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Manpreet_S
Reviews
Blackout (2023)
How to destroy your movie by bad editing decisions
First of all, I am not putting the blame on the editor but whoever made them edit the movie the way they did. This could have been a sold werewolf movie with atleast 7/10 or even 8/10 score. But for whatever reason, they shot & edited the movie to make it as boring as they possibly could. There were many scary & exciting scenes that could have been the foundation of this film but those scenes were edited so badly that some of them became confusing and others became too short to have any effect or impact on the viewer. For example, scenes of werewolf stalking its prey, the tension, the terror on the victims faces, were all cut down to sometimes mere seconds and sometimes such a scene would just cut away almost abruptly to something boring. Where as the scenes showing random stuff like character washing his face, character reading a newspaper while walking to the trash can and properly stuffing trash bags in the trash can, were given all the runtime with extended single shots. This was the biggest problem with the movie. In addition to that, the look of the werewolves was also very lacking & cheap looking at times.
Despite all of this, it is not the worst werewolf movie out there. Its still watchable and to some extent, even enjoyable. At least this movie can be used as an example of how not to shot & cut a werewolf/monster movie if you want to make it interesting. Acting was okay. Story was all over the place but not too bad. Characters often did very stupid things, but that has become a staple of horror genre. There is some blood & gore but for a movie of this genre it was quite tame. Scare factor of the movie was completely ruined due to the above mentioned reasons, so despite being a horror movie its not scary, except maybe the opening scene, which again, was ruined due to bad decisions of the film maker.
The Flash (2014)
Every season worse than the previous.
Started really strong with a great 1st season. It was never a serious show. Always campy with less than good cgi and a lot of cringe relationship drama. But despite its flaws, first season was incredibly fun to watch. Characters were mostly likeable, cgi was bad but very fun to look at. One of the best superhero shows ever but did have a weak finale. Then came the second season, which was still good but not on the level of season 1. This started the trend where every new season turned out to be worse than the previous one although last few seasons were so bad that picking out the worst one is not very easy. Watch the first 2 seasons, they are good. 3rd season is where its start to get bad but still watchable. So, from that point, watch at your own risk.
Tarot (2024)
Not as bas as reviews suggest, just not original.
Its not as bad as the reviews and ratings suggest. Its perfectly wachable and entertaining enough for a one time watch. What it lacks is originality. If you have watched a few young adult /teen horrors with supernatural elements, this movie will feel very predictable. But it will not bore you if you like such movies. Just don't watch expecting anything new or ground breaking. Acting could also have been improved in some places. Visual effects were good. With a better & more original story, this could have been quite popular but it is what it is. Watch it if you are okay with predictable but entertaining horror movie, ignore if you are looking for a deep / original / masterpiece writing.
Dahan: Raakan Ka Rahasya (2022)
Loved this show.
The best Indian web series I have seen so far.
The concept is fresh. Despite the currect climate of this country and how superstitious people are everywhere, it manages to handle the subject quite well without offending anyone's beliefs either.
Its a very well written show. Despite having zombies in it, it does not become cheesy or campy but instead keeps its serious tone through out. There is also no forced romance angle, the show never loses its focus from the main storyline which is also an intriguing story that you want to see to the end.
Set designs in the show are next level. Whoever is responsible for them deserves an award.
Performance of every actor is good, everyone does justice to their role. On every technical level, the show is great.
The only negative thing I can say is that one teenage character was very annoying at times, he almost came close to ruining the show. And also, the show could have done an even better job of answering the question of superstition vs. Science. But its a great show anyway. I hope there will be more seasons and/or more such shows in near future.
P.I. Meena (2023)
Very poorly made show.
So many things are wrong with this show. But I will start with the thing that annoyed me the most. Dialogues. This is another Indian web series that forgot that its story is set in India & features Indian characters. This is one of many series I watched recently that has almost of half of its dialogues in English. I don't understand this new trend of Indian 'Hindi' web series that have 30-40% of the dialogues in English. Even when it makes no sense story wise. There are scenes set in small town but characters are seen speaking western style english. And its not just the language that is the problem, the way characters talk with each other, thing they say to each other or how they interact is very unrealistic & unnatural for Indian people. It looks like, the director was very influenced by Hollwood movies and just made something exactly how hollywood would make it. But it does not work in Indian setting, you have to make the characters talk how indians do or it feels unnatural & cringy.
