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Started by Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth, September 18, 2018, 12:34:25 AM

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Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Gareth Evans (of The Raid films, not Rogue One) does horror in the vein of The Wicker Man, or Black Death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1JdWOqc9Q8

Looks interesting. While I've only seen the first Raid film, Evans is obviously a talented sort. Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen are rarely less than watchable. Stevens in particular seems determined to do everything in his power to shrug off the legacy of Downton Abbey.

It is a Netflix exclusive, which has lately become a bit of a byword for crapness when it comes to films, but I don't think that's a hard and fast rule just yet.

Zetetic

Not enough Welsh.

Doesn't even have Eve Myles in it, and she's in everything.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on September 18, 2018, 12:34:25 AM
It is a Netflix exclusive, which has lately become a bit of a byword for crapness when it comes to films, but I don't think that's a hard and fast rule just yet.

I think that's only if it's been offloaded by a studio. They've picked up rights at source for a number of genuinely good films, including Alfonso Cuaron's next, which people have raved about as a leading Oscar contender.

SteveDave


bgmnts

Reminded me of the videogame Outlast 2 a little bit.

surreal


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I finally gave this a watch last night and it's... alright. There are a lot of very effectively creepy bits throughout, but it didn't quite maintain the atmosphere and tension throughout. That said, it did turn out that the brightness on the telly was turned up too high, so another watch with an appropriately gloomy image might help.

Noodle Lizard

Shite, made zero sense most of the time and had some proper studenty filmmaking choices.

The lead actor's CONSTANTLY VERY ANGRY ACTING did keep me entertained though.  Unintentionally hilarious.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Yeah, Stevens performance did seem to consist mainly of various tics. Maybe he's partially stuck in character from Legion. Or maybe he was trying to out-angry the ginger Welsh bloke.

There was only one bit that didn't make sense to me: when Sheen somehow knew that the goddess had appeared before Stevens' character. I assume there was a missing scene that explained it.

Funcrusher

Wish he'd just get on and make The Raid 3.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on October 31, 2018, 09:42:43 PM
Yeah, Stevens performance did seem to consist mainly of various tics. Maybe he's partially stuck in character from Legion. Or maybe he was trying to out-angry the ginger Welsh bloke.

There was only one bit that didn't make sense to me: when Sheen somehow knew that the goddess had appeared before Stevens' character. I assume there was a missing scene that explained it.

I'm on my phone so I won't go into the plot too much.  When I say "doesn't make sense", I'm more referring to things like the countless bits where the baddies knock out or wound a threat, someone who would absolutely destroy their plans, and then just have a quick look at them and go "yup, that's fine, I'll leave now, they won't be back".  That kind of shite.  And too many plot threads raised and dropped on a whim.  It all felt like a first draft, as well as being clichéd and derivative to boot.  Some honking dialogue an all.

There was also zero sense of tension or even ambiguity in its set-up.  An obvious comparison might be The Wicker Man, but look at the set-up scenes of that film compared to this one.  Within 20 minutes of this, you know exactly who the goodies and baddies are, as well as what they're capable of, and then it treads water from there on in.  The slight twist is that one baddie is less bad than the other baddie, which is poorly executed and an overused trope anyway. 

They also do an awful job of setting up the cult as anything particularly interesting, just a lack of imagination with the concept.  Indeed, most of the island-dwellers either have the personality of a Hollyoaks character or zero function at all other than to just stand idly by while things happen.  It's astonishingly unimmersive, and nothing's really believable or relatable, thus failing as both a horror film and a drama/thriller.

The god looked shite as well.

colacentral

I was a bit disappointed too. It didn't make alot of sense, and I too get the feeling that there are a fair amount of cut scenes which make the plot a bit clearer. I don't get how the islanders captured the god in the first place for one thing, and it might have been effective to see that. I also don't get why they happen to have a Silent Hill knockoff doing the tortures for them. Maybe I missed some of this stuff.

It's frustrating because it had so much potential. I would maybe have wanted the god thing to actually escape rather than the ending descending into a big bloody series of brawls. I also don't get how Sheen knew your man had seen the woman or even what the significance of it was.

Finally popped this on for a Saturday evening watch as I thought the trailer was great, and like Dan Stevens and Gareth Evans' stuff.

Sadly another vote for disappointment. Half-baked ideas, a plot that staggered around in circles, and confused/confusing character actions.

The best bit was at the start when Stevens got off the boat and did that switch with the letters and Jamie MacDonald made sure an X got put on the wrong fella's suitcase. More sinister, secretive, slow-burning stuff like that as Stevens slunk about investigating would have been more my cup of tea.

Instead it became an absurdly po-faced and grim slog that devolved into boring torture porn in the final third. Shame.

zomgmouse

I thought this was a load of fun - tremendously by-the-books but still enjoyable. Wasn't as much of a fan of the final bits but overall it was quite good.

SteveDave

I thought it felt like a mini series that had been cut down to film length. There was a lot more that could've been explored and explained.

Doomy Dwyer

Absolute fucking shit from start to finish, although was impressed with the homage to Peter Gabriels's seminal 'Sledgehammer' video in the final minute. Piss poor Wicker Man / Pan's People / generic modern horror confusion. 9/10 if ten is the shittiest mark you can get. Fuck this film, fuck Netflix and fuck me for watching the cunt.