This is How Movies Should Be Made

Nice effects though.

Don't Believe the Hype

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Supernatural horror that tries to incorporate too many elements. While not 'perfect', I wouldn't say its 'dreadful'...true, it could have been better. But if your sitting around looking to watch a horror movie, there are much much worse ways to spend your time. At least it wasn't 'formulaic'...well, not TOO much.OK. The 'good'- 1) Pretty girls 2) creepy supernatural legend 3) exotic location 4) insane gore, ala 'Hostel' 5) nice twist AT THE BEGINNING, 6) The protagonists are smart, not like the typical 'tripping in the forest' or 'looking in the basement when they should be running the hell away'. Btw, did I mention it has some really pretty girls ? (no nudity guys).The 'bad'- 1) Uneven acting (mostly from supporting cast), 2) Stilted dialogue and story after the first third of the movie.As I said, it definitely could have been better. But you gotta love these people who continually pan certain horror movies as 'awful' and 'avoid at all costs'...its entertainment people !! You don't like it, turn it off and watch something else...or better yet, make your OWN movie. To say you want the 'two hours' of your life back...gimme a break...your life isn't all that exciting if you're sitting on the couch surfing for movies to watch.Bottom Line: Like a 5 course meal with some of the courses a bit 'off', leaving you savoring the good bits and wanting more.

Bad, buh-bad, bad, bad!!! Three young women travel to Thailand to teach young children (though they all look more like Victoria's Secret models forever strutting down a runway). Let's see, you have the irresponsible, horny blonde chick; the irresponsible, not-so-bright blonde chick; and the one smart, responsible chick (brunette of course--no cliché goes untouched in this cr*p). The chicks (I'm only using that word because that's clearly how the filmmakers view them) decide to party down before school starts, but it seems the house they are living in is haunted with...well, something or other. Some gory murders to wake you up, but since the victims are always tied down, there is no tension or suspense. Additional caveat for those interested: though the three chicks often prance around in their underwear and short-short shorts, there's no nudity. I guess they didn't want to lose their dignity. Why the rating for this garbage is not hovering around 2 or 3 suggests the cast and crew (and friends and relatives of both) were instructed to vote.

In the intro we see some evil ceremony taking place. A guy on a chair is being bled. The blood is placed in some jar filled with golden jewelry. A blanked is covered in some symbols in blood. A girl is also on a chair. Next, someone beats the guy to death. Then it's the girl's turn.Three American girls travel to the Thai countryside to teach English. They reach their rented house and at the entrance is some little dollhouse that turns out to be a "spirit house." As soon as one the girls sees it, she reaches inside and for some reasons takes something. On the second story of the house is a golden life-size statue of a girl.The girls go out at night and meet 3 Brits. One of the girls has a boyfriend back home, the other two are sisters and slutty. Despite the objections of the taken girl, they end up with these guys back home. They drink something from one of them and get dizzy. Next thing you know, the girls act robotically and torture and kill the three guys. They wake up the next morning talking about this shared nightmare. And the golden statue is gone.They go to the market and seek to find info on such a statue. They see a girl who guides them out of the city to some soothsayer who speaks of the statue and the girl. She gives them a protective talisman but one of the girls throws it away.At night they start seeing the golden girl and other creepy stuff. They meet the neighbor whose old father has a confession to make. He knows about the girl. He tells them what happened in the intro and why.Unfortunately, Pernicious has a lot of problems. For one, there's no character development. The girls are cute, but we learn almost nothing about them. There's the good girl, the bad girl who doesn't care about anything, and the slutty girl. That's all we know. There's an odd discrepancy occasionally between what the girl say and what goes on. For example, once the girls arrive at the house, they marvel how old everything is. And yet nothing looks old at all. The filmmakers make little use of the settings in Thailand. They might as well have filmed this in Mexico. Unless the core of the story is part of Thai lore, but we never find out.On the positive side, the ending is neat and different. There's some gore but not a whole, but it is very cool. It looks like there are some subtle criticisms here as well, at least that's how I interpret them. For example, when the girls go shopping, one of them talks to the gorgeous Thai salesgirl as if she were talking to a monkey. Turns out the pretty Thai girl speaks English just fine. Or when the girls go the bar and meet the Brits, one of them says that they must be smart because they are British. Of course, if you watch a lot of Hollywood productions that's exactly the image they are trying to portray for some bizarre reason--all the bright, if not genius, characters are Brits and strangely enough there is no show or movie without a British character. Horror movies about the supernatural rarely succeed. This one could have used more horror, more scares, it's all just too dull.You sort of want to like Pernicious, but they really don't give us a lot of reasons

The American Alex (Ciara Hanna), Julia (Emily O'Brien) and Rachel (Jackie Moore) travel to Thailand to a voluntary work and they lodge in an isolated house where they find a golden statue of a girl. They meet three British guys and bring them to the house for one-night stand and they have a dreadful nightmare with them. In the morning, they find that they have been stolen and the guys have gone missing with their jewels and the golden statue. Soon they meet a witch that tells a story about abused children called Kumari that return as a revengeful ghost. Further, they find that they are in danger. "Pernicious" is an awful movie with terrible story, characters and performances. I was lured by the fake reviews in IMDb and wasted my time watching this film. The characters are detestable with their arrogance and stupidity with the exception of Julia and in the end I was expecting for their soonest death to end the film. My vote is two.Title (Brazil): Not available