Ayla

Brother and dead sister sexual tension with a "wait, was that the ending?"

In a film that's 86 minutes long, the first quarter is sluggish exposition that's almost entirely unnecessary. By the time we're one-third in, the plot finally seems to begin, though up to that point we're also subjected to an unconvincing performance from lead Nicholas Wilder, and one or two scenes that don't actually make any sense. I love Chad Bernhard's score, lending tense, uneasy, atmosphere, and I appreciate the highly subdued tone of the film. Yet putting aside these highlights, it's not exactly a strong start.

Once the plot belatedly commences, strange occurrences gradually accumulate. And still these are interspersed with dubious scenes, and annoying dialogue and supporting characters. Maybe they're just deliberately holding their cards close to their chests, but with only a couple exceptions, the cast does not impress me. Given a small supporting part, I think Dee Wallace illustrates fantastic range and poise as Elton's (Wilder) beleaguered mother Susan. More than that - denied even a single line in the screenplay, Tristan Risk nonetheless offers up the best performance of the movie in the title role, wielding fantastic nuance and physical presence.

I like the premise; it's what drew me in. Yet 'Ayla' relies absolutely on subtlety as it weaves its tale. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever: I've watched plenty of movies that worked with a similar underhanded tack and loved them. There's something highly rewarding about a feature filled with a superficial appearance of uneventfulness, or purposeful obfuscation, that masks hidden depths. Such an approach requires a dexterous hand to successfully pull off, however, and filmmaker Elias does not demonstrate the necessary refined touch here. That superficial appearance of uneventfulness turns out, in this instance, to simply be actual uneventfulness, and the lack of clarity in the narrative does not seem to belie the discreetly intelligent storytelling we'd wish.

I wanted to like this; I had high hopes. I think there are good ideas within. But the story takes totally too long to truly take off, and even once it does, the movie keeps us engaged mostly because we're desperately searching for something to deserve that attentiveness - and there is disappointingly little here that captures the imagination. I'd like to think other folks will get more out of 'Ayla' than I did, but I began watching with high expectations, only to see them brought frustratingly low.

Recommended for only the most patient and open-minded of viewers, but even that is debatable.

OK - so this film isn't going to appeal to the gore fans, but it is a decent film to watch.

It is very well acted, the technical aspects are spot-in, and the story - well - it's almost there but not quite.

This film moves along at a leisurely pace, so if you have the attention span of a goldfish it won't appeal to you, and probably won't if you are looking for light entertainment.

This film will appeal to you if you like a story where you can get to know/understand more of the characters than just the superficial scream-fest characters we see in so many other films.

One thing does let this film down very badly, and that it the ending. I just don't know what they were thinking ending a film like this.

Right, well needless to say that I was lured in to watching the 2017 movie "Ayla" given the movie's cover, its synopsis and the fact that Dee Wallace was in the movie. Granted, I hadn't even heard about it, as I sat down in 2021 to watch it.

And let me just say that if you stumble upon this movie, leave it be and move along to something else. Because "Ayla" was such a swing and a miss from writer and director Elias.

The storyline told in "Ayla" was unfathomably boring and slow paced, despite of the synopsis selling the movie's story pretty well. But believe you me, this movie was a mundane heap of nothing happening. It is monotonous in its pacing, which made it feel like the actual movie was twice as long.

It should be said, though, that the acting performances in "Ayla" were actually not bad. But the actors and actresses literally had nothing to work with in terms of a proper script, an interesting storyline or overly well fleshed out characters.

I was expecting this movie to be a horror movie, but unless you consider slow pacing and a storyline of nothing interesting as being horror, well...

"Ayla" is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. It simply isn't worth it. My rating of this 2017 movie lands on a generous three out of ten stars, based mostly on the production value of the movie.

The premise seemed to grab the attention of many. While knowing it was a lower budget film but thinking it could be decent given the premise and concept, in the end "Ayla" doesn't offer much and is disappointing.

The film sounded relatively different but what we watched was a slow paced, confusing, and quite dull drama. Labeled as a horror thriller, there aren't any thrills or real scares. The horror aspect is from the "bringing back from the dead" and supernatural type elements.

The lead actor wasn't very convincing. Tristan Risk as Ayla was the standout yet she wasn't given much to do. The mother was quite annoying.

As an independent film, the writer/director could have went far more over the top and all out crazy. It was relatively tame. Expected more crazy, more bizarre and more off the wall.

Also the ending was not clear and was severely underdeveloped and disappointing.