Lucky - Der Terror kommt nachts

This movie has promising potential that sucks you in, and then quickly goes off the rails. The concept is entertaining, but the vision was lost. It would have made for an excellent horror comedy if they could have executed at least one portion of the storyline clearly.

Although this is billed as a thriller/horror film, I'd place it more in the category of Black Mirror or Twilight Zone in that it's a satire about the state of things in the world, told with surreal/absurd elements. For example there were themes of people being disbelieved, while holding to an every-person-for-themselves attitude, further preventing people from getting support. There's much more to it than that (gender and class) so I'm summarizing very briefly.

Other points: Some of the acting was stiff at times but that became an advantage during brief kafkaesque scenes of the protagonist attempting to communicate. With surreal elements, it often comes with the territory in any case. The music was minimal and rather than announcing everything that was about to happen, it left space for the imagination to fill in the blanks, only containing a few themes that repeated, along with a few key visual leitmotifs.

I can see how a person following this as a literal story with a straightforward protagonist might expect things to go differently, but I felt a definite tension leading up to the end, wondering how the director would play out the themes presented in the story. Perhaps intentionally on the part of the director, while I felt sympathy for the main character, I felt even more for a few of the side characters, especially toward the end of the movie.

Overall I enjoyed the movie, found the themes timely, and will look up other movies by this director.

I forced myself to see it through the end. But I was bored with it.

1. Poor or non-existent forensics reduced the credibility of the story.

2. Like a poor teacher the storyline does not direct the audience into thinking about the issue of fear, but instead has us asking what's going on. The focus was on knives, hammers, blood on floor, bodies gone.

3. Bodies disappearing opens many interpretations some of which are nonsensical which added to the confusion. Was she hallucinating; a metaphor; ghosts/spirits?

4. The poor response to securing the home & ways of protecting one's self gives us another female victim character as helpless & lacking intelligence.

5. Even the DVDs special feature of production staff audio commentary overlay said nothing about the story itself, but only camera angles, lighting, etc.

I appreciate directors and writers who try to do things a little differently to the constant identical horror movies we see everyday. And I like the fact we get presented with movies that aren't as straightforward as others. This movies reminds me of Mother! While I like the ideas behind the movies and trying to get people to think outside the box, the execution of these films needs to be a little tidier. They start off really interesting and as a viewer, you're really intrigued and excited....and then they just go to a weird place and don't come back, and you're sitting there thinking...'huh?'

There were several plot holes in this film and many things that were introduced were not explained at all. Not everyone who watched will be able to deduce certain clues brought up. It doesn't need to be a blatant in your face explanation that takes away from the mystery of the film, but it does need to be addressed in a way the viewer is like, 'ah, ok...I see what they did there.' It felt unfinished at 1hr 20mins. Could have packed a bit more in to wrap things up.