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M5408
Reviews
Archive 81 (2022)
Just watch the first couple of episodes
Weighing in at over 8 hours, this is a big commitment. I ended up skimming through at least the last 120 minutes as it got very repetitive after the first 2 episodes. Another videotape, another corridor, another filing cabinet. There are sone strong moments which condensed into 3 hours would have been pretty good but the good scenes feel watered down and less threatening by lengthy, unnecessary exposition. The sets look cheap, low budget monster effects, the actors unbelievable and frankly annoying. Felt like a cross between Dr Who and Scooby Do. My advice would be to watch the first 2 or 3 then stop and let your imagination do the rest.
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Don't waste your time
Daytime TV standard acting, awful accents, terrible script and frankly just thoroughly boring. There is zero tension; the story, if I call it that, just goes round and round in ever decreasing circles. I'm astonished that this series is getting such glowing reviews. "It's a love story..." pffff. The constant flashbacks and cuts become tiresome very quickly, incredibly overdone. The characters are cliched beyond extreme none of which convey any realism and very difficult to empathise with. If it were cut back to two hours there might be a concept here but really nothing you won't have seen before.
The Small Hand (2019)
A masterclass in how not to make a ghost film
This was pretty bad and actually felt like a low budget student film. Far from being a creepy ghost film over Christmas, it was actually embarrissingly funny at times. Full of "ghost" cliches - rocking horse moving by itself, dark face at a window, doors closing by themselves, blurred figures at the end of corridors and of course the old favourite "no it can't of been her, she died 40 years ago." The worst attribute a ghost film can be is boring but the storyline made little sense, the script was awful and the whole thing felt rushed; we've got 2 months to make a ghost film in time for Christmas. I'd be suprised if anybody associated with this film would be especially proud. Given it was her own book I'm astonished Susan Hill was Executive Producer.