then we see this is being filmed, apparently, and that's the end.
So just keep throwing on the twists until the audience has given up.
*END SPOILER ALERT*
I wanted to like this movie a lot more. But no, what I'm left with is a bittersweet disappointment. A movie that had something in it, that could've been really good, but overall more fun is had making fun of it than sitting down and watching it. It certainly makes for an excellent lesson in how to take your strengths and screw them over. A film with no more than five minutes of thought put into its writing devolving into an anti climactic ending. and it just makes you think of way better movies you could be watching, like the original Evil Dead, Onibaba, Kuroneko, Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, among others.
4/10.
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