We Are Monsters

While I had indeed never even heard about the 2015 horror movie "We Are Monsters", which was oddly enough titled "Animalistic" on the version I stumbled upon, of course I opted to watch the movie, given my love of all things horror.

The storyline in the movie was not particularly exciting, thrilling or scary. In fact, the narrative was ruined by some pretty lousy acting performances from the leading actress. I can't claim to say that writers Sonny Laguna, David Liljeblad and Tommy Wiklund managed to concoct a narrative, script and storyline that entertained me in any grandiose way. There was nothing new brought to the subgenre of female revenge movies here.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Some of the acting performances were good, while others were just hands down terrible. Especially the leading actress, she managed to ruin the movie with her less than believable performance.

Watchable, sure, if you are a newcomer to the horror genre. But for a 40+ years of watching horror movies veteran such as myself, then "We Are Monsters" was a mere walk in the park on a sunny day, and there wasn't really anything scary to be seen anywhere.

My rating of directors Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund's 2015 horror movie "We Are Monsters" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Agree with the only other reviewer below and hopefully the only other person who's ever seen this movie besides me. Every single one of these movies are the same -- innocent girl gets kidnapped and brutally raped by psychopaths, one of whom is stereo-typically mentally retarded, and then eventually she gets revenge in the end and the movie ends. Boring as hell with terrible acting and no unique twists.

And enough already with the so called "shock value" of these types of movies. We've seen it all before. Many times in fact. There's really no point in doing a movie like this anymore unless you're going to really change things up. And this movie certainly doesn't even attempt to do that. Dumb plot, dumb actors, dumb movie. Pass.

The story isn't very original nor does it expand upon the subgenre, but it does explore the subject matter with a push toward brutal, visceral, unease which tests the viewer's tolerance level toward revenge horror that plays in torture-porn lanes. The whole subgenre is hard to watch even the ones worthwhile, "Animalistic" takes you to the bitter edge of ability.

The acting is intense, acceptable performances that sell the cruelty set upon the protagonist, as well as that which show the assailants as disgusting members of humanities worst. It isn't stellar, but enough to bring a very dark and disturbing story to life. It does bare mentioning that at times the acting is shaky and some moments feel too redundant.

The effects are impressive. Gory scenes of horror and blood stained settings are good enough to make you gag at the grittiness on screen. The practical elements work well and when the killing goes to the good during the revenge portion of the movie, it works well! Plus the cringe worthy atmosphere and anxiety enduring score help pull you into the nightmare.

Overall, "Animalistic" lacks originality and creativity. However what you get is a purist, straightforward exploration of set expectations done good enough to satisfy most fans of the subgenre. All others with no taste or interest in this style of exploitation should stay away. But if you wanna check it out I say go for it!

I found this one fairly entertaining and Hanna Oldenburg (Emma) and Ralf Beck (Jim) were pretty effective in their roles. While this is a rape/revenge story that features two rapes, I wouldn't say the rapes were particularly gratuitous and they showed very little skin. LOL, me saying that any "rapes" were not gratuitous is a bit of a non sequitur, but as these things go in the cinema world, they really weren't.

The violent scenes were quite well done and special effects pretty decent for a low-budget film. I've certainly seen a lot worse and these were good enough to make their impact. I found the screenplay to be fairly original, with some good one-liners that are not usually found in movies of this type.

In the climactic scenes near the end I was impressed with the expressions that Emma emoted as she wreaked her revenge on Jim. She was simultaneously repulsed by the actions she was taking yet inspired to gather strength to do even more to him. Not quite Oscar-worthy, but that was a nice mix that seemed pretty realistic for someone who had never been so violent in her life...yet was absolutely driven by her hatred of the man who raped and tortured her.

It's pretty easy to toss off these types of movies as just another "seen one, seen 'em all" type of film. This one offered a little more realism that sometimes made you forget that this was a movie with a camera, director, lighting, sound equipment, etc. Surrounding the action. And I never overlook all that stuff, even when watching the most horrific slasher/horror type movies.

After a successful business meeting, a woman is kidnapped and held hostage by a psychopathic killer and his henchman who begin to systematically beat her down and have their way with her, forcing her to resort to extreme measures to get away live.

Overall, this was a solid and serviceable effort. The fact that this one manages to get to the point immediately here with the abduction and eventual arrival at their lair happens quickly in this one. That turns the intensity up within the film as the dirty, bloodsoaked environment they begin to humiliate and torture her in that signals the kind of appropriate behavior which can be quite intense at times with the perverse sexual torture and degradation designed to beat her down. The escape attempts and times she fights back setup the final half where this picks up considerably with the brutality stakes featuring a depraved and brutal brawl around the house before getting to the main confrontation which is graphic, gruesome and designed to bring everything that's happened to a satisfying resolution. These here give this one a lot to like that holds this one up. There are some problems here. The main issue here is the unnecessarily humanizing attempts done on the lead villain here when those scenes don't matter much. There's no sense in him having a wife and son unaware of what's doing when they're never shown on-screen, all we end up getting is a single voice-call and all they end up doing is causing a break in between the torture showing how they find out who she is which is also a missed opportunity using that as motivation to kidnap her. The other minor flaw is the wrong-headed tone to the finale where this one tries to make her retribution feel cathartic in a sense yet comes off more as gratuitous violence. Since nothing she does is in any way an eye-for-an-eye mentality for what happened to her as theirs was sexual while she goes for straightforward brutality, there's an off imbalance to this section but it's not that big of a deal.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Extreme Graphic Violence, Nudity and several rape scenes.