Performances of the actors also were not very noteworthy. Especially the main actress. Her performance made it seem like she did not even want to do this series, she looked more disinterested in the show than even myself. But I blame the bad script & direction for this and not the actors.
Finally, the climax of the show was another weak point. You already know who the main villain will turn out to be and then after a poorly written anti-climatic scene, series just ends.
The only thing good about the series was the production values. Everything else was average to poor.
Avoid this series.
Gen V (2023)
Not sure why so many bad reviews, show is very close to being as good as The Boys
Not sure why so many bad reviews, the show is very close to being as good as The Boys. Its a good spin off, has the same vibe & style as the parent show, so they do make you feel like you are watching the Boys or something from that universe, as intended. There are flaws here but still the show is quite entertaining & well written. If you are a fan of the original show, this how is a must watch as some of the storyline & characters will overlap with the main show. One thing I did not like was how towards the climax, some characters just completely change, suddenly. That part should have been written better but overall, a very enjoyable show, just like The Boys.
Talk to Me (2022)
Better than average horror movies but not as good as the hype.
Its an overall good movie especially considering it is the first feature film attempt by the directors. But is far from perfect. The biggest (& possibly the only) flaw of the movie is its protaganist. She does not miss a single chance to act stupid & selfish and keeps getting everyone else into trouble. This makes watching the movie a frustrating experience at times. If there was a proper sensible character to counter her and was given as much screen time, movie would have been better. But on technical level, its a well made movie with nice effects, cinematography, acting & direction. In the end, if I was to rank this movie in comparison to other horror movies. I would rank it above any conjuring or insedious sequels but below movies like 'It Follows'.
The Vast of Night (2019)
Loved this but its not for everyone.
It is great at what it is supposed to be. Not everyone will like this though as its not action packed, fast paced adventure sci fi but instead its slow & atmospheric & not much really happens in the movie. The strongest point of the movie is its sense of mystery, atmosphere & world building. It also does a good job of making you feel like you are really witnessing the time period it is set in. All in all, this was one of the best movies I saw recently although a few changes would have made it even more better. I hope they make a sequel or spin off of this but set in 1980s or keep it in 1950/60s but on a different location.
Host (2020)
Great addition to this new sub genre
I love this new "Webcam Horror" sub genre and movies like this is why. My only complain with this movie was its duration which is too short. I am note even sure it qualifies as a feature film as its less than an hour long. But in any case, if you like found footage style horror, don't miss this.
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Marketed as Horror but actually a drama but not even a good one.
The show really has nothing to do with horror. Its 100% drama but with some horror elements sprinkled here & there to justify the marketing. But the main problem is that even as drama its not good. The story could have been conlcuded within 1-2 episodes, 3 maximum but they stretched it into a whole series with pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere, annoying dialogue & repetetive scenes. Most of the story did not even make any sense in the end. The few "scary" scenes that do exist are more annoying & cringy than scary. Earlier episodes have the same scare happen every few minutes. It gets annoyingly repetitive. Some people defend this season saying it should not be compared to the Hill House series. The thing is, even on its own, this series is just bad. Only watch this if you like long & slow streched out dramas with very little if any entertainment value. Don't expect it to be scary or entertaining in any way. Total borefest.
Servant (2019)
Most disappointing show that I saw in recent time.
Extremely pretentious, unnecessarily vague & trying really hard to be creepy & weird but only end up being boring and so many pointless scenes that amount to nothing in the end. No likeable characters either. Many if not most of the positive reviews have to be fake. The whole season 1 plot can be summed in one or two sentences but with pointless plot points & characters they have managed to stretch it into 10 episodes. Show hypes up something big but it turns out to be an utterly anti-climatic cop out.
I might have been kinder in reviewing the show but it also features so much animal cruelty scenes for no good reason they only make the experience worse. Would not be watching another season of this.
The Possession of Michael King (2014)
Beware of the fake reviews, one of the worst found footage films ever.
In the beginning, movie shows a little promise, but soon after the bad acting, bad direction, bad cinematography, bad script and very bad visual effects take over. Every few seconds, there is some extremely poor and cheesy forced camera glitch effect which becomes highly annoying. There are some completely pointless jump scares, which don't even work. The whole film feels very amateurish. I don't recommend to anyone.
