Disturbing yet enthralling
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
View MoreOne of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
View MoreI enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
View MoreAnd those kids will be some of the only people to attend your funeral services. That and Michael Jai White. Why did the pizza man even exist in this movie? I can talk all day about how silly this movie is. There are so many scenes. Like when the girl sees the earth tear open and asks a pedestrian who is casually jogging "did you see that?" Or when she gives the description of the crooked mans home "two rocks near a tree in the woods" and her friend knows exactly what shes talking about because he saw something like that as a boyscout. If this movie was making an attempt at parody, it was very subtle. I give this movie 4 crooked sixpence out of 10.
View MoreThis was a better film than I thought it would be. As soon as I saw the SyFy tag, I thought, OH OH!!! So it was a good day as I was pleasantly surprised by this little film.Though it follows plenty of other movies in the genre, particularly The Ring, Candyman, and Bloody Mary, the lightness with which the subject is directed make this a stronger film, than a run-of-the-mill clone.Instead of watching a video or saying a name into a mirror a few times you have to sing the song which will kill you. Seems like a daft thing to do... I mean it's known as "The Song That Will Kill You." But when you're a girl having a sleepover with her girlfriends and mum stops you watching scary films, what else will you do... especially if you're dared. No sooner has the song been sung than the Crooked Man is hunting. Unfortunately for our heroine, the Crooked Man makes good his escape leaving her stood over the dead body of her friend, with a bloody dripping knife in her hand.Years later, she returns to her hometown where she realises the Crooked Man has been a patient killer. On her arrival, people start dying again.As I previously stated, it's the direction along with the above average acting that keep this boat from sinking. There are four decent actors on the cast, though their skills aren't used much, Dina Meyer, Marco Rodriguez, Amber Benson, and Michael Jai White (who gets top billing). These get very little air time as it's the youngsters the film is about, as it should be. Though at times, all of the newbies, have scenes where they falter and the director decided not to shoot again. These are few and far between and mostly don't occur at pivotal moments of the story.The main drawback is the Song itself as it's a Nursery Rhyme, though it doesn't depict a killer, in fact, the opposite is true. The Rhyme is about Sir Alexander Leslie who resolved the religious and political freedom of Scotland. So this Hollywood bastardisation of an English Nursery Rhyme stuck in my claw. The writers could have looked up the origin and worked out a different hook for the Crooked Man, but that might have been too much work...Another thing that disrupts the flow of the film is the location of the Crooked House. Saying the rhyme and the spirit are worldwide, I find it amazing that the House is within driving distance. The location crew couldn't find a crooked tree next to a couple of rocks where the animators could render a CGI Crooked House. So they got them to render all of the above in a field. Bad luck for them, the budget must have been blown on the Crooked Man's disjointed movements, which works really well, they should have added bone cracking sounds to it as well, it would've made it nastier. The crew would've been better getting the polystyrene rocks and fake tree from the Original Star Trek as the CGI landscape was pathetic.That said, I did like the way the heroine could defeat the Crooked Man, though I've seen differing takes on this feature, it was put to good use.All-in-all, it's not too bad a film. It was wet and cold outside when I watched the movie and even though there were times when I was annoyed I was never bored. So if you find yourself in this situation, turn the lights down, leave your brain at the door, and cuddle up with a loved one and enjoy.
View MoreLikes : "Beware Beware the crooked man is coming for your soul" I'l give credit where credit is due director Jesse Holland has done their best with this film, although this movie lack the certain things that make a horror film creepy although it's not a bad movie to watch. A slumber party for 12 year old girls turn from a fun time in to a nightmare as one of the girls dare's the other to sing a creepy song , this is no ordinary song "oh no!" this is a song with a curse of the crooked man if you sing his song the crooked man come for you and everyone around you which is what the whole theme of this film is about.Some areas of this film is good giving the acting is pretty average with the script writing , if you remember ("conjuring 2 Enfield poltergeist") this very nursery song if you can call it that was mention in that film in a creepy way.The film quality is very low budget special from the IPF industry as some of the effect are from the low C.G.I range , Im surprised to actually see Michael Jai White in this film playing Milo who trying to stop this supernatural crooked man. Normal when you see Micheal in a film it normal the martial art type films but it's a welcome change even tho it's a cameo role for him really as he doesn't have many scenes.The atmosphere of the film is slightly creepy with the crooked man him self , which the concept for a horror villain as this static-y look and disjointed appearance go hand-in- hand with the spectacular nursery rhyme that accompanies him. Although the visual effect in this film aren't real high budget which is a ashame but this film does have that syfy channel feel to it , which this may appeal to some people but this was a one time watch for me. One thing this film does offer to horror fans in the brutal bloody scene which most horror fans will be happy with , it does offer some creepiness in part so this will depend on whether this film is your taste or not but i wouldn't expect anything special here. Dislikes : The film does start off creepy but where this film fails is this creepiness start to fade as the film goes on , this is partly because of the visual effect on the crooked man which i feel could have been done better. I mean this is a way if you look at "conjuring 2" we saw a brief figure of the crooked man walking down the corner now this i done with C.G.I it look creepy, this if I'm honest should've been what this concept should of looked like the film and atmosphere would be better through the whole film.There is a flaw in this film concept that didn't make sense , since one of the character left the town everything stop which is a bit odd because in reality this thing wouldn't of stop which is mentioned in the film by Micheal character which is a big flaw in this film. Overall : Don't expect anything special , not a bad film but could've been improved in areas
View MoreAfter getting released from an asylum, a troubled woman attempting to get her life back in order becomes convinced the entity that framed her for murdering her friend is back finishing the job and races to find a way of stopping it to save her friends.For the most part this one was quite the enjoyable effort. What really works well here is the fact that there's quite an enjoyable and engaging atmosphere present here that makes for quite a fun and engaging time here. That comes along mostly from the titular creature itself, which is quite the impressive and chilling entity that works really well in delivering a solid concept for a horror villain as the static-y look and disjointed appearance go hand-in- hand with the spectacular nursery rhyme that accompanies him as there's an incredibly strong mystery about him and his appearance here which makes for a rather imposing villain. As well as the strong visuals and the great villain, there's a lot to really like here in regards to how much action plays a part of this one as the encounters here are truly top-notch. The opening sleepover backstory that sets up the whole film is highly atmospheric and works with some fine nightmarish images in the blackout and the poem setting everything in motion before showing the actual killer getting in a nice shock, the scene with the creature appearing in the hospital is rather chilling and the rather frenzied and chilling attack in the singer's dressing room is a nice showstopper that spreads itself quite nicely with it's rather stylish setting and brutal actions. That carries along into the other attacks on the friends throughout here, with the friends all getting creepy attacks by the creature as well with their all being done in the darkness forcing along some really atmospheric times here, and that sets up the big scene at the end where he's confronted in the dilapidated house where the brawling makes for quite a fun time while the tactics employed against him is quite an enjoyable and impressive outing overall. Alongside the great kills which are quite brutal and intense throughout here, these manage to make this one fast-paced and enjoyable enough to really enjoy it over the few minor flaws. The main issue with the film here is the fact that it really doesn't make sense why the film's rampage is halted when she leaves the group, as it's given a minor gloss-over yet it doesn't have a definitive answer that really makes any sense. This is a rather big problem and isn't really explained at all which is a rather big issue to have here since that pretty much carries along throughout the movie as a whole. Likewise, the fact that her friends are so hostile following the revelation of the deaths to each other and her stories are given some semblance of reality, yet they still carry on without much change in attitude which really isn't that enjoyable coming off as yet another incarnation of the cliché. Other than these minor issues, this one was quite a bit of fun.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
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