A common phrase in the film...
"You can have anything but you can't have everything.."
Clearly not in this case...
This was a film that wanted to be a horror film soooo bad....
It isn't.
First things first. The script. The are several scenes in the film that have zero explanation. White guy in hoody that stalks the protagonist twice. Once in the beginning and bizarrely at the end with a very sloppy room which try's to give you the impression that he follows all the "shadow man cases".... he lives in a crack house where his wall is decorated with intimate pictures of the protagonist and his family for zero reason.... and one of those maps that has pins with string with circles all over the world... as if he's onto this cult conspiracy. He has no interaction and no relevance to the film whatsoever.
You have a scene where the protagonist randomly decides to venture off to meet an old high school friend out in the woods at night.... just cause... She's supposedly some sort of gibbering mystic... from central casting.... she just decides to run out in the dark when they hear growling from her camper/home? The scene serves no purpose other than to get the protagonist out of the way so the cult members/his possessed wife can take the baby to a cult meeting...
but then the baby is back home again....
But when the protagonist comes home...
the baby is back with the cult in a basement somewhere.... why show the back and forth with the baby??? There's little clarity to any of these conjoined scenes... the ambiguity doesn't come across as erry or creepy... it just feels lazy and sloppy...
The junk yard boys...... jesus this scene is so forced... The two brothers try to approach their mom's ex to see if he may know anything about her disappearance.. they come in contact with 5 hostile and slightly dirty/sleezy guys... one guy thought their mom was hot... the others looked like they wanted to pick a fight... for no reason.... they were hostile to the two brothers who were looking for their missing mom??
The only reason I can think that the writer wanted... or needed this scene was because he wanted these "menacing" characters to appear to be the reason for the disappearance or to make them feel in some way untrusting to strangers because of the cult... either way... it feels very forced and contrived... I always feel that a bad script can jolt you out of your suspension of disbelief... this scene wasn't a jolt... it was an assault... I could probably press charges....
The mom's ex totally referred to the cops as "Jonny Law..." hahahahha omg I almost choked on my popcorn... there are several of these poorly scripted cliche lines throughout the film.... just awful.
The random lesbian scene that almost was..... (no explanation)
I think they were trying to have some kind of sexual energy in the film to juxtapose with the "horror" aspect... it also felt forced and out of place... and they attempt to do it twice.... both moments just leave you wondering.... huh?
The shy shadow man with poorly manicured hands.... creepy long black fingers are creepy.... if you actually use them... this guy is totally a peeping tom. Almost every scene is him standing in a corner. Nobody should put shadow man in a corner.... half the time I didn't see him or thought it was a ficus plant. I had to rewind several scenes because I heard "scary music" but couldn't tell why it was playing randomly...
The smoke machine.... my god they loved using the smoke machine...
The events from the past vs present day.... extremely unclear about their relevance to the present day characters.... it doesn't matter how many maps with pins and string you have.... you still won't be able to connect these dots...
The "kid" cult member supposedly doesn't age and is involved in all the tragedies that precede the taking away of innocence... no real tying up that loose end either.
The last scene with the protagonist, his possessed wife, missing/not missing mother, his possessed? brother? and all of the cult members is one of the worse scenes in the film. The protagonist keeps asking repeatedly the same stupid questions instead of forcibly walking over to his "possessed wife" and taking his baby away... he just sorta succumbs to letting the cult slow walk it over to the peeping tom... who has butter fingers.... and then we never see any of them again... no explanation.
The acting was extremely monotone and plenty of poor choices. Here's my list of the worst:
Junk yard tough guys Random old high school friend living in the woods Snot nose cult leader time traveling kid The brother Mothers ex The old lady from the cult The stink face protagonist (seriously) Basically everyone.... even the shadowy butterfinger man.
I don't want to bemoan everything about this film... but almost every scene in this film could be considered a "deleted scene"
Let's recap:
This film needed more clarity to justify the viewers attention... I can't tell you how many times I said out loud... "what the hell does this have to do with anything?" Or..... "huh?" Or... "this is just awful..."
If your going to have a long fingered peeping tom scary guy with endless amounts of ambiguity about him.... at the very least build a story with some exposition so we can follow along... who, how, what, and why..... you don't have to spell out everything... but my god try to make it somewhat interesting or compelling.
The reliance on shock factor... loud noises do not make a poorly constructed "horror film" scary...
The porcelain dolls? Huh?
The cult lady's burnt son? Huh?
All of these randomly "creepy ideas" weren't so much creepy as they were poorly flushed out devices to try and convince the audience that they should be creeped out.... the mom hugging her crispy son was a nice touch.....barf.
I should also mention that this film doesn't set out to be a self parody... it is just bad. Filled with cliches, poor writing, poor acting choices... I'm looking right at you random old high school friend in the camper... in the woods... with crazy eyes and a randomly raving monologue. Her acting coach should be mortified...
I agree with many others who posted reviews here... this film must have been a low budget... and they must have just given up on the story.... the end is Not artistically concluded... it just concludes... if anything.. this film is consistently random.
To finish my review I will refer back to the random scene where the protagonist sees his half sleeping wife standing in the dark chanting in a whisper..
"they will fix it" "they can fix it" "they can fix everything"
This film proves they clearly cannot....
