The Arbors (2020) User Reviews

Not a monster movie

[moviefansme · 5/10 · 3 March 2021]

The official trailer on YouTube makes this look like a monster movie. But if you're looking for a monster movie, this isn't it. There is a creature, a really cool looking scary one, but it's not on screen much and doesn't have much to do with the story. Before you spend time and money on this movie, just know what you're not getting.

What is this movie about? Hard to say. The story revolves around Ethan, who discovers the creature but is otherwise a very dull person who does nothing, sleeps during the day, and avoids most people. The only person Ethan likes is his younger brother, Shane. They still live in the rural town they grew up in and seem stuck there.

And now people in this small town start disappearing and turning up dead, their torn up bodies found scattered around town. And only Ethan knows why.

This movie - Not a monster movie! - is painfully slow, taking gobs of time for very little to happen as it simmers and creates atmosphere. There's very little action. Much of the storytelling occurs through dialogue, especially long voicemail messages. Pay attention to these long verbalizations, they're practically narration and the audience's best hope to interpret what's going on or decipher the characters' motivations. There are some chilling bits of scenes, particularly a single line right at the halfway point of the movie, that indicate something very spooky is going on, but good luck figuring out what that is. I have some theories, but those would be spoilers. (See Denis Villeneuve's underrated Enemy (2013). I suspect it inspired the writers of this movie!)

To enjoy this movie requires A LOT of patience. Be prepared.

Yet Another Near Miss

[fatfil-414-451797 · 3/10 · 27 March 2021]

I had high hopes for this movie, the storyline sounded really interesting.. However, as seems to be the trend these days, it skirted around the main storyline, and the horror/monster was really just a metaphor for the rest of the film. There was very little action, the "monster" is never fully revealed, and it really is just a drama. As far as I'm concerned, not a horror movie, a psychological thriller, with a about 10 seconds of alien thrown in.

It was good up until the point I really lost the plot

[Hex_0mega · 4/10 · 5 April 2021]

This guy Ethan finds a weird insect type creature feasting on a dead deer in the road and brings it home in a small pet kennel. The creature manages to chew through the cage door, so he then decides to construct a large, wooden box with breathing holes in it to contain it. The thing ends up biting him and he notices it is getting bigger, so he gets a chicken chick from somewhere and records the creature reaching it's spider-like legs out to pull it in.

He tries to get his brother to come and take a look at the thing, but he can't because he is working. His brother asks him if he can watch his niece the next day and then he will look at whatever it is he wanted him to see when he comes to pick her up. He never tells his brother what it was he even found and as you may have guessed,it gets out before he has a chance to see it.

When Ethan goes to check on the insect before his brother arrives, he discovers it escaped and finds his neighbor's teenaged son lying dead next to his garage. Note that the neighbor's son liked to pester Ethan. More bodies are found and there gets to be a point where you make the connection that this thing seems to be knocking off people that Ethan isn't particularly a fan of.

About halfway through the movie, he finds his boss dead outside his house. His boss had just fired him. This is where it totally lost me... You'd think all signs point to Ethan as the one murdering these people and the bug is just a psychological thing. So, he calls his coworker Brody over and tells him what happened. He shows Brody the video of the creature killing the chick, which kinda contradicts any theory of Ethan being the real killer. Brody asks him what it is and he says he doesn't know.

Somehow, Brody doesn't seem to be all that freaked out by this and just agrees to help him hide the body. While doing this, Brody is standing guard outside the car while Ethan takes the body into the woods to bury it. A cop shows up and asks Brody what he is doing, and Brody just starts booking it. He is taken into custody for the night while Ethan finishes up and goes back home.

Ethan finds out his brother and sister in law and their daughter are moving out of state, and he gets upset and leaves a message on his brother's phone saying that he feels resentment towards his niece and sister in law. After that, you guessed it, they go missing. Ethan's brother goes to these little town watch meetings to try and figure out who is murdering these people and a fellow attendant who is a police officer slips up and mentions that they had caught Brody the other night but had to let him go as they had no real reason to contain him other than the fact he tried to flee from an officer.

They all go to Brody's house with the intention of killing him because the officer spills it, and Ethan goes along. Ethan himself breaks in and shoots Brody. This made NO SENSE! It totally lost me really from the point that Ethan showed Brody the proof the creature existed and was growing in size. Ethan also ends up pulling a tooth out of his hand that dislodged from the creature's mouth when it bit him, so he had physical proof as well. Why murder his friend and coworker or even let the townspeople continue to stress over what is happening when he had proof all along of what was causing all the events?

