Estranged

The premise of this sounded very interesting and I watched it back to back with Sand Castles which has a similar premise - and this one falls short of the other in my opinion.

It was surprisingly darker than anticipated and went in a direction I did not expect. Definitely not for the faint hearted, I feel as if it missed a trick by sacrificing on dramatic realism in exchange for shock factor, and the result is you feel very uneasy watching it rather than suspenseful of the unknown.

It's visually interesting, with great set design that immediately makes you feel uneasy. It is further enriched with excellent performances from its cast, most notably Amy Mason in the lead, who is sublime.

Definitely worth watching, it portrays a very dark, suspenseful tale, even if it does feel very disjointed and forced in places. Not the film I expected, which left me more deflated than surprised come the end. Can't help but feel they missed a trick, creating a psychological horror rather than a thriller.

If art imitates life, then there are some really sick people in the world. This film was about a young woman who suffers a accident, winds up back at her childhood home where some real dark colorful characters pretending to be her family all reside. Although the story unravels from inside the home, at no time did I feel like you needed more locations to make the story work. In fact, the happenings unfolding to this young woman couldn't happen anywhere else, because of the graphic nature in which things are done to her. Overall, I've seen this story before in other films that deal with family issues. I think on a whole, all families have dark secrets And if ever found out, lives would be completely destroyed, and the jails would full of family members. A lot this film was cliché and predictable. I endured it to the end, and for me, the ending was the best part. It just took a little to long to get to it.

I wouldn't put Estranged in the horror genre, in the thriller genre yes. There is some mystery during the entire movie and even if you start guessing right it's still entertaining to watch. The actors were not bad so there is nothing bad to say about that either. It's a dark movie, certainly not a joyful one, with some severe sick in the head people but not the kind that makes your stomach turn. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, and it isn't a masterpiece, but it's certainly watchable. To me it could have used a bit more blood and physical torture to make it a good horror movie. Now it was emotional torture and that has never the same outcome. But if you do like those kind of stories then just give this one a go. You won't be disappointed.

ESTRANGED is a low budget British horror film that screams derivative at every step. The film's protagonist is a young woman named January who is crippled in an accident abroad, an accident which leaves her wheelchair bound and without a memory. She returns to her ancestral home in the UK, but soon becomes convinced that her family members are out to get her. Is she going mad, or is there really a sinister plot at work?

It's not hard to guess the outcome of this film because the same subject matter has been done to death elsewhere. Although the plot is slightly different, ESTRANGED seems to me to be a huge copy of the excellent French thriller FRONTIERS, especially in the format, the climax, the look and actions of the main girl, etc. Except where FRONTIERS excelled, ESTRANGED simply bores.

It's one of those films that's saddled with a dullish protagonist who you don't even like, let alone care about. Actress Amy Manson can do nothing for her character. The rest of the cast don't get much of a look in, particularly poor James Cosmo, who is such a fine, gruff actor but who is sorely wasted here. I did like Craig Conway, cast against type as the butler, as he's always good fun. Sure, there are a few strong and/or edgy moments contained in this, but the whole greyed-out look makes it a depressing watch and CGI gore effects are always a disappointment for me too unless they're done very realistically, which they aren't here.

I've never seen a movie get me to the point where I was just staring at my television screen numb for over an hour after the credits rolled.

I've watched a lot of horror and a lot of thrillers - to the point that if you go through my reviews, it's kinda my genre. I'm always up for something new or something that can catch my interest and hold it the entire time. This film definitely kept it...but I'm wondering if that's a good thing.

It starts our generic enough - woman in an accident with amnesia, goes to see her family and something's not quite right. It's a fairly familiar premise. Where this film differs is any sense of hope you have for the main character is just completely gone by the time the ending is coming up. So much so that even after the final scene, you just sit there feeling like it wasn't enough. People should have been punished more to get that sense of catharsis for our lead. Instead, it leaves you feeling blank and numb for having watched it.

I'm giving this film 7/10 because it is something that many thrillers attempt, but fail at. Most films of this caliber just want to shock to shock. Where the characters are all deplorable, including the main ones, there's violence and torture just to make you squirm. This movie doesn't do that. You want our lead to succeed. You like her. You like her partner. You want there to be retribution. But after what our lead is put through, it doesn't feel like any payback would ever be enough.

If you want to feel depressed and hopeless for a few hours after seeing a movie, watch this.