"You can have anything but you can't have everything.."
Clearly not in this case...
This was a film that wanted to be a horror film soooo bad....
It isn't.
First things first. The script. The are several scenes in the film that have zero explanation. White guy in hoody that stalks the protagonist twice. Once in the beginning and bizarrely at the end with a very sloppy room which try's to give you the impression that he follows all the "shadow man cases".... he lives in a crack house where his wall is decorated with intimate pictures of the protagonist and his family for zero reason.... and one of those maps that has pins with string with circles all over the world... as if he's onto this cult conspiracy. He has no interaction and no relevance to the film whatsoever.
You have a scene where the protagonist randomly decides to venture off to meet an old high school friend out in the woods at night.... just cause... She's supposedly some sort of gibbering mystic... from central casting.... she just decides to run out in the dark when they hear growling from her camper/home? The scene serves no purpose other than to get the protagonist out of the way so the cult members/his possessed wife can take the baby to a cult meeting...
but then the baby is back home again....
But when the protagonist comes home...
the baby is back with the cult in a basement somewhere.... why show the back and forth with the baby??? There's little clarity to any of these conjoined scenes... the ambiguity doesn't come across as erry or creepy... it just feels lazy and sloppy...
The junk yard boys...... jesus this scene is so forced... The two brothers try to approach their mom's ex to see if he may know anything about her disappearance.. they come in contact with 5 hostile and slightly dirty/sleezy guys... one guy thought their mom was hot... the others looked like they wanted to pick a fight... for no reason.... they were hostile to the two brothers who were looking for their missing mom??
The only reason I can think that the writer wanted... or needed this scene was because he wanted these "menacing" characters to appear to be the reason for the disappearance or to make them feel in some way untrusting to strangers because of the cult... either way... it feels very forced and contrived... I always feel that a bad script can jolt you out of your suspension of disbelief... this scene wasn't a jolt... it was an assault... I could probably press charges....
The mom's ex totally referred to the cops as "Jonny Law..." hahahahha omg I almost choked on my popcorn... there are several of these poorly scripted cliche lines throughout the film.... just awful.
The random lesbian scene that almost was..... (no explanation)
I think they were trying to have some kind of sexual energy in the film to juxtapose with the "horror" aspect... it also felt forced and out of place... and they attempt to do it twice.... both moments just leave you wondering.... huh?
The shy shadow man with poorly manicured hands.... creepy long black fingers are creepy.... if you actually use them... this guy is totally a peeping tom. Almost every scene is him standing in a corner. Nobody should put shadow man in a corner.... half the time I didn't see him or thought it was a ficus plant. I had to rewind several scenes because I heard "scary music" but couldn't tell why it was playing randomly...
The smoke machine.... my god they loved using the smoke machine...
The events from the past vs present day.... extremely unclear about their relevance to the present day characters.... it doesn't matter how many maps with pins and string you have.... you still won't be able to connect these dots...
The "kid" cult member supposedly doesn't age and is involved in all the tragedies that precede the taking away of innocence... no real tying up that loose end either.
The last scene with the protagonist, his possessed wife, missing/not missing mother, his possessed? brother? and all of the cult members is one of the worse scenes in the film. The protagonist keeps asking repeatedly the same stupid questions instead of forcibly walking over to his "possessed wife" and taking his baby away... he just sorta succumbs to letting the cult slow walk it over to the peeping tom... who has butter fingers.... and then we never see any of them again... no explanation.
The acting was extremely monotone and plenty of poor choices. Here's my list of the worst:
Junk yard tough guys Random old high school friend living in the woods Snot nose cult leader time traveling kid The brother Mothers ex The old lady from the cult The stink face protagonist (seriously) Basically everyone.... even the shadowy butterfinger man.
I don't want to bemoan everything about this film... but almost every scene in this film could be considered a "deleted scene"
Let's recap:
This film needed more clarity to justify the viewers attention... I can't tell you how many times I said out loud... "what the hell does this have to do with anything?" Or..... "huh?" Or... "this is just awful..."
If your going to have a long fingered peeping tom scary guy with endless amounts of ambiguity about him.... at the very least build a story with some exposition so we can follow along... who, how, what, and why..... you don't have to spell out everything... but my god try to make it somewhat interesting or compelling.
The reliance on shock factor... loud noises do not make a poorly constructed "horror film" scary...
The porcelain dolls? Huh?
The cult lady's burnt son? Huh?
All of these randomly "creepy ideas" weren't so much creepy as they were poorly flushed out devices to try and convince the audience that they should be creeped out.... the mom hugging her crispy son was a nice touch.....barf.
I should also mention that this film doesn't set out to be a self parody... it is just bad. Filled with cliches, poor writing, poor acting choices... I'm looking right at you random old high school friend in the camper... in the woods... with crazy eyes and a randomly raving monologue. Her acting coach should be mortified...
I agree with many others who posted reviews here... this film must have been a low budget... and they must have just given up on the story.... the end is Not artistically concluded... it just concludes... if anything.. this film is consistently random.
To finish my review I will refer back to the random scene where the protagonist sees his half sleeping wife standing in the dark chanting in a whisper..
"they will fix it" "they can fix it" "they can fix everything"
This film proves they clearly cannot....