Residue

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

One of the most insipid, lackluster, and soporific horror films of all time - yes it's that bad. Right from the buildup, which was haphazardly presented to the progression of the story, which was monotonously dragged on with little or nothing really happening to the supposedly anticipated, big reveal in the climax, which ended up petering out like a damp squib - just nothing went right for this film.

While the cast tires their level best to elevate proceedings, the hackneyed writing by John Harrison and Alex Garcia Lopez's pretentious direction leave absolutely no scope for redemption.

I've not seen the movie but I did check out the 3 part pilot on Netflix. Seems like the same project? I didn't realize Netflix were backing pilots but I think this is a really exciting step if they are. This show has solid foundations for a pretty great ongoing TV show and feels fresh coming out of the UK. I read the director has a background on Utopia and Misfits which makes more sense of this project's visual style and themes. I also read an article on indiewire 'How To Sell A TV Show to Netflix" http://www.indiewire.com/article/how-to-sell-a-TV-show-to-netflix- 20150401 and was pretty blown away about the journey that this took. It was a movie, and an extended TV pilot at the same time. That's pretty ballsy. I imagine the TV show plays better than the movie - there isn't really one central character you can get on board with in the way that you need to in a movie - but there is certainly a lot here to merit this project and make me want to see more. I think there is a lot of promise here for the future. A great looking, seedy, future-city, and a pretty amazing quarantine zone top my favorite things about this so far.

Leave it to the British to take the paranormal, government conspiracies, and biological outbreaks and then find a way to make them all boring. Visuals and music are all interesting and well done, but fail to hold up this otherwise limp story. Every dialogue feels like it's going nowhere and has a anesthetic effect that leaves you so numb by the time anything interesting does happen, it is incapable of getting a reaction or emotional response out of you.

Overall the idea of this show is fantastic. People unknowingly developing supernatural abilities that cause disaster amongst the city, while a detective and journalist try to solve it is great. The only bad thing about this show is it is only 3 episodes in a single season. It is a total tease, the British always do this, they suck at television. That is why the It Crowd is only like four episodes a season. Learn how to do television seasons right you damn British! I mean the minimum for American television shows is at least eight episodes, some shows push for over twenty season which is freaking incredible. The fact that there are only three episodes in this entire first season is downright stupid. Overall I would give the show at least three more stars if they learned how to not tease the audience and at least did eight episodes per season.

Really liked the concept of this adaptation, but unfortunately fell as flat as its victims. So much promise and really loved the paranormal element to this, but the tale lost its way badly in the second half of the story. What started as intrigue and the lead's curiosity and finding out about the paranormal elements quickly diminished into a scrambled story that tried to prevail more, but ultimately fell flat as the minutes passed. This could have made superbly, as again the first half was very interesting. Shame, as a good explanation of the paranormal phenomena would have tied this plot together better. Shame.