It Comes at Night (2017)
Waste of Time
Whole movie can fit into 15-20 minutes, maybe even less.This is just a misleading, pretentious and highly stretched out film which pretends to be something it is not. There is hardly any plot or horror. Title of the movie is very misleading. This is not really a horror movie at all just a boring drama without any story and almost no action at all. So far it has been the most disappointing and boring movie of this year. I am being generous by rating it 2/10. If you still have to watch it, watch first 10 minutes and then watch the last 10 minutes and you will miss absolutely nothing because nothing really happens in the whole movie.
Diary of the Dead (2007)
One of the worst Horror movies I have ever scene.
I have watched almost every horror movie of all time and plenty of found footage movies too. And I can safely say this is one of the worst of both genres. I usually am not very harsh on horror movies and found footage films but this one is executed so bad it is unbelievable. Lets talk about the weaknesses of the movie.
1. Acting: Worst acting performances I have ever scene in a horror movie. Even zero budget indi horror movies have better acting. A one particular scene features an extra giving the worst ever acting performance as a zombie of all zombie movies ever made. It is even worse than a scene in "Shaun of the Dead" where some characters, very poorly, pretend to be zombies, for comic effect. I am not exaggerating. I am sure, some of the actors just simply gave up after reading the script and dialogues.
2. Dialogues: Oh my God, this movie literally has the worst dialogues I have heard in any movie, TV series or any other media. Not only are dialogues bad and cringe worthy but they are also very weird and meaningless. Characters are saying things that don't even make any sense at all. Very often, things being spoken don't even have anything to do with the situation.
3. Characters: As I previously said, I have watched almost every horror movie ever made and even by horror movie standards the characters in the movie are most stupid of all. They, coupled with highly nonsensical dialogues, are so bad, they remind you of A.I. video game characters from early 2000s games. Trust me, they are that bad, I am again not exaggerating, just watch a scene where a female character is being chased by a zombie in the woods. Her whole behavior is what you would expect from a AI character in a video game. Not a single likable character.
4. Story: Was there any? Read the synopsis on IMDb, thats all the story there is, nothing else, not even an ending.
5. Cinematography: It was very bad. Even for found footage movies standard, it was very very bad. Not too shaky or any thing, just bad. A found footage movie is supposed to look amateur but this one looked like they were trying to shoot it to look like amateur by not shooting it like an amateur.
If you want to watch a horror movie, skip this one. If you want to watch a found footage movie, skip this one. If you want to watch a zombie film, skip this one.
Now lets talk about strong points of the movie:
NONE.
Watch this only when teaching someone, how not to make a horror/ found footage/ zombie movie and also to show how not to write script/ dialogue/ characters.
The Shining (1980)
Deserves its reputation as one of the best Horror movies.
I did not have very high expectations from this movie before watching it, as many popular and famous films turn out to be not as good as claimed by their fans. But Shining actually turned out to be as good as most viewers has described it. This is not one of the scariest movies but it still has very unique and eerie atmosphere which it maintains through out the whole duration of the movie. Performances of everyone are quite good, especially that of Jack Nicholson. I also have to praise the performances of two actors Joe Turkel & Philip Stone who played relatively minor roles but both stole their respective scenes through their awesome acting. Script of the film is just fantastic. There are so many powerful scenes that give a highly creepy vibe without the use of excessive blood or gore. This movie can work as both a psychological horror as well as supernatural thriller. Overall, this is a masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick. I wish he had made more horror movies.
In the end, I would say, as long as you are not expecting a lot of gore, this is a must watch for every horror fan.
Nightlight (2015)
I liked the "twist". Watch it if you are a fan of found footage movies. Avoid, if not.
A lot of people hate found footage movies but I love them. This one is not the worst one or the best one. Just somewhere in between. Overall I liked it. Whole movie is set in a deep forest in total darkness so it does have an eerie atmosphere from the beginning till the end.
Plot is nothing special just an excuse for some dumb teens to go into the woods and get in trouble. However, unlike other Found Footage movies, this one has little twist in the end which gives us a whole new reason behind this being filmed as a found footage movie. Acting is okay. There are few jump scares, none of which will make you jump if you watch horror movies often.
In the end, I did like it but obviously, could have been better. If you love found footage movies, give this one a try.