After he kills Brody, it appears on the news that Brody had been killed and he was suspected of conducting the dozen murders. The cop covered for him and said he killed him in a standoff. Ethan goes to this house where the creature seemed to live and had tunnels that lead throughout the city and burned it down and left. The movie ends after that. It started off good but then it just hit a point of frustration and confusion. I can't even present this with the 5 star halfway decent rating.

Very Intriguing

[portal1790 · 5/10 · 26 March 2021]

This is a very intriguing film. Not the best of the genre. Definitely nothing new here. Even so it's a composed narrative , well directed and photographed. I like it.

Felt like this was a complete waste of my time

[rod_serling · 1/10 · 3 October 2020]

Saw this film on the program of the Nashville Film Festival. Based on the initial few votes (rating this highly) and as a huge SciFi fan, I went in with hopeful expectations. Oh goodness what a terrible let down - a SLOW, dreary, boring, pointless movie.

I sincerely don't relish being critical of *any* artistic project, and realize this took a lot of people many hundreds of hours of time effort to make. Everyone has a different perspective and some people (goodness knows who) might enjoy this. If you are into SLOW moody atmospheric movies screen it for yourself and see. But by the end of the movie I was honestly just praying for it to be over. It just didn't work for me at all.

In the event this gets some straight to video or streaming distribution, someone really needs to get busy in the editing room. Perhaps if the movie had been SIGNIFICANTLY trimmed, and had only had a run time of 60 to 80 minutes, it wouldn't have came across as bad. But honestly there wasn't enough story here to even make a tight 30 minute episode of the Twilight Zone, much less a 2 hour feature film. I guess on a technical level these guys have been to film school and it looks great, with interesting lighting and camera work at times. The creature in the film (a cross between a spider and the Alien) was a let down, and didn't scare or excite me in the least. IMHO this is anything but a modern horror SciFi classic.

Honestly didn't enjoy this one at all, and felt like this film was a complete waste of my time. Rarely take time to enter a review, but came here to save you the same fate. A friend who watched it with me felt even more negatively, so it wasn't just me. Given the limited number of days and large number of choices at the film festival, sure wish we'd have spent these 2 hours elsewhere!

Slow but sure.

[timmoss-26387 · 5/10 · 14 February 2022]

The main criticism of this film,from most reviewers,seems to be it's slowness,or lack of any real action.

I think this is unfair. Those beloved of all action blockbusters will be disappointed and should look elsewhere.

Even though it features an unpleasant alien I don't think it can be regarded as purely a horror film,or even a sci-fi one.

For me it was more of a character study. Much time is invested in Ethan's state of mind,how his relationship with the creature informs his decisions and,ultimately,how he resolves his own demons.

So it's slow,thoughtful and considered,but given it's costs,it was an impressive effort by all involved.

(I'd like to know what they have in store for the future.)

Long and boring

[mjazzguitar-800-18970 · 4/10 · 9 August 2021]

The main character is not a likeable person and it takes too long for the story to unfold. People are being killed left and right and no one bothers to ask him why his hand is bandaged. The ending is lousy, too.

Slow and rather uneventful...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 26 March 2021]

Yeah, I was lured in by the movie's rather interesting cover. And indeed, I was expecting this to be a monster movie of sorts, given the spindly arachnid-like legs on the cover.

But this movie wasn't a monster movie. Instead it was a movie about a degrading mind succumbing to a sort of psychosis. So it was quite far from what I was expecting it to be. But hey, maybe I should have read the synopsis before watching the movie.

So was "The Arbors" a good movie? No. It was watchable, yes. But the storyline was just way too slow paced, too predictable and had not enough interesting contents to it, which made the movie feel unnaturally long and dull. So writers Chelsey Cummings and Clayton Witmer didn't exactly churn out something that will knock you off your feet.

It should be said that the acting performances in the movie were good, especially by Drew Matthews, whom played Ethan Daunes. But it was a real shame that the storyline was so bland and predictable.

Visually then "The Arbors" was adequate. Don't expect to be blown away by a myriad of special effects though. Whatever special effects that were there were scarce and adequate enough. But luckily, "The Arbors" is not a movie that is heavily reliant on CGI effects.

Ultimately, then "The Arbors" is a movie that is very bland and forgettable. I doubt that I will ever watch it again, as the storyline just doesn't have the material to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of "The Arbors" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. It was an interesting and alluring movie cover, but the same didn't go for the actual movie.

