The Maus

Not a horror film in the scene of pop ups. More like the affects of war on people. If you're looking for an action packed horror with pop ups and jump scares this isn't it. Good film could've been better if it explained some stuff, which is didn't do on purpose for the sake of interpretation. The more you think about the film the better it seems to you, if you just watch it you probably won't enjoy it as much.

This movie does open up a lot of room for discussion on what happened in the film. If you are open to a movie about affect of war on people and how it changes/divides them, with a neutral party being involved watch this, but if not I wouldn't recommend this.

This is one of those movies where you ask yourself what the heck is going on throughout the entire film. Why are in the forest in the first place? What's with the fog? What's with the creatures? What's with that terroristic ending? I mean I don't know what was worse about the movie. It has really slow pacing and characters you find hard to like except for the main girl since she's easy on the eyes. Her boyfriend is a complete wimp that has her do the dirty work he should be doing to protect her. The film really isn't all that likeable it's just odd. It tries to be too poetic and just comes off as weird.

If you remove the scenes that involve walking, the transitions between scenes where the screen is black and the scenes dominated by the backs of heads... You'll have 3 mins of actual content left. The blackout transitions were so long my TV actually went into standby mode a few times.

Firstly, let me start with some positives. I thought the theme of the film was interesting, to do with land mines and the Bosnian War, and presumably atrocities and genocidal acts. I have to say before watching it I did not know much about what I was about to watch. I have to say I was mislead to believe it was Horror, but in actual fact it feels more like a Dark Thriller with themes of Horror and War i.e. there was clearly a Deliverance vibe going on at the start, and aside from the creepy looking Guardian Angel that would be about where the horror side of things ends.

The filming style was fun for the first few minutes, but an hour and a half later of revolving cameras, darkness, and behind the head shots it all seemed a bit ridiculous and you wonder how a supposed 2 million euro budget (according to Wikipedia) was used up on just 4 actors, a forest and a great deal of what I can only describe as pointless videography.

Without trying to slate it too much, I found 'Alex' to be fairly unbearable, as an overly dramatic naive young chap who was an insufferable wannabe man-to-the-rescue but simply lacked any strength both physically and of character; Extremely annoying in every way possible. I think 'Selma' was at least interesting and played her role well though unfortunately this leads me on to my next comment about The Story, which overall I can once again only describe as being fairly 'pointless' or insubstantial. There were some interesting psychological moments where it felt like the dread was closing in, but then once the cat was out of the bag there wasn't much left to say. I knew from the moment I saw the car 'stuck' in the road in the very first scene that this movie was not exactly going to win any Oscars. I really am surprised about the budget here and can only presume the directors paid themselves substantial salaries through some questionable laundering function - But seriously, overall it wasn't the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and certainly illuminating in some regards. I think a 5/10 is generous, I'd say more like a 4.5 but I suppose I've rounded up.

One more comment: I saw that 'Maus' according to Wikipedia is an 80s/early 90s graphic novel about a Holocaust survivor, so I suppose that's what would have inspired the name of this movie.

Thank you for reading.

This movie is billed under horror but is definitely not what most would consider conventional horror. It's more like the story of a couple places in horrific situations. That being said, I have to agree with the other reviews saying that it is largely 90min of watching people walk around. The premise is about a couple who are lost in the Bosnian woods, when they encounter a pair of suspicious men who offer to lead them to safety. The girlfriend comes off as a bobble head with anxiety issues, constantly afraid of everything and everyone and arguing with her boyfriend at each and every decision. Also, how does a 100lb girl survive a landline explosion with only a flesh wound? There's an unseen entity that seems to follow them around while they traverse land mines (wtf were they doing in the woods to begin with?) The whole thing felt like a bad European nightmare version of Deliverance, only without any decent actors.