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Reviews
Markings of Murder (2024)
Indie film treasure! Very suspenseful & entertaining.
Markings of Murder is a very good Indie film. It's entertaining and interesting and an awesome watch. It's visually interesting with an seemingly odd color pallet (seemingly odd, until you 'get it' later on) but the whole film is really quite visually great to look at. The camera placement and the detailed lighting are really something special.
First off, the acting is great. Griffin Cork and Elizabeth Chamberlain are both outstanding actors, and they bring these characters to life. Young actor Sheldon Cheeseman did an awesome job as the son, and really the whole cast did great in telling a compelling story.
Markings of Murder also has great pacing. So often with Indie films, they are in a rush to hit joke, joke, joke, or to hit scare, scare, scare -- but Markings of Murder has great patience, to let the story unfold and simmer just the right amount. To let us make our own hypothesis' and to have those theories dashed in just the right timing. It doesn't drag at all, but it gives just enough room to let the story breath.
And it's got a GREAT score, which is also an 'in universe song' in the film, which is once again, very very neat. In other words, characters in the story are aware of the theme song, and yet that's the underlying theme music too. So listen for that when you watch it.
It is still a low-budget indie, so there are some hiccups here and there, but if you stack it up against most of the indies I've seen, it's a 8/10 in my books - a very worth while watch!
Spin the Wheel (2024)
An Indie film Gem!
With low budget indie films, you can get some stinkers and you can get some gems. Spin the Wheel is definitely one of the Gems, and really hits exactly what it was trying to be - and definitely deserves a watch.
Spin the Wheel is surprisingly well shot considering the budget - it easily looks as good as many films with 5x-10x the budget. Actually - I change my mind, it's NOT really surprising after all, because Brimstone Pictures' other films also all look great, so they've got the art of making films with a lot of bang-for-the-buck figured out.
And in the bang-for-the-buck department... the acting is pretty solid all round, the story is written pretty well and isn't predicable, characters are developed well in a short amount of time plus some well hidden and unexpected character twists... I mean, what's not to love?
Of course, it's not Shawshank Redemption or The Godfather... but it's easily worth the time to watch, and it actually had me thinking 'what would I do if I was there' and provoking that reaction is an accomplishment for any film. For me, it's a 'Thumbs Up' and a score of 8/10 for the indie films I've seen this recently!
Grotesque (2022)
A fun, low budget slasher
I really agree with the reviewer that said it was 'unpretentious' and the person who said it 'wasn't trying to be more than it was'. To me, that's exactly the point here.
Grotesque is simply intended to be a comedy slasher about a woman who has been picked on so badly, that she looses her s#it and goes on a killing spree, and Grotesque delivers on that promise perfectly. It is easy to watch, it doesn't require any deep emotional investment or thought - it sets out to be an over the top revenge romp, and I think it perfectly nails that.
The writing is solid, the jokes are smile worthy, and the kills are so over the top and inventive, that you can't help but laugh. I've never seen a serial killer skip rope with someone's guts before, so that was worth the price of admission right there.
I'm Haunted (2022)
Found-Footage type - blog of haunted college girl.
I originally saw this as a web-series. It was a series of actual youtube blogs posted by this University girl, Genesis, with a new post every day or two as her haunting played out over the course of a couple months.
Now, all this found-footage has been edited down into a movie, and it'll keep you watching to see what happens next.
As other reviewers have said, what really keeps you watching this low budget, web cam film, is the lead actress's performances. It's so totally authentically a blog, there are times you're not sure if it's scripted or real or what. She is literally 95% of the film, and her acting is delivered right on the mark, staring face-to-face into the webcam.
It's a low budget (or even no - budget maybe?) but it's got that found-footage authentic feel, and worth the watch.
A Song for Us (2021)
Beautiful! Journey back to days gone by, and loves-lost.
Set both in the 60's and Today, this is a really nice film about hippy culture, singer-songwriters, war protesters, and loves (lost & found). It's got some great performances, great songs, and it is beautifully shot - including archival footage of the 1960s, which really adds to the authenticity. There are no explosions or car chases, no evil villains or menacing aliens... it's a simple and beautiful look back at the days when there was Hope for Peace & Change. It's about life, love, & freedom - about the values, choices, & consequences - about loves-lost and loves-found. This is a great movie to watch.
In Other Words (2020)
Absolutely Great! Feel-good, FUNNY, and heartwarming.
Just exactly what we needed to see right now - the funny parts are SO FUNNY, and the heartwarming parts are so heartwarming. Just great!
(I'm not sure what some of the other reviewers were talking about... the parts that were supposed to be subtitled worded for us just fine?!?)