A movie with a creature, not a creature movie

[zhurvic · 6/10 · 29 March 2021]

Don't really get the low rating. If you treat this movie accordinglly, as an independent horror flick, you probably will be satisfied in some way...of course if you have a taste for those kinda things) First of all this is not your conventional monster movie with lots of gore, blood and creature in a shot. Creature is present though, but its role is secondary. What is crucial here is a portrait of a small town under testing circumstances. So even the movie's atmosphere has more like psychological thriller's vibes, rather than horror's mood. Besides the fact that there are several characters in the story, the whole narative pivots around one person, which is an obvious standout here either as a character in the plot or as a performance. Drew Matthews really shines here, giving this authentic maybe even unic portrayal of socially awkward loner with a mysterious trauma in his childhood, which is unvailed only closer to the end. Fair warning here, the film's runtime is close to two hours, so if you don't enjoy the first half of it, there's no need for you to endure the whole thing, course you won't see anything drastically new or plotchanging in the second act. Everything is kinda logical here, considering indie horror-thriller logic occuring of course. Perhaps even for me the ending was a downside, despite the fact I kinda saw where it was going. Maybe it actually was the key problem for me, so I couldn't give the movie a higher mark. Deep in my heart I still wanted to see some sort of climax, a gamechanger, a little explotion in the narrative, something more emotional and powerful. Unfortunately the movie keeps its pace and its direction, not to say it makes it worse, it just made it a little bit underwhelming for me personally.

In a nutshell The Arbors is a good example of independent horror-thriller with grim and stringy depressing atmosphere and top-notch cinematography, it never tries to mimic anything, choses its own path and reaches its destination with dignity, which gives it credit. Visually creature is effective, especially keeping in mind that it's nothing like big money involved hollywood project, but an independent one, shot with tight budget. Also it's the director's full meter debut and he's setting a pretty high bar here, so I'm looking forward to seeing his following works.

Slow is minor issue

[ks-60500 · 3/10 · 18 April 2021]

If it head to somewhere it's fine to be slow, the scary part just not to the point is main problem. I wonder no budget for those bloody scene? But in other perspective, the monster evolves due to the main lead dark side, I presume ? If something too hard to be accepted by audience, it won't get any applause in general. Haven't said that, still not that good objectively speaking.

What's Up With The Low Score?

[the_nephilim71 · 8/10 · 11 June 2021]

I thought it was quite good. Especially, because of the tiny budget. The creature is frightening and the majority of the acting was quite good. I'd love to go more into detail as to why this is a good film but I'm afraid I'll give to much away. I just say, give it a shot.

Agreed, Movie WITH a Creature In It

[taylermac · 6/10 · 3 April 2021]

Like other reviews have noted, if you expect this to be a creature feature, you're likely to be disappointed.

However, even though that's what I expected going into it, I wasn't severely disappointed. The creature makes for a good metaphor.

And again I agree with others, it's definitely a slow movie, but I didn't find it boring. I was curious how the protagonist would proceed and react.

I really don't believe it deserves as low of a score as it's received. I appreciated the all symbolism and I thought overall it was a well executed film.

Not too bad, but too long.

[zamboni-36633 · 5/10 · 12 February 2022]

This movie is less about a monster and more about one man's descent into madness. The creepy elements are there and the acting is quite good, but it should have been highly edited. It's two hours long and I think it could have lost about twenty min of long, slow pauses.

What a weird movie

[patrickkeown · 3/10 · 24 May 2021]

I'm all for strange independent cinema, but this one is somewhat cringe-worthy. The slowness of the actors and overall story are extremely painful to sit through. Honestly, this movie could've been wrapped up in an hour, but the slow moving parts really make it take for what feels like a decade! Also, what the hell was the Connie subplot all about?

That being said, I did like the concept of the main plot. And the score was pretty decent. The acting was okay too. Give it a watch, but don't expect much.

Boring with no end.

[artur-niedzielski · 3/10 · 26 March 2021]

Waste of time IMHO. Film has stupid end with any clue,

Horrible Movie

[mcglynn2132 · 1/10 · 15 August 2021]

I have no idea what anyone involved in this movie thought they we trying to accomplish. It certainly wasn't to be entertaining. The lead character was so affectless in was painful to watch, particularly since the entire focus on the movie was on him. The camera lingered on this witless oaf's face. I couldn't even make it through the entire thing. Luckily I didn't pay to see this is a theater.

