The Snare

First off, let's get one thing clear. THE SNARE is nothing like THE EVIL DEAD. The comparison seems so far off the mark to me it's as if the guys on the marketing team who put out that press release comparing it to EVIL DEAD haven't even watched this movie.

Secondly! After all that said...Wow this is a great movie! It's utterlly relentless with what it throws at you....Starts slow at first but then it just hits you again and again and again.

Gripping, believable performances, a rich, foreboding atmosphere and extremely harrowing to watch all round.

DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYONE...I totally get why some people wouldn't enjoy this, especially if you're going in expecting something like the Evil Dead.

I'd say that as a movie its much closer to THE SHINING in style but is different enough to be it's own thing.

Like I said, some people really won't like this but if you fancy something different and a genuine scare then this one is certainly worth a watch, even if just for the experience!!!

But not when you're eating!

Must say, am not a huge fan of this movie after watching, as I feel it did have some issues. Although this is to be expected of course given the natural limitations of a low budget horror.

Despite it's flaws this movie does get a lot of things rights and is a very bold attempt to try and do something different and for that alone I highly commend it as this was so refreshing to see. Was relieved not to have sat through another empty rehash.

It must've took real f****** balls to make something like this in a market that's over- stuffed and over-filled to the brim with generic middle of the road SAFE horror pics.

Some genuine creepy moments in this too. Like on a whole another level of CREEPY!!!!

As for it's flaws, it would have been great to have seen more of Alice's backstory so that we can understand more about her relationship with her father, although I understand why a lot of this was left ambitious and open to speculation.

Also, some of the best bits of this movie are when the two girls are uncovering the fate of those who were trapped in the apartment before they were (won't spoil it here) but it would've been great to have explored this more and to have seen more evidence of 'those who came before'

Certainly don't regret watching and would recommend.

So many layers, so much going on, difficult to take it all in on the first watch. Certainly requires a second viewing.

If I had to be really critical I would say that I feel like maybe they should have tried harder to find a way out of the apartment and should have tried to find alternate exit routes. It felt as if they gave up a little too easily....but then again, this is no ordinary scenario, since there is this evil demonic force manipulating things from below the surface.

My partner and I talked for ages afterwards trying to unravel what it is that actually dwells in the apartment and whether or not it was real or part of some strange fantasy concocted by the main character.

Don't watch whilst eating.....felt so sick watching parts of it but totally worth it.

Ain't gonna be able to put this one out my head or a while.

Taking a trip into the wilderness, a group of friends on a retreat to a remote seaside lodge find themselves alone and stranded inside a cursed apartment complex by a malevolent entity that holds a powerful spell over them and forces them into desperate means to get away.

For the most part, this one was a decent if unspectacular effort. Like most modern British horror films, the film is really undone by the languid and wholly uninviting pacing that just really drags this one out far longer than it really should be. The first half of this one is a prime example as this one just goes through such a sullen and drowsy tone that just starts this one off on a downbeat feel showing them at every stop along the way, taking their time getting set-up in the building and their initial interactions together makes this one feel quite challenging. That it takes a while for them to realize they're trapped and for the horror to kick in makes this one feel like so many of the recent British efforts which utilize the same factors, taking far longer to get its main point across since it spends far too long on the plodding build-up rather than anything else. That there's not a whole lot of intensity or energy to the proceedings as everyone tends to offer up no urgency in their actions really completes the picture for this one in how dull and drab it really sets itself up as being, and with the whole build-up taking so long this one does have some problems to work through. There's also the rather troubling issue here with this one really leaving a lot of elements open to speculation, really not letting it's burning mysteries get explored in any shape or form as so much of this one goes unexplored or unanswered throughout here. From the source of the visions showing the mysterious children playing in the woods, the scenes of her watching her memories from her abused childhood or the whole point of luring them to the complex in the first point, there's a lot on offer here that doesn't make much sense and it really lets a lot of questions go unanswered. These here hold it back somewhat even though there are some rather engaging elements within it. One of the film's better features is the fact that this one really manages to evoke a creepy and somewhat unsettling atmosphere with the way it builds itself up along the way. Once we get the impact realized that they're stranded and isolated together, this one offers up some great ideas of their plight together as the fear and paranoia they experience is manifested in their behavior as well as the increasingly strange and mysterious visions. Those are where this one really picks up, going from the quick flashes of people wandering down by the sea to the full-bore visions showing the happenings of the strange cult and how they end up altering her version of reality that really brings up quite a lot of nice freak-outs here to go along with that burgeoning paranoia. That all leads into the fine finale that brings about quite a shocking conclusion to it all as the revelation given here is quite a striking and shocking conclusion that wraps it all together quite nicely offering some decent blood and gore along the way. It's certainly good enough, but it's just too flawed to be higher.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, a sex scene, Rape, drug use and close-up shots of dead animals.

Three young people-- congenitally uncomfortable Forward, her best friend Warren, and Warren's crude boyfriend Paton-- enjoy a secret and illicit holiday on the top floor of an unused resort. Their first morning, the elevator stops working (as well as the emergency stairs' door). Then, the nightmares start.

The Snare actually starts off strong (and in the closing camera-work, Cooper finally shows what he could have accomplished had he put his back into it.) But this film, which is primarily about 3 people's boredom, is itself just as boring.

The characters throw their hands up helplessly very early in the film-- despite having access to much that they could use to try to escape, from fire, to water, to heavy toilets. This film could have chronicled their descent into helplessness, echoed in the transformation of his set, but Cooper's characters are helpless from the beginning, and his movie is static because of it. Forward's initial discomfort is believable, and suggests the potential for transformation-- but no, she never moves past her unease, and Cooper never gives her the opportunity to deviate from the single expression she wears throughout the film.

What about the supernatural element? The creep value? The earliest scenes are good, but The Snare runs out of steam fast, quickly settling into a junior high level of creep, down to the hackneyed phrases carved on the walls, down to the junior high notebook art.

The first thirty minutes of The Snare aren't bad. But the last sixty aren't only bad, they're unchanging. And it's such a shame, because in that first thirty minutes lies the potential for a great film. I'd recommend passing on The Snare.