Sadly Over-hyped
Masterful Cinema
Dreadfully Boring
As Good As It Gets
This is a pretty harsh movie to watch. It's about a totally deranged mother who abuses and batters all of her children in some religious mental haze, up to killing some of them. It's apparently based on true events and it's painful to see how many by-standers (a low-life preacher and a school-teacher) fail to see what is really happening and let the situation deteriorate right under their noses. It's also heart-breaking to see how the children cannot stand-up to their mother, all the time you think: come-on, give her a smack, push her away, but that's just how children are intimidated and are locked-up in this child-parent trap where going against your parent is a non-issue. They even stoop to being part in the abuse on each other, forced by their mother, just to win a little shred of her appreciation. The acting is fine, especially Leslie Easterbrook as the mother is doing a great job but the young girls are equally convincing. My only reservation concerns the "message" or the moral if you will, of this movie. It's pitch-dark and there is no happy ending, it leaves you totally depressed. As an account of a true story that's probably due to the raw facts, but you so much would have liked to see that it had ended differently.
View MoreMy dear friend Kayla challenged me with this movie and I accepted. I don't regret watching it, but it truly is a disgusting movie. The things that "Mother" Maggie does are beyond horrific and unimaginable. The children fear her- no...no, it's beyond fear. They're in sheer terror. I'm disgusted with the fact that these kinds of movies intrigue me, but this one was far too much for my psyche. If you can, please try to avoid watching this. The things that are depicted in this film are unbelievably cruel. I was even on the verge of tears at one part. And that was only in one of the beginning scenes. So all in all, I give the movie 2 stars. Sorry but, the acting was the only thing I really liked.
View MoreI really should have known exactly what kind of things were to go down in this film, and for the most part I did. I love horror thriller's of all kinds but this film fell between the crack's of genre's in a way. You know that there will be an offensive abusive mother doing horrible & abusive things to her children, except for the son who is shadowed in the background in a lot of the scenes as for his reasons as for how he acted they never really explain.He doesn't even get a line.Well as the film begins the normal & balanced father walked out on the family(and I don't blame him a bit as the film progresses) and this completely ruins the already abusive alcoholic mother. As to what follows, the things the mother says & does are just offensive to watch, even though you already know to expect the worst from her. There was nothing interesting, exciting, entertaining or fulfilling about this film, it just leaves you disgusted period! I highly recommend avoiding this waste of film & what will be a waste of your time. 2.5/10
View MoreTHE AFFLICTED, A Mother's Love Has It's Limits.Starring : Leslie Easterbrook and Kane Hodder.Pretty amazing film about a dysfunctional family to an extreme of violent proportions.The mother,Leslie Easterbrook, Is cruelly perfect in this role : Shades of 'Mommy Dearest & Jason's mom from Friday The 13th'.Kane Hodder has a wild role as the HELPLESS ? father/husband who is catalyst to plot.This film has such intense scary moments, It could be Brain Damage biggest release to date.This critic felt that the child characters could have changed their demise and yet When the brother did what he did,Oh We get it now .
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