Memorable, crazy movie

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

These people leaving reviews probably are being paid to leave them because anyone whose actually seem this movie, would never say its good. Its horrible. Like Freddy got fingered horrible. A 22 yr old does not a convincing 15 yr old make....The acting is so awful that the plot is lost. If this was your labor of love Ms Fries, please choose a different medium. This is going on the black list for me.I have to leave more words here because my review isn't long enough yet so again i will say this movie is terrible. Oh and the cinematography is horrible too. The characters are unlikable. Im going to try to save this now.

I am #11 to review this movie and think only the 2nd that isn't actually associated with this film. Who are you kidding? Nine people who absolutely loved this but 95 users give it a collective 5.2. I smell something fishy. (Especially since the bio of the director is off the charts and I don't buy any of it.)If you have the DVD, the Action Flick Chick quote is real. The Huffington Post quote is real. I'm going to assume the rest are, too. As for the Accolade Film Award-Award for Excellence, this won two technical awards. It should be noted from their website that they hand out awards four times a year and there are a LOT of "winners". Check out the very long lists. Reminds me of how elementary schools hand out participation awards. Amateurish work across the board. There is wiggle room when you're talking about shooting a film as it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to make it right. Or even close to right.But what is here is awful. Very bad acting, writing, and directing. And who thought you could sell the lead as a 16 year-old girl? She's not a day under 25.I don't know what to pick apart first. Clunky as a bag of rocks in a tin can. The acting was terrible; stilted and forced. And yes, predictable. Rosemary's Baby knockoff. Daddy's motivations were obvious. Mommy showing up at the end was telegraphed big time---but why? Why would mommy divorce daddy, have a running feud for years, and then show up to see her daughter raped? Entirely for effect but had no basis in common sense or logic. But this in a sea of aimless and pointless scenes just treading water 'til the end.And it looked bland at best. Sure, bland at worst, too. But very uninspired photography. A lot of nothing. The daughter was there to investigate her dad. It's hard to like the hero when she's pretentious and stuck-up. (The info was "her future"? That's nice.)And it didn't help that her love interest was a walking-talking douche-bag. "Really?" with the wardrobe and make-up? (And why, like the girl, have to wear the same clothes on different days in the story?)Elisabeth, please don't make any more movies. Please. The people who are encouraging you are wrong. There is a reason that, despite this misguided praise, that you haven't had another feature in three years. You may love it. I don't doubt that. You showed your boobs for it. (But your character had sex with her clothes on?) That's dedication. But you have to find something that you can actually do. Best of luck.

I saw this movie by chance at a horror film festival recently. I had no idea what to expect. Two things give me the creeps bad- one is colonial people, and the other is hardcore hippies. I could not move in my seat through this entire movie, it was so intensely realistic. I was a few minutes into it when I realized it wasn't actually set in the '70s, because it really had that look! I couldn't understand what kind of mother would let her daughter go away to a commune with her creepy, deadbeat, hippie dad. The characters were everything you don't want to meet at such a place. The casting was perfect. Chauntal Lewis stars as the unfortunate girl, Jenny. This story was so very disturbing...then all of a sudden, there is David Lago- 'Raul' from 'the Young and the Restless'! He is so pretty it's hard to look! That calmed me down for a minute, anyway. But then the horror continued...for all the sunshine and pretty scenery in this film, it still manages to give you the chills all the way through. It kind of reminded me of 'Crowhaven Farm' and 'Race With The Devil'. I urge you to see it for yourself. It's like a fine early '70s 'ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK'! (That is a high compliment, by the way). I haven't seen anything like this in a long time, and I was really missing these type of movies. Thank you Elisabeth Fies! Again- SEE IT!!

I first saw this at the Bram Stoker Film Festival, where it won "Best International Feature", and purchased the DVD there (which speaks for itself). It stands up brilliantly to a second viewing, I have to say, and works as well on the small screen as on the big.The Commune is a good, slow creep in the manner of The Wicker Man, the subject area well researched so that little bits peek through in ways the audience might not always appreciate on a first viewing. It's one of those films where the more you know about the setting the more frightening it is, unlike a lot of horror flicks. The intense colour palette gives it a dissonant quality that enhances the unsettling feeling the film inspires. I feel the climax could have been a little bigger in terms of set pieces, but as it stands it does give the film a more personal feeling.