Ayla

Right, well needless to say that I was lured in to watching the 2017 movie "Ayla" given the movie's cover, its synopsis and the fact that Dee Wallace was in the movie. Granted, I hadn't even heard about it, as I sat down in 2021 to watch it.

And let me just say that if you stumble upon this movie, leave it be and move along to something else. Because "Ayla" was such a swing and a miss from writer and director Elias.

The storyline told in "Ayla" was unfathomably boring and slow paced, despite of the synopsis selling the movie's story pretty well. But believe you me, this movie was a mundane heap of nothing happening. It is monotonous in its pacing, which made it feel like the actual movie was twice as long.

It should be said, though, that the acting performances in "Ayla" were actually not bad. But the actors and actresses literally had nothing to work with in terms of a proper script, an interesting storyline or overly well fleshed out characters.

I was expecting this movie to be a horror movie, but unless you consider slow pacing and a storyline of nothing interesting as being horror, well...

"Ayla" is not a movie that I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. It simply isn't worth it. My rating of this 2017 movie lands on a generous three out of ten stars, based mostly on the production value of the movie.

If the absolutely grating music doesn't turn one off, there are plenty of other reasons to dislike this film. The characters are not likeable, the acting is wooden and the story has more holes than Swiss cheese. Elton (Al) lost his sister when she was four, and he feels if he wishes hard enough she can come back. He really, really wants her back. So many things are not explained, but he is in a forest, goes to the base of a tree and digs out a cocoon, and from it emerges a grown woman, although childlike, that he is convinced is his sister. Oh, he develops strange marks on his arms. The lack of a story isn't really a problem, as most would quit caring long before.

It's not scary, not well acted, and it's very, very boring! Please don't waste time watching this!

OK - so this film isn't going to appeal to the gore fans, but it is a decent film to watch.

It is very well acted, the technical aspects are spot-in, and the story - well - it's almost there but not quite.

This film moves along at a leisurely pace, so if you have the attention span of a goldfish it won't appeal to you, and probably won't if you are looking for light entertainment.

This film will appeal to you if you like a story where you can get to know/understand more of the characters than just the superficial scream-fest characters we see in so many other films.

One thing does let this film down very badly, and that it the ending. I just don't know what they were thinking ending a film like this.

There are very few, if any, redeeming qualities in this movie. I think they had a good idea for a movie (something similar to a "Sometimes They Come Back"), but it never came together. The movie would go from one scene to the other, without any real transitioning. Therefore, it can leave one a bit confused. You may find yourself asking yourself, "How did we get here?" Even the ending some abruptly.

It appears to be a low budget film, so I get the notion "you get what you pay for," but the acting in this is seriously bad. I am trying to figure how they got Dee Wallace to be in this.

I saw this rated as a horror movie, but I don't see any element of a horror movie. I do not think a movie has to be gory to be a horror movie, but it has nothing: no gore, no spiritual warfare, no conjuring, no demons or witchcraft, nothing. I do not know what I was watching.

Along with the credits at the end, they should also issue an apology to anyone who watched it.