Slow

[goodalan-82191 · 4/10 · 28 March 2021]

The concept is ok and the story line is reasonable. But the main person the lock Smith seems to really know how to act. Maybe a different actor could of saved this movie.

I stuck with it and to be honest I've seen worse.

Sucked into what I thought was a creature feature.

[curts-36703 · 1/10 · 22 November 2022]

The film makers needed a more solid plot here. I find myself asking what the movie was about. A psychological mystery? A twisted character study? Too roundabout with the relationship between the critter and the main character. The Ethan character is pretty damaged, I get that. And there seems to be a connection that the creature is dispatching people that Ethan dislikes.

Makes a common mistake that the audience is going to draw parallels to what the main characters are feeling. Too long, too detached, no payoff.

Sometimes I am good at metaphors, but this was just too confusing. Sorry, don't get it.

Psyhological thriller

[deliabrett · 6/10 · 20 April 2021]

Watching the movie bit by bit, you slowly manage to realise the connection between the creature and the main character. Each person that tends to put him or the creature in harm's way ends up brutally killed. Not eaten, but killed, supposedly by the creature. And it is not long before you realise there is actually no creature at all..

Take a pass

[Otte1 · 3/10 · 17 June 2022]

Do not waste your time. This movie could have been 20 minutes long if the was not for the long confused looks, unneeded family drama or staring blankly into the dark. It is extremely slow and the ending will have you throwing something at the TV.

Trust me, take a pass.

Monster inside not outside

[a-kastenas · 8/10 · 26 March 2021]

I could not but notice many negative reviews here, most of which are criticising this movie for not being "monster movie" enough. I on the other hand liked this movie, and it is more than what it seems.

A slow burner movie about a young man who is unable to cope with the reality and let go.

The moment you start watching this movie as a psychological rather than horror film all comes into places. There are some nicely wrapped details that help us understand what this movie is really about.

The monster in this movie can be taken and viewed as a real entity or as a metaphor. And that's where the beauty of it. Pay attention to a scene when the protagonist puts his fingers on his head, clutching it, it will explain a few things.

I liked it and it hink it should be rated anywhere between 7 to 8.

Sad and depressing

[ayellowline · 7/10 · 28 February 2022]

Thank God I don't judge a movie by Imdb ratings. This one's a solid 6 at least. I really felt sorry for the main character. Movie is really dark and bleak. Not sure if a lot of things actually happened or where in Ethan's head. But yeah, it's a bit too long.

Two hours of my life I can never get back

[bbutlerms · 1/10 · 2 August 2022]

Wish I could have given it 1/4 star, I was hoping that toward the end the main character wasn't a psychopath but I was wrong, nothing the main character did made any logical sense, the movie had no real climax and gives no explanation's, the creature just shows up out of nowhere , the whole thing reminds me of one of those foreign films that never quite finds a direction.

Oh man

[mgrimm1918 · 4/10 · 30 July 2022]

I blame the director for this but the lead actor was so lethargic. Most of the actors needed work. Even the boss on the phone was bad. This could have been a lot better.

Decent effort, but too long and muddled

[m-dagati · 5/10 · 6 August 2022]

First off, there's really no argument whether the monster is 'real'. It's not real. It's a representation of Ethan's inner demons. Or, at least, that's clearly what's intended.

The reason people find it confusing it that it's too long and a bit muddled. The intent seems to be subtle and understated, but it's too understated. If you're going to do this kind of twist-ending-he's-really-the-killer thing, it has to be really sharp because you're essentially writing two stories at once. You have to walk a tightrope and build scenes and characters that can have alternative interpretations. 'The sixth sense' is a good example of this. This movie doesn't do that.

Aside from this, Ethan is just not likable. You have to like, or at least sympathize with, a character if you're going to follow them through a movie for two hours. He's just weird and boring. I was expecting some kind of super traumatic experience to roll out of his closet, so at least you'd sympathize with him, but it doesn't.

There's also a number of plot holes and implausible events (aside from the scenes that have to be 'imagined'):

• you can't hide a body under the wood floor of your garage due to the smell
• there's no way the police miss a body, a hole and an accomplice within sight distance of the road where they stop a guy with a shovel and a bag of lye
• his gf from like 12 years ago appears and wants him to run away with her? Why would she? Makes no sense
• he decides not to delete the exposition vm he left on his brothers phone, but his brother never seems to listen to it. Also why do they both have 10+ year old flip phones?

Overall I enjoyed watching it, or at least half of it. After an hour it became a slog, but the premise was interesting and the technical aspects were pretty well done considering the budget.