Selfie from Hell

A film with a title like this can go one of two ways.

It can be quirky and inspired, not afraid to poke fun at itself and deliver a self aware dose of horror fun.

It could also be bottom feeder 'appeal to the kids' effluent.

Guess which path this film took?

The horrible latter that's what...there's nothing really wrong with any of the surface elements and especially early on in the film you could sort of see some effort put in, but this doesn't last as the ludicrous plot and motivations come to the fore.

Nothing really wrong with the lead actress who does try and make the best of what she's been given...but all the other actors are not convincing in the slightest and only sought to worsen the already broken atmosphere.

Plenty of really loud jump scares...none of which are in the least bit alarming.

When this inevitably appears on Netflix I would avoid it like the plague.

Girl has her cousin coming to stay and is supposed to be bringing her new boyfriend. Boyfriend's ill so he didn't come and her cousin is distracted by something sinister going on in her life connected to the dark web...

This goes all out for horror atmosphere and, by and large, succeeds in this endeavour, though I do find jump scares a cheap, unwelcome, and unnecessary tactic in horror movies.

The acting is okay, certainly nothing that would warrant a bad review.

The writing and directing were a bit irritating like, for horror effects, leaving rooms in the dark when any normal person would put a light on - especially if there is any chance there's a demonic presence in your immediate vicinity. Also, if you have someone visiting it would be polite to call an ambulance if they are catatonic. It's those kind of details that see the rating stars dropping swiftly by the minute as the movie unfolds.

Would I recommend it or watch it again? No.

This is all about horror sequences so if you like that and don't worry about the mindless plot holes and irrational behaviour then give it a go.

One other thing that springs to mind is the music score which at one point I think they actually tried to drive the viewers mad with a ridiculous heatbeat-like clanging sound that was far too loud and went on for so long that I had to remove my earphones.

I was intrigued by this film, and having watched the short story a few years ago I was intrigued to see how they'd expand on the story. The ideas are great, the idea of punishing those that constantly take selfies is I'm sure a secret pleasure of the writer. This new fascination in films with exploring the dark web continues here, with a bit of a twist. The acting is good, the music is good, despite all those positive elements the film is ultimately flat, the scares are a little on the childish side, the pacing is all over the place, it doesn't really give anything new, but worst of all is the ending, which is simply terrible.

A few nice ideas, but the execution is poor. 4/10

Ok the acting was good except for the sister character, and cinematography solid enough.

But... oh no, no other redeeming features. Lots of silly jump scares and a real paint by numbers approach to horror. Oh let's go on the dark web, and I'll talk to myself as I'm on google so the audience knows what's going on. It was like copy-paste from lots of better films with no heart or originality. This social media horror genre is one I'll be avoiding, too many turkeys.

.Really horrible in every regard, from the terrible score to the painfully bad acting. I dont wish this 'waste of my time" movie on anyone, lest it be someone that has no concept of what a well concieved and thoughtfully made movie is. This was neither.