Armynel (2012)
6/10
The little indie that (almost) could...
7 April 2018
I love horror and thriller movies. I will watch almost anything that calls itself horror and I will stick with it until the end of the line. Sometimes I end up with two hours of my life gone that I'll never get back, and sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.

Armynel starts out fairly slowly and does its best to build suspense. The ending is quite unexpected and almost out of left field--I got a little lost with all the twists and turns an actually ha to rewatch the ending to actually "get" it. But then, I watch a lot of Japanese horror and this sort of thing is nothing new to me.

The performances are less than stellar for the most part, but in a small independent film with inexperienced actors that's more or less to be expected. The same-sex relationship between the heroine an her partner is amazingly well-handled, neither in your face nor exploitative, and that's a refreshing change. I have seen complaints elsewhere about the portrayal of the gay male friend being too flamboyant or over the top, but I can state here that I have had a lot of gay friends who acted exactly like that. Not all, but it's hardly unheard of. I think it's simply that the main lesbian couple is so subtly portrayed that the outre of the gay friend is a bit jarring.

The cinematography is amazingly good for such a low-budget production. The dialog is far superior to the delivery by most of the actors. The story is choppy but holds together well. With a better budget, a bit of polish and some more experienced actors it would be a much better movie.

This film is more of an unpolished gem (VERY unpolished), but it's worth a watch especially on free streaming.
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